The Fletcher Forum Podcast

Katherine and Lorenzo sat down with Professor Juan Carlos Portilla Jaimes on September 12th to discuss Arms Smuggling, International Law, and the future of education in Colombia. Professor Juan Carlos is an internationally recognized speaker specializing in anti-money laundering and the global fight against transnational financial crime. He received an L.L.M. from Fletcher and currently teaches International Financial Law at Sabana University School of Law in Chia, Colombia. (Image courtesy of Professor Juan Carlos)​

The civil war in Sierra Leone ended more than two decades ago, but that’s no reason for Theresa Betancourt and Moses Zombo to turn their eyes away. In this episode, we speak about their decades of work in Sierra Leone and their most recent book, Shadows into Light: A Generation of Former Child Soldiers Comes of Age, where they present findings from tracking more than 500 former child soldiers over the course of twenty years. Their insights are surprising but hopeful: despite immense suffering, this is not a lost generation. Theresa and Moses take us on a journey to Sierra Leone to explore the long road of recovery, resilience, and what it means to come of age after war.

KP and Katherine sit down with Climate Policy Lab scholars - Bethany Tietjen, Hengrui Liu and Nora Hampl to discuss the upcoming Symposium themed “Mind The Gaps: Climate Policy Integration and Implementation” happening September 18 and 19 on campus! REGISTER HERE: https://www.climatepolicylab.org/symposium  

Michael Caster, Head of Global China Programme at ARTICLE 19, joins the podcast to discuss the growth of Chinese norms in digital governance and cybersecurity.  Check out Article 19! : ARTICLE 19 - Defending freedom of expression and information. Report on Cybersecurity with Chinese Characteristics: cybersecurity-with-chinese-characteristics.pdf Report on the Digital Silk Road: China: The rise of digital repression in the Indo-Pacific - ARTICLE 19

Bhaskar Chakravorti is the Dean of Global Business at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He is the founding executive director of Fletcher’s Institute for Business in the Global Context, where he established and chairs the Digital Planet research program. His recent book Defeating Disinformation (co-edited with Joel Trachtman) was published by Cambridge University Press in January 2025.   Dean Chakravorti is joined by Veeradittya Podder and Alexander Wolfe for a frank discussion on the theoretical limits of AI and the politics which lurk behind it.

Today, Marlene is joined by Emily Prey (F20), a Senior Non-Resident Fellow at the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy. Her research focuses on women and children in crisis and conflict situations. She most recently co-authored a report on Children Born of War (CBOW). In this episode, we explore what CBOW entails, how countries can handle the trauma of victims, and why this phenomenon has always been present in wars. We touch on a variety of case studies which show that children are in the midst of every war — no matter if we continue to ignore them. Trigger warning: We speak about sexual violence in this episode. Children Born of War: Considerations for Policymakers by Ingvill Constanze Ødegaard and Emily Prey, co-published with the Children Born of War Project Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Ukraine: Lessons from Bosnia by Emily Prey, Tanya Domi, and Dr. Kinsey Spears   Emily Prey offers her special recognition and thanks to Inger Skjelsbæk, leader of the EuroWARCHILD project, and Torunn L Tryggestad, Deputy Director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), who co-hosted a workshop on children born of war in Oslo. Thank you to all of the participants for sharing their research and deep expertise on this topic, which have led to such a rich conversation on this podcast.

In our final installment of the 50th edition miniseries, the Forum traveled to India to interview one of the Fletcher Forum's founding editors: Dr. Shashi Tharoor. Dr. Tharoor, along with Dr. Jeff Sheehan and Fred Smith, were three of the core founding members of the Forum. Dr. Tharoor joins us to reminisce on his time at Fletcher and the founding history of the Journal. Edit: This interview was recorded in March before the May 2025 commencement of hostilities between India and Pakistan

For our third episode, the Forum sits down with Dean Gallagher to discuss the role of the Forum at Fletcher and the administration's forthcoming strategic plan. As the Forum has evolved, Fletcher has evolved with it, and we discuss the Forum's role in thought leadership as Fletcher embarks on a new journey under new leadership. 

Alex is joined by Maria Selde, Colin Steele, and Pulkit Aggrwal, three of the five members of the 2017/2018 Forum Executive Board who founded the Podcast, for an informal conversation recollecting on the start of the podcast, the state of Fletcher during Donald Trump's first election, and perhaps a bit of encouragement in challenging times.  The third episode in our Forum 50 Series. 

Fletcher historians rejioice! We're joined this episode by Lee E. Dirks Professor Emeritus of Diplomatic History, Alan Henrikson. Professor Henrikson was named (he would say volun-told) the first faculty advisor to the Fletcher Forum, and he remains on our Board of Advisors today in 2025. Professor Henrikson joins us to revive some of the long-untold history of the Forum, as well as to discuss his 1981 piece on Space Politics which was published in the Forum.  Between 1981 and 2025, many Fletcher students have entered the aerospace industry, and the interests of private businesses and governments in the industry surrounding space has expanded dramatically. We discuss these changes, what inspired Professor Henrikson to write on the potential politics of outer space as a tenured professor of Diplomatic History.