On February 25th, Nigeria will hold federal elections. Nigeria is the largest democracy in Africa and one of the largest multiparty democracies in the world. Incumbent Muhammadu Buhari is respecting term limits and stepping aside, leaving and open field. 

In recent history, Nigerian politics has been dominated by two parties. But with about one month before elections there is a surprising third party candidate, Peter Obi, who is leading in the polls on a surge of support by young Nigerians. 

Guest Cynthia Mbamalu is director of programs for Yiaga Africa, a civil society organization that works to promote democracy in Africa.  She explains how and why young people in Nigeria may determine the outcome of Nigeria's elections. 

We kick off discussing the major candidates before having an in depth conversation about the youth vote, including how a protest movement against police brutality has inspired a youth political awakening. 

Agathe Demarais was a treasury official in the French government working in Moscow and Beirut when she saw, first hand, some of the unintended impacts of US sanctions. Agathe Demarais is the global forecasting director of the Economist Intelligence Unit and author of the new book Backfire: How Sanctions Reshape the World Against US Interests. The book makes the provocative argument that an over-reliance on sanctions as a tool US foreign policy is making sanctions a less effective tool of US foreign policy. 

In our conversation, Agathe Demarais explains how US sanctions are sort of like antibiotics in which overuse can cause resistance.  

According to the International Monetary Fund, 22 countries in Africa are either in debt distress or at high risk of debt distress --that is, they are unable to fulfill their financial obligations to creditors.  This is nearly double the number of countries in Africa in some form debt crisis just a few years ago. 

Why so many African countries are facing a fiscal crisis today and the implications of debt distress for economic and social development is explained at length by my guest today Mark Plant, senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development. 

We kick off discussing why Ghana and Zambia are illustrative of broader fiscal trends in Africa and then have a discussion about the policy conundrums facing countries as they navigate fiscal crises and seek to satisfy creditors without sacrificing substantial gains in economic and social development.

In December protests erupted in cities across Bangladesh, including the capital Dhaka. The proximate cause was skyrocketing inflation triggered in part by Russia's war in Ukraine. But as my guest Michael Kugelman explains these were not mass protests, but rather highly partisan events ahead of elections scheduled for this year. 

Michael Kugelman is director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington DC.  We kick off discussing the significance of these protests. We then have a longer conversation about how these protests fits into broader trends in Bangladeshi politics and economy -- including Bangladesh's remarkable economic growth and its increasing authoritarianism under prime minister Sheikh Hasina. 

In this episode, we are joined by Chris Miller, author of the new book "Chip Wars: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology." The books tells the story of microchip, including its history and its profound impact on international relations and geopolitics today. 

Chris Miller is an Associate Professor of International History at the Fletcher School at Tufts University. We discuss why the microchip is central to our world today, how Taiwan and South Korea became the two major international hubs for the manufacture of specialized chips, and the geopolitical implications of a chip manufacturing supply chain that relies on just a few key nodes. We also discuss efforts by the US to prevent China from building a domestic advanced chip manufacture industry.

As 2023 begins the world is beset by crises driven by conflict, climate change and the nexus of the two. But some places are expected to be hit harder than others as the year unfolds and this episode's conversation with David Miliband offers listeners key insights into where humanitarian needs are expected to be most acute in 2023.

David Miliband is the President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee, which at the very end 2022 released a watchlist of the top global crises it foresees this year.

We kick off with a brief discussion about the methodology of creating a crisis watchlist like this before having a extended discussion about several of his top crises of concern, as well as discuss solutions to confront humanitarian crises across the world. 

The border region of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger is home to violent extremist groups eager to recruit young men to their ranks. To counter the lure of groups like the Islamic State officials have experimented with programs and projects that more deeply root young men to their communities and to reduce inter-ethnic conflict.  This kind of peace-building work to strengthen what is known as "social cohesion" often flies under the radar, at least compared to high profile military activities targeting terrorist groups. But there is growing evidence that such programs are effective. 

In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Siaka Millogo who ran an experiment testing the impact of social cohesion programs in villages in rural Niger. He is the Director for Burkina Faso and Niger for the aid group Mercy Corps. From 2019 through 2021, Mercy Corps and local partners identified 40 villages at risk of recruitment by violent extremist groups and undertook social cohesion programs in half of those; while the other half was a control group. And in our conversation we discuss how this experiment worked and what it can teach us about the value and impact of hyper local programs to combat violent extremism. 

The United States has several hundred military bases scattered across the world. But how do citizens within countries hosting US troops feel about those bases and US military personnel? 

In this episode, we are joined by Carla Martinez Machain, who conducted groundbreaking public opinion research on how exposure to a US military presence in an allied country impacts attitudes towards the US government, military and Americans more generally. 

Carla Martinez Machain is a professor of political science at the University of Buffalo and is co-author of the new book "Beyond the Wire: US Military Deployments and Host Country Public" Opinion, with Michael A Allen, Michael E Flynn, and Andrew Stravers. 

We discuss the sheer scope of US basing around the world before having a broader conversation about the relationship between US bases, public opinion, and foreign policy. 

Negotiations for a new Global Treaty on Plastics formally kicked off in early December. Delegates from around 160 countries met in Uruguay for the first round of talks aimed at reducing the harmful impact of plastics on both the environment and health. 

Antonio Guterres has called plastics "fossil fuels in another form." And called on governments to support a treaty that not only dealt with plastic waste and recycling, but also the entire life cycle of plastics, including measures to control the production of plastics. 

My guest today Andres Del Castillo attended the negotiations, which took place in the seaside city Punta Del Este. He is a senior attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law. 

We kick off discussing why regulating plastics through an international agreement is necessary. We then discuss the process for these negotiations and the stances thus far of key governments around the world, including the USA, China, the European Union and countries in the global south.  

Delegates from nearly every country in the world are meeting in Montreal for the UN Biodiversity Conference known as COP15. Their goal is to come up with a new global action plan to preserve nature and global biodiversity. Top among those goals is agreeing to a new global target to protect for conservation 30% of land and 30% and marine habitats by 2030. 

Joining me to discuss the importance of this UN Biodiversity Conference, Ongoing at time of recording is John Reid. He co-author of Ever Green: Saving Big Forests to Save the Planet, with the late Thomas Lovejoy and the senior economist and partnership lead at the non-profit Nia Tero

We kick off discussing the recent history of global efforts to protect biodiversity and its link to climate change before having a longer discussion about the key issues at play at COP 15 in Montreal.