Carnegie Council Podcasts

Next time on Global Ethics Forum, Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow Steven Cook discusses the violent aftermath of the Arab Spring. In this excerpt, Cook describes how and why Washington got its response wrong to revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa, with a special focus on Libya.

"'Likes' don't count," was the rallying cry that first brought people to the Maidan. In this remarkable conversation, Marci Shore explores what it means "to experience revolution in your own skin": the human transformation, blurring of time, and destroying of boundaries during this "extraordinary coming together of men, of women, of young people, of old people, of Jews, of Armenians, of Russian speakers, of Ukrainian speakers."

Chuck Collins grew up in a wealthy family and gave away his fortune at the age of 26, yet he realizes that he still has advantages accrued over generations. The current level of inequality is bad for society as a whole, he declares. "It is not in anyone's interest to keep moving toward a sort of economic and racial apartheid." But it doesn't have to be this way. It can be reversed.

Probably the most dangerous geopolitical environment in decades-China, AI, Trump, end of Pax Americana--yes, it's very bad. But all these challenges energize political scientist Ian Bremmer to do his best work! Don't miss this great talk.

Next time on Global Ethics Forum, Carnegie Council Senior Fellow Marlene Laruelle explains the rise of far right political parties throughout Europe. In this excerpt, Laruelle and journalist Magalie Laguerre-Wilkinson discuss the issues of immigration and refugee flows as it relates to societal problems in Western Europe.

Asha Castleberry, Fordham professor and U.S. Army veteran, describes her "mixed reaction" to Trump's National Security Strategy--touching on China and Russia, cybersecurity, and climate change--and what effect it will actually have on the military's operations. Plus, she details an increasingly complicated Middle East, with the Saudi crown prince on a warpath and a dangerous transitional period in Syria and Iraq after major victories against ISIS.

The UN's Philip Alston traveled across the U.S. recently and found appalling conditions, from homelessness in California to open sewage in rural Alabama. He discusses the political choices that allow this to continue and proposes solutions.

Over two years after the release of a report on sexual exploitation and abuse by international peacekeeping forces in the Central African Republic, chaired by Marie Deschamps, has anything changed? Not much, says Deschamps in this shocking interview. The report's recommendations have not been implemented and there is still a "climate of impunity" for abusers, even though the first allegations against UN forces date back to the 1980s.

Next time on Global Ethics Forum, Harvard's Graham Allison discusses why he thinks the United States and China could be on track for war. In this excerpt, Allison describes why China is in a position to challenge America as the world's preeminent superpower.

"I would say most of the people I have talked to outside of government, including some people in Congress, have been a little taken aback," says Julie Smith, senior fellow at Center for a New American Security. "A lot of people have been left scratching their heads because a lot of what appears in the strategy has actually been contradicted by the president himself in one or another of his tweet storms."