The World Unpacked

Earlier this week Jen Psaki sat down with the former acting director of the CIA, Michael Morell, for a conversation about North Korea and the nuclear threat. Tune in to hear their discussion on what Morell would recommend to U.S. President Donald Trump, why he thinks we the United States should consider options that take into account the possibility that North Korea’s has the capacity to reach the U.S. mainland with a nuclear weapon, and whether or not he agrees with U.S. National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster that deterrence won’t work with North Korea.

In the second episode of DiploPod, Jen Psaki spoke with Paul Haenle¸ the director of the Carnegie–Tsinghua Center. The wide ranging conversation, coming on the heels of President Trump’s trip to Asia, focused on the view from Beijing of the North Korean nuclear threat including what actions would constitute a red line for the Chinese government, whether the United States and China are aligned on their objectives on the Korean peninsula, and how the approach of the current North Korean leadership has dramatically changed from the past leaders. Paul previously served as the White House representative to the U.S. negotiating team at the six-party-talks nuclear negotiations during the end of the Bush Administration, and he had been assigned twice to the U.S. embassy in Beijing while serving as a U.S. Army company commander. (More on Haenle - http://carnegietsinghua.org/experts/?fa=490)

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has relaunched our podcast—newly titled “DiploPod”—with the first interview in a series that will run through the end of the year. The series will focus on the dual nuclear threats posed by Iran and North Korea. Dmitri Trenin joins Jen Psaki for a candid discussion about the fallout from Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election, why North Korea may prefer Russia over China as an interlocutor, the view from the Kremlin of President Trump’s threats of military action, and how Russia may benefit from the end of U.S. rapprochement with Iran. Dmitri Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, has been with the center since its inception. He also chairs the research council and the Foreign and Security Policy Program. (More on Trenin - http://carnegie.ru/experts/?fa=287)

Carnegie Visiting Senior Fellow and former White House chief of staff Denis McDonough joined Tom Carver for a wide-ranging conversation, including reflections on his time as White House chief of staff during U.S. President Barack Obama, his views on the future of U.S. leadership in the world, and his thoughts on addressing the skills gap in the U.S. workforce, particularly in the face of rapidly advancing technological innovation. Denis McDonough is a visiting senior fellow in Carnegie’s Technology and International Affairs Program. Previously, he served as White House chief of staff for President Obama’s second term, managing the four thousand member White House staff, as well as cabinet secretaries and agency leaders. - http://carnegieendowment.org/experts/1329

The oil industry has long been an attractive target for corruption and corrupt actors. State owned oil companies have frequently been accused of being a conduit for syphoning off public funds into private bank accounts, despite repeated civil society efforts to fight these networks of corruption in countries like Brazil and Nigeria. Guest host Deborah Gordon is joined by Carnegie Senior Fellow Sarah Chayes, dean of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and author Steve Coll, and Nigerian anticorruption activist Olarenwaju Suraju to discuss how corruption can become an inextricable part of an economy and how civil society and the U.S. government can work to prevent it. Steve Coll is dean of the Columbia University School of Journalism and a staff writer at the New Yorker. He is the author of a bestselling profile of ExxonMobil called Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power. Olarenwaju Suraju is a Nigerian anticorruption and environmental activist, chair of that country’s Civil Society Network Against Corruption, and of the Human and Environmental Development Agenda. Sarah Chayes is a senior fellow in Carnegie’s Democracy and Rule of Law Program, and co-author of “The Oil Curse: A Remedial Role for the Oil Industry.” - http://carnegieendowment.org/experts/712

Lot of cross-trends are buffeting the global scene at the moment: populism, nationalism, anti-globalization. Many of these come together in the form of Trump. But beneath these issues are other longer term shifts: in technology, demographics, and economy inequality. Moisés Naím, distinguished fellow at the Carnegie Endowment, is the chief international columnist for El País and La Repubblica and the author of the bestselling “The End of Power”. He spoke to Tom Carver about these global challenges and why Trump ultimately makes him feel optimistic about America. Moisés Naím is the chief international columnist for El País and La Repubblica, Spain’s and Italy’s largest dailies, and a contributing editor to the Atlantic. Naím’s public service includes his tenure as Venezuela’s minister of trade and industry in the early 1990s, director of Venezuela’s Central Bank, and executive director of the World Bank. (more about Naim - http://carnegieendowment.org/experts/21)

