Global Dispatches -- World News That Matters

By Global Dispatches

The longest running independent international affairs podcast features in-depth interviews with policymakers, journalists and experts around the world who discuss global news, international relations,... more

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The podcast currently has 1,210 episodes available.

Best of Global Dispatches -- World News That Matters

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Number 1: Did Russia Just Cross a New Line in AI Warfare?
Last month, a Russian drone flew toward a gas station in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia. It crashed into a wall and exploded, killing three civilians. What made this strike different — and potentially a major turning point in modern warfare — is what investigators found afterward. According to reporting by The New York Times, the drone was equipped with an artificial intelligence system that allowed it to navigate toward the gas station and, once it got close, apparently choose its precise target on its own. Ukrainian officials and experts who examined the wreckage say the drone carried the telltale signs of being a fully autonomous, AI-powered weapon. If that assessment is correct, it represents a disturbing new threshold in the evolution of the war in Ukraine — and warfare more broadly: a weapon using AI to autonomously identify and attack a target, with lethal consequences. The day after The New York Times report, UN Secretary-General António Guterres and the International Committee of the Red Cross renewed their call for states to establish specific prohibitions and restrictions on autonomous weapon systems. "We are now dangerously close to crossing a moral red line: the autonomous targeting of humans by machines," Guterres said. Given this development, I wanted to revisit a conversation I recorded last year with Anna Hehir of the Future of Life Institute. We talked about lethal autonomous weapons, what it means for a machine to make targeting decisions without meaningful human control, and, crucially, whether diplomacy can prevent these systems from becoming a routine feature of warfare.
August 28, 202638min
Number 2: How Vali Nasr's Life Shaped His Understanding of Iran | From April 2017
Vali Nasr is everywhere in the news these days. The Iranian American scholar has written scores of books and articles about Iran and the Middle East, and even before the U.S.-Israel-Iran war, he was someone policymakers and journalists regularly turned to for insight into Iran. On a personal note, I have followed his work for years, and since the outbreak of the war, I have found his commentary and analysis particularly useful. Back in 2017, Vali came on the show to discuss his life and career. I wanted to understand how he developed his worldview and built a career that also included a stint in the Obama administration, where he worked with Richard Holbrooke on Afghanistan policy. In this conversation, Vali opens up about the influence of his father, a prominent academic in Iran, and the trauma of being forced into exile after the 1979 revolution. He explains how those experiences shaped his worldview in ways that, at the time of our conversation, he said he was still coming to grips with. Vali Nasr is helping to shape our collective understanding of Iran at this critical moment. This conversation goes deep into the personal experiences and intellectual influences behind the views he holds today. This episode comes from deep in the archives. Global Dispatches is now 13 years old, and the first 200 or so episodes followed a different format from the show today. Back then, I focused less on topical and thematic issues in international affairs and more on the life stories of the people who shape our understanding of the world. For obvious reasons, this felt like a particularly good moment to republish my interview with Vali Nasr, which originally aired in April 2017.
August 17, 202644min
Number 3: UN Secretary General Candidate Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett
Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett is a Guyanese diplomat and candidate for Secretary-General of the United Nations. If selected, she would become both the first woman and the first person of Indigenous descent to lead the world body. She joins Mark for a substantive conversation about her vision for the UN at a moment of profound strain on the multilateral system. Drawing on her experience representing Guyana on the Security Council, Rodrigues-Birkett discusses what she learned about the UN's strengths and limitations in preventing and resolving conflict—and what she would do differently as Secretary-General. She also lays out her approach to global development and global health, and makes the case for diplomacy and international cooperation as essential tools for tackling the challenges ahead.
August 20, 202626min
Number 4: Why Oman Could Be Crucial to Ending the Iran War
Oman has long played one of the Middle East's most unusual diplomatic roles: maintaining close ties with rivals and quietly creating space for enemies to talk. Secret U.S.-Iran negotiations in Muscat helped pave the way for the 2015 nuclear deal, and Oman has continued to serve as an intermediary on prisoner exchanges, regional conflicts, and nuclear diplomacy. But the Iran war has thrust Oman into a much more precarious position. Sitting directly across the Strait of Hormuz from Iran, the small Gulf state is no longer just a mediator on the sidelines. It is now deeply exposed to a conflict that threatens shipping, regional security, and the very diplomatic relationships Oman has spent decades cultivating. I'm joined by Tyler Parker, a professor at Mercer University who studies the foreign policies of the Gulf states, to discuss how Oman became the region's indispensable intermediary, why the Strait of Hormuz has made Muscat so important to the current crisis, and whether Oman could ultimately help create a path toward ending the war.
August 31, 202627min
Number 5: What Cuba's Doctors Reveal About U.S. Policy Toward Havana
For decades, Cuba has deployed doctors on medical missions around the world, often to places where skilled health workers are badly needed. These missions have a genuine humanitarian component—but they also generate billions of dollars for the Cuban government, making medical services Havana's most lucrative export. The United States is now pressuring countries to end these agreements, threatening one of Cuba's last major sources of income. The story of Cuba's doctors therefore raises a much larger question: What is the United States actually trying to accomplish in Cuba—and what does its pressure campaign mean for the doctors and the communities they serve? Journalist Sarah Maslin recently wrote a fascinating piece in The Economist about the precarious situation facing thousands of Cuban doctors amid the U.S. crackdown—and what it could mean for Cuba's future.
August 13, 202623min