Carnegie Council Podcasts

How do tech, AI, and global norms intersect to generate political, legal, and ethical dilemmas? In this virtual event, Carnegie New Leader Josephine Jackson leads a discussion with four experts on the future of warfare, and how changing norms shape strategic challenges and tactical decision-making for national security leaders. This podcast features:  Philip M. Breedlove - General (ret.), U.S. Air Force Anthony F. Lang, Jr. – Professor, School of International Relations at the University of St. Andrews Mary Ellen O’Connell – Professor, University of Notre Dame  Arun Seraphin – Deputy Director, Emerging Technologies Institute, National Defense Industrial Association For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org. 

Sheila Jasanoff, Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies at the Harvard Kennedy School, dives into societal views on solar radiation modification experiments. She emphasizes the importance of public trust and transparency in scientific practices, especially during crises like climate change. Jasanoff discusses the ethical dilemmas tied to geoengineering and the need for diverse perspectives in governance. She also addresses the rise of eco-anxiety among youth and advocates for the role of education in fostering hope and responsible action.

Hollywood has long been part of the United States' soft power arsenal. Now, that soft power is threatened by the larger geostrategic competition between the U.S. and China—and China appears to be winning. In Red Carpet, Wall Street Journal reporter Erich Schwartzel explores how and why Hollywood has become obsessed with China and what that means for the People's Republic as it exports its national agenda around the world. In this virtual event, Schwarzel joins Doorstep co-hosts Tatiana Serafin and Nikolas Gvosdev for a discussion on how the film industry can offer an essential new perspective on the power struggle of this century. For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org.

In this wide-ranging talk, U.S. defense expert Elbridge Colby discusses the changing nature of American power with Carnegie Council President Joel Rosenthal. As the lead architect of the 2018 National Defense Strategy, Colby details the threats and challenges that the United States faces, most notably from Asia, and how it can adapt its geopolitical and military capabilities to meet its goals. How can the U.S. counter China's rising power and its pursuit of regional hegemony? Does Russia's invasion of Ukraine change how America pursues its policies? For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org.

Over the last two decades, solar radiation modification has gone from an intellectual experiment to something people are seriously considering, says pioneering climate scientist Ken Caldeira during a C2GTalk. The world needs to understand what would happen if somebody felt the need to cool the Earth rapidly, and that requires the ability for scientists to do more research. "There is a case to limit knowledge acquisition if it would lead to imminent harm," says Caldeira, but this is not the case for solar radiation modification experiments. Ken Caldeira is senior staff scientist (emeritus) with Carnegie Institution for Science, and world famous for his work on the global carbon cycle and climate change. He was a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s fifth assessment report and a co-author of the 2010 US National Academy America’s Climate Choices report. Caldeira also participated in the UK Royal Society’s geoengineering panel in 2009. He is also senior scientist at Breakthrough Energy, which supports innovation to reach zero carbon emissions. For more, including an edited transcript, please go to C2G's website.

As we enter week three of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Nahal Toosi, senior foreign affairs correspondent for Politico, joins Doorstep co-hosts Nick Gvosdev and Tatiana Serafin to evaluate the ways in which the U.S. is already confronting Russia—economic warfare, information warfare—and how this is impacting other areas of foreign policy. Is the Biden/Harris administration nimble enough to take on multiple global crises or "black swan" events? Are Washington, DC technocrats stuck in a 1980s time machine? What can we expect from the National Security Strategy due to come out sometime this quarter? For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org.

Atlantic Council's Ukraine expert Melinda Haring joins Doorstep co-hosts Nick Gvosdev and Tatiana Serafin to discuss where we are one week after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a large-scale invasion into Ukraine. What are the key takeaways after a week of intense fighting? Can the U.S. and Western allies do more to stop Putin's advance? How will the war re-shape U.S. domestic politics as midterm season begins? For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org. 

Russia's invasion of Ukraine raises several ethical questions: Why did diplomacy fail? What does the invasion mean for the principle of sovereignty? How does history inform the present and suggest the future? Are sanctions an appropriate and effective response, and what principles should guide their implementation? Carnegie Council President Joel Rosenthal and Senior Fellow Nikolas Gvosdev discuss the ramifications of Putin's decision and the ethical principles at stake in the current crisis. For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org.

Dr. Francesca Rossi, the AI Ethics Global Leader for IBM, joins Senior Fellow Anja Kaspersen for a riveting Artificial Intelligence & Equality podcast. Rossi speaks about her ethics-focused role at a multinational company and the importance of lateral expertise and multidisciplinarity in addressing ethical considerations and tensions in AI research. How can we insert human values into AI systems? Can AI transform and strengthen human decision-making? For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org.

In the 1950s, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev bemoaned that the United States wouldn’t even sell buttons to the Soviet Union. "Buttons can hold up a soldier’s trousers," he groused. Today, China is far more entangled with the United States than the Soviet Union was, and the relationship trades in far more than buttons. In a new series of dialogues, Carnegie Council is exploring the question: How should American institutions engage with China? The first event of the series examines the ethical questions that media outlets and journalists must grapple with when reporting on China. For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org.