Departures with Robert Amsterdam

Since the end of the Cold War, Turkey's geostrategic relevance as a NATO ally bridging the West with Asia has been highlighted repeatedly - but there's often been less attention on how Ankara's role has been managed in terms of its relations with Beijing.

This week Selçuk Çolakoğlu of the Turkish Center for Asia Pacific Studies joins Robert Amsterdam to discuss his new book, "Turkey And China: Political, Economic, And Strategic Aspects Of The Relationship."

This detailed and informative study covers numerous aspects of the relationship, ranging from Sino-Turkish cooperation on energy, trade, and security, but also issues such as the Belt and Road Initiative and the roles of other actors -- particularly the United States and Russia.

From the earliest days of representative government, special advisers have served an essential background role in politics, never more so than in the last 50 years in Great Britain. They have performed tasks both administrative and policy-oriented, mundane and extraordinary, and have affected domestic and even foreign policy matters, in both seen and unforeseen ways.

In his new book, "The Secret Life of Special Advisers," Peter Cardwell unravels the decades of mystique surrounding those whom Piers Morgan has called "these miserable little creatures," key advisers to Cabinet ministers and the British Prime Minster since the 1970s. Featuring personal anecdotes and incredible stories from his days as a special advisor to four UK cabinet ministers within the Cameron, May and early Johnson administrations.

During this podcast discussion with Robert Amsterdam, Mr. Cardwell highlights the importance of a united party, where divisions and excessive amounts of rivalry within a political party can lead to chaotic outcomes on the national scale. He also touches on the factors that led to Brexit such as widespread mistrust in the government as well as the conflicting loyalties held by ministers involved in Britain's final decision to leave the European Union.

From the ministers themselves to their advisers to the voters who democratically elected them, ultimately it is a choice to get involved in public life as much as it is a calling. "Politics is often made up of many, many volunteers," declares Mr. Cardwell at the end of the podcast, and he's right.

There are few turncoat spies more infamous than George Blake, an MI6 agent who spied for the Soviet Union in the 1950s, was later caught, convicted and sentenced to 42 years in prison. There are even fewer to manage to escape prison and flee to the East to live a life of relative happiness and satisfaction.

This story is masterfully told in the new book, "The Happy Traitor: Spies, Lies and Exile in Russia: The Extraordinary Story of George Blake," authored by the Financial Times columnist Simon Kuper.

Simon joined the Departures podcast for a discussion with Robert Amsterdam about Blake's fascinating life, his dramatic escape as a prisoner of war in North Korea and also his escape from prison in Britain.

With unprecedented access to Blake including the last major extended interview he gave, Kuper's book is an exploration of the life of one of the more fascinating character's in Cold War history, how he came to reach the momentous decisions in his career and how he managed to never look back with any sort of regret for the path he chose.

Generally in the scholarship on Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Turkey's most famous transformative leader, there are only a handful of books which delve into the making of the politics and the culture in the lead-up to him becoming president in 1923.

In his new book, "Eternal Dawn: Turkey in the Age of Atatürk," Prof. Ryan Gingeras of the Naval Postgraduate School aims to cover that gap, providing a kaleidoscopic view of the sweeping changes in society that were taking place during his time in power and what they mean for Turkey's evolution as a country.

Eternal Dawn presses beyond the reigning mythology that still envelops this period and challenges many of the standing assumptions about the limits, successes, and consequences of the reforms that comprised Mustafa Kemal's revolution. Through a detailed survey of social and political conditions that defined life in the capital as well as Turkey's diverse provinces, Gingeras lays bare many of the harsh realities and bitter legacies incurred as a result of the republic's establishment and transformation.

What a nightmare for Vladimir Putin.

When Russian-backed militants shot down Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 in Ukraine in 2014, killing almost 300 innocent people, the Kremlin defaulted to its usual muscular disinformation tactics and media operations to confuse and cloud the issue. But who stepped forward to bring accountability and facts, they didn't see it coming.

Eliot Higgins is the founder of the open source intelligence intelligence (OSINT) collective known as Bellingcat. His group, with the contributions of hundreds of volunteers, was able to track down and verify videos and cell phone data, Google Earth satellite images, and other sources to verify, confirm, and indict Russia for its responsibility in this heinous act. From there, they have moved onto conflicts and crises worldwide, providing intelligence in a popularized, non-government manner.

Higgins' latest book, "We Are Bellingcat: An Intelligence Agency for the People," tells the story his organization's rise, and what OSINT means for the future of democracy, conflicts, and humanitarian crises when increasingly the duty falls to citizens, not government agencies, to critically examine information and provide the factual accounts necessary for accountability.

When former President Donald Trump ordered the drone strike which claimed the life of General Qassem Soleimani, the leader of Iran's elite Quds Force, it irrecoverably changed the future path of the country and region at large.

This week we are proud to have a special guest, the Iranian historian and NYU professor Arash Azizi to discuss his new book, "The Shadow Commander: Soleimani, the US, and Iran's Global Ambitions," which provides a riveting account of the life of one of the most influential figures in modern Middle Eastern history.

