Chatham House

Reflecting on research conducted as part of a joint Chatham House and UNDP research project on ‘African Peace Processes: Lessons Learned’, this episode examines what makes peace processes ‘stick’. Lisa Musumba is joined by project researchers Dr Abel Abate Demissie and Leonard Onyonyi to discuss the lessons learned from the Pretoria process linked to Ethiopia’s Tigray war and Burundi’s Arusha Accords.

The episode closes with reflections from AU Special Envoy on Women, Peace and Security, Ambassador Liberata Mulamula, from our conference in Addis Ababa on Africa’s rising influence in foreign policy and global governance, exploring how African-led peace and security initiatives can be strengthened moving forward.

In the final episode of the year, Anna speaks to Professor (Chair in Climate Change and Earth System Science at the University of Exeter) about climate tipping points – the thresholds where a tiny change could lead to large and often irreversible transformations in the Earth system, with potentially disastrous consequences. Examples of such ‘negative’ tipping points include the dieback of the Amazon rainforest, the melting of the Greenland icesheet, and the collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). But not all tipping points are bad. In the interview, Anna and Tim also discuss how the triggering of ‘positive tipping points’ within human societies could lead to rapid decarbonization.   For further reading, please see: Tim Lenton’s ‘Positive Tipping Points: How to Fix the Climate Crisis’. Tim Lenton’s ‘Why some tipping points may be positive for the planet’ in Chatham House’s magazine ‘The World Today’.

In the last Independent Thinking podcast of 2025, host Bronwen Maddox is joined by , Senior Research Fellow with Chatham House's Global Economy and Finance Programme; , Director of the International Security Programme; and , a senior research fellow on China in Chatham House’s Asia-Pacific Programme. For further analysis read ‘’ by David Lubin, examining how President Trump’s actions seem to indicate the emergence of a hemispheric US foreign policy. Read our latest: Presented by Bronwen Maddox. Produced by .    🎧   🎧 Subscribe to Independent Thinking wherever you find your podcasts - please listen, review, and subscribe.

This is a special edition of Chatham House's Independent Thinking international affairs podcast, recorded at the Doha Forum 2025. 

Many of the official and backroom discussions at Qatar’s annual gathering of more than 5,000 world leaders, policymakers, dialogue, corporate and humanitarian organizations from 162 countries were dominated by discussions of President Donald Trump’s National Security Strategy, which was released on the eve of the forum. At one of the first events in the Doha Forum, Chatham House Director Bronwen Maddox questioned US Ambassador to NATO Mathew Whitaker about it. 

The podcast examines the implications for Europe, Asia, the Middle East and US foreign policy generally of the NSS document, which reinforces the Trump administration’s ‘America First’ strategy, and contains stark language about Europe, talking about its ‘economic decline’ and ‘the real and more stark prospect of civilizational erasure’. It also says: ‘The days in which the Middle East dominated American foreign policy in both long-term planning and day-to-day execution are thankfully over.’ 

Joining host Bronwen Maddox in Doha were: Leslie Vinjamuri, President and Chief Executive Officer, Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and Yu Jie, a Senior Research Fellow on China in Chatham House’s Asia-Pacific Programme, and Renad Mansour, a Senior Research Fellow with the Middle East and North Africa Programme.

How are Europe and Ukraine reacting after the US and Russia sought to strike their own deal, and Putin warned that Moscow – while not planning for war with Europe – is ‘ready right now’. Host Bronwen Maddox is joined by , Director of the Europe and Russia and Eurasia Programmes; , a Senior Research Fellow and former Georgian Ambassador, and , Research Fellow with our Ukraine Forum.  Read Chatham House’s report '' about how the current international sanctions regime is failing, and how to fix it. Read our latest: Presented by Bronwen Maddox. Produced by .    🎧   🎧 Subscribe to Independent Thinking wherever you find your podcasts - please listen, review, and subscribe.

Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves published her – widely leaked – budget this week. How does it leave her ruling Labour Party positioned in Britain? And what do the calculations look like from overseas, where other countries have adopted different solutions to the problems facing them? For this discussion on Chatham House’s international affairs podcast, host is joined by , Director of the UK in the World Programme. And, giving an international perspective on UK finances, are , an Associate Fellow in the Europe Programme and , a Senior Research Fellow for China and the World in the Asia-Pacific Programme. Read our latest: Presented by Bronwen Maddox. Produced by .    🎧   🎧 Subscribe to Independent Thinking wherever you find your podcasts - please listen, review, and subscribe.

COP30 in Belém is over. What happened at the conference? What were the main outcomes? And what needs to happen next?   To find out, Anna speaks to Jennifer Morgan (Senior Fellow at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University; Fellow at the Hertie School of Governance; and former State Secretary and Special Envoy for International Climate Action at the German Federal Foreign Office) and David Waskow (Director for the International Climate Initiative at the World Resources Institute).

After the North Darfur capital El Fasher fell to the Rapid Support Forces, aid agencies and survivors talk of civilians being massacred in the streets. The international affairs podcast of Chatham House examines the human toll, and the dynamics of a war fuelled by regional powers and their proxies seeking to control Sudan’s territory, gold, natural resources, and access to key waterways.  Host , is joined by , a Senior Research Fellow in Chatham House’s Africa Programme; , a Mo Ibrahim Foundation Academy Fellow; , director of the think tank Confluence Advisory, and , a researcher at the University of Sussex who focuses on migration, human rights, and humanitarian action. Read the Chatham House report . It covers how Sudan’s main warring parties – the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – were in competition for the country’s natural resources, and how the fight to control gold assets has been one of the drivers of the conflict.   Read our latest: Presented by Bronwen Maddox. Produced by .    🎧   🎧 Subscribe to Independent Thinking wherever you find your podcasts - please listen, review, and subscribe.

Nearly four years after Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukrainian officials and analysts look at the prospects for a ceasefire, and at the military, economic and human cost that President Vladimir Putin’s campaign has inflicted on the country.

They discuss the Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, intended to demoralise the civilian population, and what European allies should do to bolster its defence efforts, and to rebuild the country if there is a ceasefire.

Host Bronwen Maddox is joined by Andriy Zagorodnyuk, a former Minister of Defence of Ukraine; Daryna Marchak, Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Economy, Environment and Agriculture; Olha Aivazovska, Chair of the Board of the Opora Civic Network; Simon Smith, Chair of Chatham House’s Ukraine Forum and Dominic Nicholls, Associate Editor of The Telegraph.

The discussion came as Chatham House hosted a conference - 'War in Ukraine: The battleground for the future of Europe'. https://www.chathamhouse.org/events/all/research-event/war-ukraine-battleground-future-europe

Read our latest analysis here: https://www.chathamhouse.org/2025/11/ukraines-best-defence-against-putins-energy-war-more-attacks-russias-oil-refining-sector

Zohran Mamdani’s victory in New York’s mayoral race this week – and other electoral successes – energized Democrats in the US and left-wing parties worldwide. The new standard-bearer of the American left is hailed by progressives as a generational shift of leadership – at 34 he will be the first Muslim mayor of New York, and one of its youngest ever.

But he faces opposition from many quarters over his plans to raise taxes on the wealthy. Not least from President Donald Trump, who has threatened to hold back federal funds from the city where he was born.

This week’s podcast assesses the significance of the first major elections of Trump’s second term, and what it means for the Democratic Party’s chances of winning back the House of Representatives in midterm elections next November.

In the US, host Bronwen Maddox is joined by Laurel Rapp, director of the US and North America Programme, and Bruce Stokes, an associate fellow at Chatham House and a former director of global economic attitudes at the Pew Research Center. Joining from London is Stephen Farrell, head of News and Comment, who covered the 2013 New York City mayoral election for The New York Times.