Carnegie Council Podcasts

Former Senior Fellow Malka Older, a novelist and aid worker, details the ethical and logistical sides of disaster response, drawing on her experiences in Sri Lanka, Fukushima, and Darfur. Why are "rich" countries sometimes less prepared to handle earthquakes and hurricanes? How is disaster response different in the United States? And with Hurricane Michael affecting millions this week, what are some practical ways to help?

"Is it still fair to say there are continuities in foreign policy two years into the Trump administration? I'm going to say yes, and I'll offer some evidence," declares Derek S. Reveron of the U.S. Naval War College and Harvard Kennedy School. Don't miss this expert analysis of America's role in the world.

Tom Mahnken and Toshi Yoshihara of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) discuss China and Russia's "authoritarian political warfare." "Not only do they use these influence campaigns, they use economic coercion, occasionally they use a military force, they use non-military instruments of power," says Yoshihara. "And it's the combination of these tools that I think make Russian and Chinese strategy so potent."

Acclaimed journalist Ahmed Rashid discusses Pakistan's new populist prime minister, Imran Khan, whom he considers woefully unprepared. He also examines Pakistan's debt-ridden economy and Pakistan's complex relationships with China, India, the U.S., Afghanistan, and the Taliban. "I think the key thing to understand is the need to follow Afghanistan," he says. "Whatever happens in Pakistan will depend on what happens in Afghanistan."

Senior Fellow Kavitha Rajagopalan explains the troubling situation in Northeast India near the border with Bangladesh, where millions of citizens could end up stateless. With denaturalization increasing exponentially under the Trump administration, what are the parallels with what's happening in the United States? Is this all due to the rise of ethnonationalism in both countries?

According to a recent Amnesty International Report, Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups in China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region are the targets of surveillance, arbitrary detention, and forced indoctrination by the Chinese government. Up to 1 million Uyghurs have been detained, says Amnesty's Francisco Bencosme. There are parallels with the Rohingya crisis, yet there has been far less international outcry.

Are there ever justifiable reasons for issuing threats to achieve foreign policy objectives? In particular, are President Trump's threats against Iran justified? Don't miss this rare opportunity to get the Iranian perspective with this stimulating discussion between Drs. Reichberg and Syse of the Peace Research Insitute Oslo (PRIO) and H.E. Gholamali Khoshroo, permanent representative of Iran to the United Nations.

From the world's largest meth trade in Myanmar to "Pyongyang's dancing queens," "neon jihad," and much more, Bangkok-based author Patrick Winn takes us on a tour of the underbelly of Southeast Asia. The region's criminal underworld is valued at $100 billion and in the next decade it's going to hit $375 billion, bigger than many of these country's GDPs, he says. These stories need to be told.

Cosmologist and astrophysicist Martin Rees discusses the future of humanity on Earth and beyond, foreseeing a time when space pioneers may use gene splicing and AI to adapt to living on Mars, thus becoming "post-human." What concerns him most? "My worry, particularly about bio and cyber, is that whatever can be done will be done somewhere by someone. That is a scary prospect and is going to be a big challenge to governance, in my opinion."