According to Azizi, had Soleimani not been killed in that drone strike, it would be very likely that he would emerge as the next presidential candidate - a role that his daughter is now appearing to fulfill.

The military career of Soleimani was outstanding in several respects, but notably for the level of hubris he displayed which was uncommon among Iran's military leadership.

"He published Game of Thrones-themed memes against Donald Trump prepared by his team on Twitter, he threatened Pakistan with a military incursion over some issues, and even threatened the Sunni king of Bahrain with a coup," Azizi says. "These were things that the top military commanders in Iran had never done, they had learned to be more diplomatic. But that's the level of confidence and hubris that Soleimani displayed."

Often overlooked, the nations of Central Asia represent a highly important geostrategic region of the world with abundant mineral and energy wealth - and yet, US diplomatic efforts in these countries are way behind the larger neighbors of Russia and China.

Part of this lack of engagement has to do with how America - at least as a symbol - is understood and regarded by various social groups.

Professor Edward Schatz of the University of Toronto joins the Departures podcast this week to discuss his excellent book, "Slow Anti-Americanism: Social Movements and Symbolic Politics in Central Asia" which explores these topics through an innovative lens.

The book features an exploration of how Islamist movements, human rights activists, and labor mobilizers across Central Asia receive and process information about what America is and what its values are, which is often strikingly different that the rhetoric of "high politics" like presidential elections and foreign policies.

"The running metaphor that I use in the book is geological - how sediment flows from one place to another," Schatz explains, pointing to how perceptions of anti-Americanism spread in Central Asia. "You can see how sediment builds up in certain places and not in others and what the impact might be, but it's hard to predict in advance."

Whereas many social groups in Central Asia first were informed about the symbol of America through Soviet propaganda, there have been other sources of information, such as slower-moving, partially occluded, and socially embedded processes that ground how "America" becomes political.

At some point, people stopped believing that electing the right leaders and passing the right laws was the most effective way to achieve social change. Since at least the 1970s, people have been rapidly losing faith in government, democracy, big banks, big corporations, organized religion, and other institutions which were thought to help give order and shape norms for society.

In Ethan Zuckerman's new book, "Mistrust: Why Losing Faith in Institutions Provides the Tools to Transform Them," these questions are explored in great depth while also seeking to illuminate the available solutions for citizens to regain their social capital.

There are four ways that we regulate our societies, Zuckerman says in the podcast interview. We make laws, which say you can't do this or that. We use markets to make bad behavior expensive, like taxing cigarettes. We use social norms - if you engage in prohibited conduct, we will shun you. And lastly, we have code, we use technology to impose normative values, making it more difficult to do bad things.

"What I try to do in Mistrust is turn that inside out," Zuckerman says. "And I basically say each of those four regulatory levers, each of those ways we regulate society, those are tools for social change."

It may be hard for many of our listeners to believe, but once upon a time US foreign policy could offer glimmers of astonishing humanitarianism, which was the case over the epic career of Robert (Bob) Gersony.

While other literary references have framed the actors leading US foreign interventions as "quiet" or "ugly," Gersony's life story offers a vision of the "good American," and a reminder of the importance and strategic value of making decisions based on human rights and protecting refugees.

Veteran journalist and author Robert Kaplan joins the podcast to discuss his latest innovative work, "The Good American: The Epic Life of Bob Gersony, the U.S. Government's Greatest Humanitarian," a story of a foregone time in world history, of the last vestiges of the print and typewriter age where the United States was the foremost world power.

In the mid 20th century, the State Department wasn't yet strictly stocked with Ivy League graduates, but instead included men like Robert Gersony, who'd never held a formal government position or even graduated high school but rose through the highest ranks by means of their character and acumen - a feat which would seem impossible today.

In the podcast, Kaplan describes his work as, "A book of discovery, of how one individual can make a great difference in the world, of rediscovering the American brand" while at the same time rediscovering the world in its full complexities and nuance.

Since the United States touched base in the Philippines in 1898, the relationship between the Philippines and the U.S. has endured with war and military service forging a continuing but contentious relationship between the two countries. But has it been a productive relationship for both members?

While Filipinos have served in the American military since the early 20th century, they were prevented from receiving equitable benefits for their service during World War II until 2009. Historically speaking, they were employed as porters and servers, soldiers and sailors, and their role in the U.S. armed forces simultaneously combated and perpetuated racism and hierarchies within and out of the institution of the military.

During World War II, as Japanese occupation of the Philippines became more violent, the relationship between the US and the Philippines solidified despite the fact that many Filipinos had strongly preferred to ally with Japan.

MIT history professor Christopher Capozzola joins the podcast to discuss his latest work, Bound by War: How the United States and the Philippines Built America's First Pacific Century, which investigates the forgotten alliance between Americans and Filipinos in war and in peace.

From the Philippine–American War at the turn of the 20th century to the post-9/11 conflicts in the Middle East, the two countries have been strategic partners in the consolidation and maintenance of influence over the Pacific region. Following the alliance-breaking debacle of the US war in Iraq, Capozzola was inspired to dive into the tenuous but seemingly unbreaking relationship between the US and the Philippines, its dynamics, its history, and the seemingly unique features which have allowed it to endure.