Carnegie Council Podcasts

"One of the things I've seen over my lifetime is a move away from war and from the place of the military in political life. This to me is astonishing and unpredictable."

"Each of us can do a little bit, and we have to pick a piece where we feel an interest and think we have a comparative advantage and try to work on that piece."

"The main, essential message of Islam is 'salaam.' It's peace, intimate peace; peace with the universe, with nature, and peace with human beings."

The world's eyes are on Venezuela as Hugo Chavez's death leaves many questions. Will he be remembered as a champion of the poor or will his legacy be stained by Venezuela's high crime rates? Was he a repressive tyrant or a victim of American propaganda?

Economic growth is driven by successive processes of trial and error: research and invention and then experiments in exploiting the new economic space opened by innovation. Today, however, with the state frozen as an economic actor and access to public equity markets only open to a minority, the innovation economy is stalled. Warburg Pincus's William Janeway discusses how to get this vital economic sector moving again.

In this eye-opening conversation, renowned bioethicist Dr. Wolpe grapples with the ethical issues raised by advances in biotechnology and neuroscience, including "brain fingerprinting" and eventual mind-reading.

"To use the New Testament sort of logic, who is my neighbor? Today that extends not only to your family or your literal neighbors. We know much more about the situations of poor people in China or India or Africa, and so the scope of ethical responsibility today has grown to some global measures."

"Stories touch us. In some ways, they're so powerful that your point, if you're a minister, often gets lost because people remember the story and completely forget the point you were trying to make based on that story."

"What many people can no longer claim is ignorance, especially those of us that do have easy access to technology. We know not only that these problems exist, but there are endless options, really great options, to do something to engage and to participate."

With the Syrian civil war about to turn two years old and the death toll approaching 70,000, some are saying it is time for the U.S. or the UN to intervene. Could arming the anti-Assad rebels bring an end to the war? Or would it bring greater instability to the region?