With other headlines coming out of the Middle East in recent years, the Palestinian issue has been pushed to the background. Repeated efforts to negotiate a two-state solution have faltered, and conditions in the Palestinian Territories have continued to deteriorate, with chronic shortages of food and water and a staggeringly high 60 percent unemployment rate among youth in the Gaza Strip. Amidst all of this, the Palestinian people seem to be losing faith in their leaders' ability to deliver. Carnegie scholars Perry Cammack and Nathan Brown recently conducted a survey of 58 Palestinian leaders, and found dwindling support for their own institutions. Tom is joined by Carnegie scholars Perry Cammack and Nathan Brown to discuss the findings in their report, Revitalizing Palestinian Nationalism: Options Versus Realities, with Husam Zomlot, the chief representative of the Palestinian General Delegation to the United States. Perry Cammack is a fellow in Carnegie's Middle East Program, where he focuses on long-term regional trends and their implications for American foreign policy. Prior to joining Carnegie in August 2015, Cammack worked on issues related to the Middle East as part of the policy planning staff of Secretary of State John Kerry from 2013 to 2015 and as a senior professional staff member for then senator Kerry on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. (More about Cammack - http://carnegieendowment.org/experts/1080) Nathan J. Brown is a professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University and is a distinguished scholar and author of six well-received books on Arab politics. He serves on the Middle East and North Africa advisory committee for Human Rights Watch and the board of trustees at the American University in Cairo. (More about Brown - http://carnegieendowment.org/experts/238) Husam S. Zomlot is the chief representative of the Palestinian General Delegation to the United States and an adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Last year, hackers used malware to steal $101 million remotely from a Bangladesh bank from thousands of miles away. Cyberattacks can be as debilitating and dangerous as conventional warfare — particularly in the financial sector, where a single attack could cripple or disrupt global financial systems. This kind of cyber-attack is emerging as a new frontier of potential conflict between nations. Yet there are no norms or policies governing the prevention of cyber financial attacks. So how can countries work together to prevent attacks on financial markets and institutions from rogue nations, and even non-state actors? Tom Carver discussed the threat with Michael Chertoff, former U.S. Secretary of homeland security, and Tim Maurer, co-director of Carnegie’s Cyber Policy Initiative. Michael Chertoff is the co-founder and executive chairman of the Chertoff Group. He served as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from 2005 to 2009. (More on Chertoff - https://www.chertoffgroup.com/about-us/our-team/205-michael-chertoff) Tim Maurer is a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and co-directs its Cyber Policy Initiative. He is currently writing a book on cybersecurity and proxy actors. (More on Maurer - http://carnegieendowment.org/experts/1086)

Heads of state from the G20 countries assemble this weekend for their international summit, and all eyes are on U.S. President Trump. So far his track record overseas has been one of sparring and tension, following the withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement and the ill-humored G7 and NATO meetings earlier this year. However, on his first stop of this trip in Poland he gave a more supportive speech and endorsed the idea of NATO’s article five. So where does all this leave the United States in terms of global leadership? Tom is joined by Carnegie Senior Fellow Jake Sullivan, former adviser to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, to discuss the G20 summit and the future of U.S. leadership. Jake Sullivan served in the Obama administration as national security adviser to Vice President Joe Biden and director of policy planning at the U.S. Department of State, as well as deputy chief of staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Sullivan is a senior fellow in Carnegie’s Geoeconomics and Strategy Program and a Martin R. Flug Visiting lecturer in law at Yale Law School.​ (More on Sullivan -http://carnegieendowment.org/experts/1335)

Despite the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, the transition to a low-carbon economy is speeding along. For example, twice as many Americans are employed by the solar industry as in the coal industry, and that trend seems to be accelerating. In fact, some have argued that the Trump administration’s withdrawal from Paris may accelerate the adoption of a green economy, given the number of states, cities, companies, and organizations pushing for Paris-friendly policies as a result. Carnegie Fellow David Livingston joins Tom, along with Lisa Hagerman and Jigar Shah, to discuss the transition to a low-carbon economy. David Livingston served as the inaugural Robert S. Strauss fellow for geoeconomics at the Office of the United States Trade Representative, where he concluded as acting Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Congressional Affairs. He is an associate fellow in Carnegie’s Energy and Climate Program, where his research focuses on geoeconomics, markets, and risk. (More on Livingston - http://carnegieendowment.org/experts/553) Lisa Hagerman is the director of programs at DBL Partners. (More on Hagerman - http://www.dblpartners.vc/people/lisa-hagerman/) Jigar Shah is the co-founder of Generate Capital. (More on Shah - https://generatecapital.com/)