FPRI Radio

In this premiere episode of FPRI’s new podcast series, BackChannel, Host Ron Granieri welcomes Templeton Fellows Nada Bakos and Dominic Tierney and special guest Benjamin Silberstein to discuss US-North Korean relations. Following the FPRI tradition of analyzing contemporary geopolitics through the lens of history, geography, and culture, Granieri guides a conversation that considers the path that has led from ​Twitter confrontations to a possible summit in Singapore, compares these negotiations to other efforts to control nuclear proliferation, and contextualizes both what we have seen and what is likely to come in the future.

This episode was recorded on May 18, 2018.

This episode, hosted by Tally Helfont, Director of FPRI's Program on the Middle East, is the first in a four part series exploring topics related to FPRI's latest project: After the Caliphate: Reassessing the Jihadi Threat and Restoring Stability in the Fertile Crescent. Today we explore how ISIS and others are able to utilize online platforms to continue sowing global terror with Nada Bakos, a former CIA analyst who served as Chief Targeting Officer tracking one of the world's most wanted terrorists, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and Mia Bloom, professor of Communication at Georgia State University, known for her research and writings on women and terrorism, child soldiers, and suicide terrorism.

President Donald Trump recently completed a 12-day trip to Asia, with stops in Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam, and the Philippines, and including attendance at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting. The announced agenda included building cooperation to pressure North Korea on its nuclear weapons and missile programs, addressing what Trump has denounced as unfair trade practices by Chin and other states in the region, and promoting a “free and open Indo-Pacific.” Key goals included assuaging doubts among allies about the strength of the U.S.’s commitments, underscoring the U.S.’s rejection of Trans-Pacific Partnership-style multilateral economic agreements, and advancing the personal diplomacy with foreign leaders that has characterized the Trump presidency. Among observers, expectations of concrete accomplishments were relatively low. Avery Goldstein (FPRI and University of Pennsylvania), June Teufel Dreyer (FPRI and University of Miami), and Jacques deLisle (FPRI and University of Pennsylvania) assess the aims, outcomes, and future implications of Trump’s trip.

The German elections on 24 September marked the end of a year and a half of major elections and referenda across the Continent. As the dust settles, Europeans and their partners are trying to figure out what the results mean for the individual countries, for the EU and NATO, and for the world at large. To help provide context and insight, FPRI Senior Fellows Jeremy Black and Hajnalka Vincze joined FPRI's Ron Granieri for a conversation on Europe's recent past and its implications for the future.

In this episode of FPRI Radio, host Michael Noonan is joined in conversation with FPRI Senior Fellow Nada Bakos to discuss the U.S. intelligence apparatus, bureaucracy, and the current state of Iraq.

From the breakdown of states to the exploitation of the ensuing power vacuum by violent non-state actors, there are numerous pressing issues currently facing the Middle East and North Africa. In this edition of FPRI Radio, host Tally Helfont is joined in conversation with Robert A. Fox Fellow Benedetta Berti. Their discussion focuses on the current state of play in Syria in terms of actors, interests, and fallout; the regional perception of Hezbollah post-Syrian crisis; Hamas’ new "Statement of Principles" and its implications; and the reasons why terrorism is too narrow a lens through which to understand the emergence of groups like ISIS, Nusra Front, al-Shabbab and others.

As President Nicolás Maduro relies on increasingly repressive means to preserve the regime he inherited from the late Hugo Chávez, Venezuela has descended into an existential economic, social, and political crisis. In this edition of FPRI Radio, host Ronald Granieri is joined in conversation with FPRI Senior Fellow Vanessa Neumann to discuss the roots of Venezuela's problems, how its people and neighbors are reacting to this ongoing crisis, and the future of what was once the most prosperous state in South America.

French voters go to the polls on April 23 in the first round of a presidential election that may upend European politics. Populist nationalist Marine Le Pen hopes to lead her Front National to victory, and faces a scattered field in which the traditional parties are weak and outsiders are on the rise. In this edition of FPRI Radio, host Ronald Granieri is joined in conversation with European Foreign and Security policy analyst Hajnalka Vincze. Their discussion focuses on the upcoming Presidential election and its significance for France’s place in Europe and the world.

Popular opinion in Chinese cyberspace—the postings of China’s “netizens”—are often ardently nationalist. Are nationalist voices online representative of broader public opinion in China? How much does such popular nationalism, in cyberspace or on the streets, influential in China’s foreign policy—which is itself widely seen as become more assertively nationalistic? What are the foci and triggers of nationalism in Chinese social media such as weibo (a Twitter-like platform) and weixin (WeChat)? What other politically significant issues draw the attention, and ire, of Chinese netizens? How much does online activism reflect patterns that predate widespread use of the Internet? And what are the prospects for political expression and activism in China’s still highly-restricted cyberspace?

In this FPRI Asia Program podcast. Guobin Yang, Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School and Professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, and author of The Power of the Internet in China and The Red Guard Generation and Political Activism in China, and Jackson Woods, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for the Study of Contemporary China at the University of Pennsylvania, and author of a forthcoming study, Netizens and Nationalism in China join FPRI Asia Program Director Jacques deLisle to discuss these issues.

Philadelphia Inquirer Worldview columnist Trudy Rubin (back from a pre-inauguration trip to Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei and Hong Kong) and FPRI Asia Program Director Jacques deLisle discuss U.S. policy toward East Asia and reactions in China, Taiwan, and the region at the beginning of the Trump administration. Surprise at Trump’s victory, perplexity over the conflicting policy signals sent by the president and members of his administration, and the limited role in the Trump administration of members of the establishment U.S. foreign policy community have left analysts and practitioners somewhat at sea. In China, some see an opportunity for China to step into the vacuum left by the apparent retrenchment of America’s roles where others worry about a new volatility in the relationship. In Taiwan, Trump’s pre-inauguration phone call with President Tsai Ing-wen, his subsequent statement that the “one China policy” might be abandoned, and his still-later reaffirmation of the one China policy in a call with Chinese President Xi Jinping variously and collectively stirred hope, confusion, and concern.