Carnegie Council Podcasts

At Carnegie Council, we believe that cooperation is an essential virtue in the pursuit of an ethical life. And yet, it seems that cooperation is often absent from public life today. If we don't take steps to enhance cooperation—both in our personal lives and collectively as a society—there is little hope of addressing shared global challenges such as climate change, AI, political violence, and more. In this keynote event for Global Ethics Day 2023, Carnegie Council President Joel Rosenthal led a conversation with MIT's Erez Yoeli and Tufts University's Abiodun Williams on the psychology behind cooperation; ways that states, institutions, NGOs, and businesses can work together; and how we can all create the conditions for enhanced cooperation. For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org.

In this episode, host Hilary Sutcliffe explores . . . technological progress from another angle. Does technology increase prosperity, make our lives better and create lots of new jobs? Or in reality does it promote greater inequality, more badly paid jobs and exploited workers, with the prosperity going to the few and not the many? Sutcliffe explores with Professor Simon Johnson the lessons of over a thousand years of technological progress and they discuss the practicalities of what he calls a more "human complementary" approach to what technology may be. Professor Johnson is an economist at MIT and co-author with colleague Daron Acemoglu of a new book, Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity. For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org.

In this Ethical Article, Visiting Fellow Zhanna Malekos Smith discusses China's effort in space and lunar exploration. As Xi Jinping tries to soften China's "wolf warrior" style of diplomacy, how is this reflected in its space policy? To read this article, please go to carnegiecouncil.org.

For ethics to be truly global, voices from all around the world need to be part of the international affairs discourse. And as these discussions still often begin in Western publishing houses and take shape in Global North classrooms, the academic world must make sure Global South perspectives are welcomed. Ahead of Global Ethics Day 2023, scholars from the Global South and North will come together to discuss the barriers to knowledge production in the academic world and how to bring new voices into the classroom, library, and bookstore. What are the structures and systems that need to be re-examined or broken? What does a more diverse and inclusive approach to knowledge production look like? For more on this issue, please check out Joy Gordon and Anthony Lang's essay "Making Global Ethics More Global" which appeared in January 2023 as an Online Exclusive for Ethics & International Affairs. Fore more on this podcast, please go to carnegiecouncil.org.

Does a "national interest" articulated largely from a Washington, DC perspective connect with the "doorstep" interests and concerns of citizens across a large and diverse country? As we come to the end of several important cycles in world affairs—the close of the post-Cold War era and the beginning of the Fourth Industrial Revolution—Doorstep co-hosts Nick Gvosdev and Tatiana Serafin look at a new generation of Americans, who are working to redefine the goals and purpose of U.S. global engagement. What are the ripple effects of the simultaneous challenges related to the "polycrises" (environmental shifts, including extreme weather, food and water shortages, and pandemics)? As the U.S. undergoes demographic change, what sorts of shifts in U.S. foreign policy might we expect? This live episode of The Doorstep was recorded on September 28, 2023 at Metropolitan State University of Denver, with collaboration from the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org.

Young people need to learn more about solar radiation modification, and provide their inputs to governments, think tanks, and policymakers, says Brazilian climate activist Clara Botto, in this C2GTalk. "We need to have global conversations to address something that might have global impacts," she adds. That is why she and her colleagues have launched SRM Youth Watch, a global platform aimed at informing and bringing new communities into the debate. Clara Botto has been engaged with sustainable development at a grassroots and international level, from arts to politics, for the past eight years. She is currently one of C2G's Youth Climate Voices. For more, please go to C2G's website. During this interview at 17:22, Botto acknowledges that she says "micro hollow sphere glasses" instead of the correct term "hollow glass microspheres."

Cities around the world are facing numerous climate-related challenges such as rising sea levels, flooding, and extreme heat. These challenges place significant strain on local economies and disproportionately impact the most vulnerable residents. The severity of the situation is further compounded by population growth within cities, with the UN projecting that nearly 70 percent of all people will reside in urban areas by 2050. In order to support safe and sustainable urban environments, city leaders must urgently prioritize decarbonization and climate resiliency policies. However, there are complex ethical questions and tradeoffs that lawmakers must confront when planning for and implementing such policies. This in-depth panel discussion and Q&A looks at how to address urban-specific climate challenges in an ethical manner. What are the latest climate policy innovations for cities? What are some ethical approaches that balance the needs of current residents while ensuring sustainable urban environments for future generations? This event was hosted by Carnegie Council together with the NYC Mayor's Office for International Affairs and the NYC Mayor's Office of Climate & Environmental Justice on September 20, 2023, on the margins of Climate Week and the UN General Assembly. For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org.

In this Ethical Article, Visiting Fellow Arta Moeini analyzes the ongoing "Great Transition" in international affairs. With the U.S.-led "rules-based" world order seemingly at its endpoint, how can Western nations adapt? To read this article, please go to carnegiecouncil.org.

What does "foreign policy for the middle class" look like on the ground three years into President Biden's policy to integrate global and local concerns? Foreign Policy for America Foundation's Kristina Biyad joins Doorstep co-hosts Tatiana Serafin and Nikolas Gvosdev to discuss her new report "Intermestic Policy Initiative: Local Perspectives on U.S. Foreign Policy." Biyad spent two years traveling, visiting five cities across the U.S. to speak with a diverse array of community leaders about what issues keep them up at night and how their concerns resonate globally. Her key takeaway: Local participants are eager to partner in developing outcome-driven and locally informed foreign policy recommendations. How will this movement reshape the way foreign policy decisions get made in the future? For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org.

As world leaders gather in New Delhi for the G20 summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi takes India center stage. Jawaharlal Nehru University's Dr. Happymon Jacob joins Doorstep co-hosts Tatiana Serafin and Nikolas Gvosdev to assess what to expect from India's leadership on a vast array of global challenges from climate to green energy initiatives to the Ukraine-Russia war. With China's Xi Jinping and Russia's Vladimir Putin missing from the table, will India take the lead in representing the voices of the Global South? What opportunities are there for India and the U.S. to jointly shift the geopolitical order? How can India leverage its economic and military strength to take the global spotlight? For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org.