Last week, Tokyo decided to downgrade its trade relationship with Seoul following weeks of protests, boycotts, and sparing. While bad blood between the two US allies goes back decades, its reemergence today raises new questions about stability and security in the region—and all while US relations with China and North Korea worsen. Alexis Dudden of the University of Connecticut and the Council’s Karl Friedhoff join Deep Dish to discuss.

Tunisia is the only democracy to emerge from the Arab Spring. Yet the death of its first democratically elected president last week has raised new questions about its future. The outcome matters not just to Tunisians, but also as a test case for democracy across North Africa and the Arab world. Sarah Yerkes of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Gordon Gray, the US ambassador to Tunisia from 2009 to 2012, join Deep Dish to discuss.

With the return of national populism to global politics, multilateral organizations such as the United Nations have come under renewed scrutiny. Yet the UN is much more than just colorful speeches from leaders each September in New York and vetoed resolutions in the Security Council. The Council’s Catherine Bertini, a former executive director of the UN World Food Programme, and the Council’s global governance fellow, Thomas Weiss, join Deep Dish to discuss the future of the UN and why the United States should lead its renewal.

US sanctions on Iran are shifting the strategic calculus for Tehran to retaliate, creating a situation reminiscent of the sequence in 1941 that led Imperial Japan to attack the US naval base in Hawaii, argues Robert Pape of the University of Chicago. Ellen Laipson of George Mason University, too, warns about the White House neglecting the risks of economic coercion when it fails. Both join this week's Deep Dish to discuss what is at stake with Iran. 

More than a million people have demonstrated in Hong Kong over the last month, rallying against a proposed bill that would have allowed for the extradition of criminal suspects to mainland China. Yet even now that the bill has been suspended, the protests show no sign of abating. Director of the Southeast Asia Project at the Lowy Institute Ben Bland joins Deep Dish to explain what is happening.

In a recent 90-minute interview with the Financial Times, President Vladimir Putin detailed his thoughts not only about Russia, but also about the United States, China, Europe, and the Middle East. Financial Times editor Lionel Barber, who conducted the interview, joins Council President Ivo Daalder and Deep Dish host Brian Hanson to discuss what the Russian president revealed about his worldview.

Sudan is careening towards a crisis. President Omar al-Bashir was ousted in April after three decades in power, yet heavily armed groups are now fighting in Sudan for control. At the same time, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, and the United States are each vying for influence. Andrew Natsios, director of the Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs at the Bush School at Texas A&M University and US envoy to Sudan during the George W. Bush administration, joins Deep Dish to explain what is going on and why it matters.

For each bold move abroad, from the Belt and Road Initiative to island building, China seems confronted with new vulnerabilities at home, including the ongoing protests in Hong Kong. Jessica Chen Weiss, author of an intriguing new essay in Foreign Affairs, and Ali Wyne of the Rand Corporation join Deep Dish to discuss what is intrinsic and what is incidental to Beijing’s ambitions.

This week President Donald Trump touted a new agreement with Mexico to stem the flow of migrants into the United States. But Mexican officials claimed both sides were still evaluating the situation. Earl Anthony Wayne, a former US ambassador to Mexico, joins Deep Dish to discuss what can realistically be done about migrant flows.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is facing "the most severe crisis in the security environment in Europe since the end of the Cold War and perhaps ever," warn Douglas Lute and Nicholas Burns. The two former US ambassadors to NATO recently joined Deep Dish to explain why.