GZERO World with Ian Bremmer

Maintaining secrecy can be invigorating, whether you're a child with hidden treasures or a CIA agent safeguarding classified information. However, the more secrets you bear, the heavier the burden becomes. This week’s guest, Jane Harman, who served nine terms in Congress and was a ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee after 9/11, understands the weight of secrecy firsthand.   While there are valid justifications for classifying information, Harman asserts that the US government has grappled with an issue of excessive classification for decades. "A bad reason to classify is to protect your turf—you don't want other people to know what you know in order to protect yourself from embarrassment."   The 9/11 Commission revealed that inadequate information-sharing between agencies like the CIA, FBI, and NSA hindered the government's ability to prevent the tragic terrorist attacks. One significant factor contributing to this failure was the over-classification of information. Each year, approximately 50 million documents are estimated to be classified, though the exact count remains elusive—not due to classification, but because the government struggles to effectively manage the vast volume. In the words of former US Solicitor General Erwin Griswold, some “secrets are not worth keeping.”   Subscribe to the GZERO World Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your preferred podcast platform, to receive new episodes as soon as they're published. Subscribe to the GZERO World with Ian Bremmer Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform, to receive new episodes as soon as they're published.

Is India a US ally? Based on the pomp and circumstance surrounding Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to Washington in June, the answer seems obvious, right? They love us! We love them! End of story. Right?   Well ... it’s complicated.   India’s government is not ready to hitch its star to the American wagon, and the US has made it somewhat clear that it’s not a fan of India’s friendly ties to Russia and Iran. Add to that increasing international scrutiny of India’s eroding democratic norms, press freedom crackdowns, and religious persecutions, and the question becomes murkier still: Is India a US ally?   Ian's guest this week will do her best to answer that question and more. Barkha Dutt is an award-winning Indian broadcast journalist and anchor with more than two decades of reporting experience. Subscribe to the GZERO World with Ian Bremmer Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform, to receive new episodes as soon as they're published.

 Space might be a big place but the United Nations regards it as ‘congested, contested and competitive’.This latest episode of Next Giant Leap, a podcast produced by GZERO Media in partnership with the space company MDA Space, explores the threats and tensions as space becomes busier and of greater strategic importance for an increasing number of countries.“We have to avoid, by all means, that it becomes a Wild West,” says Tanja Masson-Zwaan, a space law expert at Leiden University in the Netherlands. She adds, “We have regulations, laws and treaties that have been in place for the last fifty years, but we need more to govern this new frontier of space utilization, because the rules that we have are basic principles and do not go into the details.”Satellites are now being deployed to Low Earth Orbit at a rate of thousands every year. This zone of space is already littered with old defunct satellites and the remains of discarded sections of rockets which have accumulated over more than five decades. The risk of collisions is increasing, raising fears of a runaway cascade of space debris.Tests of anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons have showered still more debris into Low Earth Orbit. Since 2007, China, the United States, India and Russia have conducted ASAT tests. Last year the United States announced its own moratorium on ASAT tests and, through a United Nations resolution, it has called for other nations to follow suit. So far China, Russia and India have not signed up. So is space set to become a new theater for conflict and weapons proliferation?“Look at how satellites have become embedded in our way of life,” says Kevin Whale, senior director of defense strategy at MDA Space. “If we wreck space, it’s almost one step down from nuclear catastrophe”.Within a few years, a new phase of the space race will begin. Both the United States and China will be competing to get people to the moon and exploit its resources, particularly water ice in craters at the lunar south pole.According to Scott Pace, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, “The Outer Space Treaty says space is the province of all mankind, meaning it's open to usage really by everybody. On the other hand, the principles say we should avoid harmful interference. And so the question is, how do we go about balancing those two imperatives: open to everybody but avoid harmful interference?”Host: Kevin FongGuests: Tanja Masson-Zwaan, Scott Pace, Kevin Whale Subscribe to the GZERO World with Ian Bremmer Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform, to receive new episodes as soon as they're published.

