Carnegie Council Podcasts

NATO is now in its third historical phase, says U.S. Ambassador to NATO Douglas Lute in this informative, useful talk. "There is now a sense that NATO faces maybe not just one threat, a newly aggressive, newly assertive Russia, but also concerns from the Southeast with ISIS and potentially from instability in the South across the Mediterranean as well."

Design thinking has emerged as a new tool in humanitarianism. Proponents of the trend believe it can solve the problem long plaguing the aid community: that great ideas fail to be adopted in poor communities because they don't always take context into account. But are design's more inclusive methods still a kind of neo-imperialism? Is there a different way?

In this emotional and inspiring interview, Israeli Robi Damelin and Palestinian Bassam Aramin discuss their work with the Parents Circle Families Forum, an organization of bereaved Israelis and Palestinians. Having both lost a child to the struggle, they say reconciliation is the necessary step to end conflicts in the Middle East and beyond.

Economist Martin Wolf lays out the three enormous problems Europe faces today: relations with Russia; a possible Brexit; and the migration crisis. He goes on to analyze Europe's economic situation, declaring that the 2008 crash resulted in well over a lost decade, and the economic and political repercussions will be felt for many more years to come.

In this podcast, Senior Editor Zach Dorfman discusses the journal's fall issue. Topics discussed include global standards for international judges; ethical consumption and individual obligations; democracy in the age of the Internet; reviews of books from Michael Walzer, Kenneth A. Rodman, and Deen K. Chatterjee; and a symposium on Michael Blake's book "Justice and Foreign Policy."

If other countries wish to understand Russia, they need to have a grasp of her values, which provide the moral framework for her policies and world view. In this fascinating discussion, three leading experts on Russia's "soft power" explain the roles of the state and the Russian Orthodox Church and their complex interplay in formulating this framework.

"I think there's a new breed of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who are very entrepreneurial. A lot of the missions that they had in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other parts of the world really lent to this entrepreneurial spirit."

We investigate the complex world of tax avoidance, starting with the mining industry in Zambia. Activists, documentarians, and economists give perspectives on how corporations avoid taxes and how this practice is now entrenched in business and government.

Professor Gary Sick, Iran expert at Columbia University and lead White House negotiator during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, assesses the merits of the recently negotiated agreement on Iran's nuclear program and the prospects for the upcoming vote in Congress.

In late June, "Ethics & International Affairs" senior editor Zach Dorfman sat down with M. Sanjayan, senior scientist at Conservation International, at the Aspen Ideas Festival to discuss our climate-changed world, and why--on some days at least--he's hopeful about our environmental future.