After months of grueling warfare, heavy casualties, costly equipment losses, and with little to show for it, what are Russia’s goals heading into the Ukrainian counteroffensive? Is there any hope for resolution in a conflict the Kremlin describes as an existential battle with NATO for the future of Russia itself?   On the first episode of the GZERO World podcast’s newest season, Ian Bremmer sat down with former director of the Carnegie Moscow Center and Kremlin ally, Dmitri Trenin, to hear the Russian perspective of the war in Ukraine.   Bremmer and Trenin spoke just hours before Wagner Group head Yevgevy Prigozhin led an armed rebellion that made it within 125 miles of Moscow, a crisis that represented the single most brazen challenge to the Kremlin’s authority in post-Soviet Russia.   On the GZERO World with Ian Bremmer podcast, Trenin gives his opinion of Prigozhin’s role in Russia’s military, Russia’s goals in the war, its relationships with allies like China and Belarus, nuclear deterrence, and more. GZERO World strives to present a diverse range of views. Many will strongly disagree with Trenin's opinions, but hearing Russia’s perspective on the war could bring a better understanding of the paths to compromise. Subscribe to the GZERO World with Ian Bremmer Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform, to receive new episodes as soon as they're published.

In the last twenty-five years, the number of active satellites orbiting the Earth has increased from about 500 to 8,000.  “In the first quarter of this year, we deployed nearly 1,000,” says space industry analyst Carissa Bryce Christensen.  She adds, “Instead of a smaller number of very large satellites mostly far away, we are seeing many, many small satellites very close in.” The latest episode of Next Giant Leap, a podcast produced in partnership between GZERO and the Canadian space company MDA Space, explores the exponential increase in satellites that are being launched into Low Earth orbit (LEO).  This is the zone of space between about 100 and 1200 miles above the Earth.  By the end of the decade, MDA Space’s Chief Executive Officer Mike Greenley predicts there will be tens of thousands of LEO satellites.   Many of them will be the component parts of vast satellite constellations, such as the Starlink network, offering broadband internet. Others will be providing the services which the modern world has come to depend upon: GPS navigation, defense and security reconnaissance, weather forecasting, and remote environmental monitoring.   For example, Earth Observation satellites are now the most important source of information on the pace and impacts of climate change. Our satellite eyes in low Earth orbit have become extremely sensitive, according to Professor Martin Sweeting, founder of the UK company Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd.  Some of them are now able to resolve objects less than one foot in size from hundreds of miles above. Artificial intelligence is now being harnessed to process and interpret the vast amounts of data gathered by the new generation of satellites.Host: Kevin FongGuests: Carissa Bryce Christensen, Mike Greenley, Martin Sweeting Subscribe to the GZERO World with Ian Bremmer Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform, to receive new episodes as soon as they're published.

"We are coming out of a period of uncertainty," says David Bailin, Chief Investment Officer at Citi Global Wealth. "We've all been thinking it would go much faster than it has, but in the event we get to a more normal economy in 2024, given how vastly impactful COVID was, I think that that's a pretty fast outcome." In the latest episode of Living Beyond Borders, a podcast produced in partnership between GZERO and Citi Global Wealth Investments, Bailin is joined by Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer to discuss what's happened so far on the economic and political stage, and what we might look forward to in the back half of the year and into 2024. From the ongoing conflict with Russia, to interest rates and government regulation, to tensions with China, Bailin and Bremmer talk through the biggest risks and opportunities they see in the next six months. They also discuss the rapid rise of artificial intelligence, political polarization, and more. This episode is moderated by Shari Friedman, Eurasia Group’s Managing Director of Climate and Sustainability. Host: Shari Friedman Guests: David Bailin, Ian Bremmer Subscribe to the GZERO World with Ian Bremmer Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform, to receive new episodes as soon as they're published.

There is a big difference between NASA’s current Artemis program and its Apollo program of five decades ago. This time, there is a long-term plan for humans on the moon. “We don't want to just touch it and come back and say we're done. We want to go there and stay there,” says NASA astronaut Raja Chari. He adds, “To do that, we need to go where there's resources.”In the latest episode of Next Giant Leap, a podcast produced in partnership between GZERO and Canadian space company MDA Space, Raja Chari tells host Kevin Fong that the most valuable known resource on the moon is water ice, which could be used to sustain life in lunar bases. Water ice is most abundant in craters around the moon’s south pole. NASA is enlisting commercial companies such as SpaceX, Astrobotic Technology, and MDA Space to help get its astronauts to the polar region and in a position to ‘live off the land’ there.One of MDA Space’s chief contributions to the Artemis program will be the robotic arm on a space station called the Gateway, which will orbit around the moon. The Gateway will be a transfer point for crew and cargo traveling to and from the lunar surface. MDA Space’s Holly Johnson is confident that the commercial space sector will be an essential enabler of the vision of a sustained human presence on the moon.For a deeper dive into the private space industry’s part in the return to the moon, Kevin talks to Chad Anderson of venture capital firm SpaceCapital. Anderson explains why people are now talking about the rise of a ‘lunar economy’. He says, “Who controls the early infrastructure is set to control things and make a lot of money.” Subscribe to the GZERO World with Ian Bremmer Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform, to receive new episodes as soon as they're published.

 In November 2024, astronaut Jeremy Hansen will take one giant leap for both space exploration and his country, Canada. He will be the first non-American to fly to the moon. Hansen has been selected as one of the four crew members of Artemis II - the NASA-led mission to send humans to and around the moon for the first time in more than fifty years.In the first episode of Next Giant Leap, a podcast produced in partnership between GZERO Media and the space company MDA Space, Jeremy Hansen tells host Kevin Fong why he believes humanity needs to return to the moon and how a successful Artemis 2 flight will pave the way for the first attempt to land two people on the lunar surface since the Apollo era.Jeremy Hansen is candid about the risks which he and his crewmates will be taking on their historic ten-day mission. He’s also philosophical about the long wait he has had for his first opportunity to voyage into space. Subscribe to the GZERO World with Ian Bremmer Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform, to receive new episodes as soon as they're published.

The new Space Age is here, and it’s driving innovation and economic growth on Earth. Next Giant Leap is a four-part series of special edition podcasts from GZERO Media brought to you by the Canadian space company MDA Space. Today’s space race has an importance that extends far beyond the well-known billionaires making headlines. In 2024, a four-person crew of NASA’s Artemis II will return to the moon in the first human mission there in half a century. On Next Giant Leap, you’ll hear from one of the astronauts preparing to take that critical journey and why it matters. Our program also dives into the economics and geopolitics of space—from low Earth orbit satellites to the ways the business of space is transforming communication, defense, AI, and climate action.Next Giant Leap is a must-listen for anyone fascinated by space exploration and the next phase of development in this fast-moving sector. Subscribe to the GZERO World with Ian Bremmer Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform, to receive new episodes as soon as they're published.

"We need to keep that investment flowing to come up with better ways to do this so that everyone is fed within the constraints of what the planet is able to bear," says Pete Ceretti, Director of Global Macro Geo Strategy at Eurasia Group.  In the latest episode of Living Beyond Borders, a podcast produced in partnership between GZERO and Citi Global Wealth Investments, Ceretti is joined by Harlin Singh, Global Head of Sustainable Investing, and Malcolm Spittler, Global Investment Strategist, and Senior US Economist, both at Citi Global Wealth Investments, to discuss the latest causes and ripple effects of food shortages around the globe.  Following shortages that came out of the COVID pandemic as well as the war in Ukraine, the dual food problems of affordability and availability persist. While temporary impacts may be waning, the experts also discuss the longer-term impacts of the global food production system on the environment and what will - or won't - be sustainable going forward, including the food system's massive dependence on fossil fuels.  This episode is moderated by Shari Friedman, Eurasia Group’s Managing Director of Climate and Sustainability. Host: Shari Friedman Guests: Pete Ceretti, Harlin Singh, Malcolm Spittler Subscribe to the GZERO World with Ian Bremmer Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform, to receive new episodes as soon as they're published.