The foreign aid freeze, destruction of USAID, and withdrawal from the World Health Organization have severely undermined America’s ability to fight infectious diseases at home and abroad. With outbreaks of the deadly Marburg and Ebola viruses underway in East Africa and a fast-mutating bird flu spreading across the world, these moves by the Trump administration have left Americans highly vulnerable.

I’m joined in today’s live chat by Dr. Emily Smith, an epidemiologist at Duke University. She is a fellow Substacker who runs Friendly Neighbor Epidemiologist and is the author of the book The Science of the Good Samaritan: Thinking Bigger about Loving our Neighbors. We kick off with something of a global tour of concerning infectious diseases before having a wide-ranging conversation about how recent moves by the Trump administration have incapacitated our system of disease surveillance and pandemic defense. 

On February 12rd, Donald Trump held lengthty calls with Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy to advance a vague peace plan for Ukraine. But can a peace deal actually come together in a way that upholds Ukraine’s determination to exist as an independent state, free from Russia’s yoke? And does Russia have any incentive to relent, given its slow but steady progress on the battlefield against war-weary Ukrainian soldiers?

Joining me to discuss these questions and more is Yaroslav Trofimov, a Ukrainian-born journalist and chief foreign affairs correspondent for The Wall Street Journal. His book Our Enemies Will Vanish, published last year, tells the story of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Ukrainians’ determined efforts to push back. His new book, No Country for Love, is a work of historical fiction set in Ukraine in the 1930s.

Hear directly from one of the best journalists covering Ukraine today as he shares insights on the current state of the conflict, Zelenskyy’s domestic political challenges, and whether or not Trump’s peace plan is for real. You will learn a lot from this conversation. I certainly did.

On January 26, a Rwanda-backed militia known as M23 captured the city of Goma in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, massive city of two million people and a major regional trading hub. While M23 had been active in the region for quite some time, this move marked a significant escalation in the ongoing conflict. To escalate things further, the group also vowed to march to Kinshasa, DRC’s capital, and overthrow the government.

So who are M23? Why is Rwanda backing them? What may come next in the conflict? And what can be done to de-escalate this crisis? Joining me to answer these questions and many more is Zaynab Hoosen, Africa Analyst at Pangea-Risk in Cape Town, South Africa. We kick off discussing the background to this conflict before having a wider conversation about its current dangerous trajectory.

Today's episode is a crossover with Robert Wright's Nonzero Podcast. I have followed Bob's work for years—he is a thoughtful commentator, author, and podcaster. He asked me to come on his show to discuss how the new Trump administration may approach the United Nations and what impact Trump's policies may have on international cooperation and global governance more broadly.

This is a long episode in which I more freely share my thoughts than I would in a conventional Global Dispatches episode. But I thought you would find this conversation useful and interesting—I know I did.

The first 45 minutes of this episode are freely available, and then there's a paywall for the second half of our chat. You can access the full episode by getting a paid subscription at GlobalDispatches.org or, if you are listening on Apple Podcasts, you can unlock our premium feed directly in the app with just a few taps. I hope you do.

On Day One, Donald Trump froze nearly all U.S. foreign aid. On Day Eight, the State Department issued a stop-work order for USAID. This is causing massive ripple effects around the world.

USAID staff and contractors are being laid off in droves. HIV patients in several African countries are being turned away from clinics where they had long received crucial medicines. Humanitarian and development non-profits in the United States and across the globe that depend on contracts from USAID and the U.S. government are now wondering if they’ll be able to continue their work. Joining me to discuss the impact of this sudden curtailing of nearly all U.S. foreign assistance is Jeremy Konyndyk. He is a veteran humanitarian affairs official who led USAID’s response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa during the Obama administration. Now, he leads Refugees International, an advocacy group. He is in a unique position to speak freely on this topic because the NGO he currently leads does not receive government funding—whereas other NGO leaders fear retribution if they speak out.

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For the past two decades, Sri Lankan politics has been dominated by the Rajapaksa family, with two brothers more or less alternating between serving as president and prime minister from 2005 to 2022. Their regime was marked by corruption and sustained through appeals to ethnic nationalism among the majority Sinhalese Buddhist population, including by deliberately inciting sentiment against minority Muslim and Tamil communities.

This kind of appeal to nationalism was the dominant force in Sri Lankan politics for most of the last 20 years — until, that is, the elections this fall. In presidential and then parliamentary elections, a new coalition called National People's Power, led by Anura Kumara Dissanayake, better known as AKD, campaigned on a platform of ethnic pluralism and good governance. They won overwhelmingly, securing 159 out of 225 seats in Parliament — a supermajority — leaving the Rajapaksa party with just three seats.

Joining me to explain how this so-called "Peaceful Political Revolution" was achieved is Neil DeVotta, Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Wake Forest University. He is the author of a new article on this stunning turn of events, which appears in the most recent edition of the Journal of Democracy. We begin by discussing just how remarkable this political transition has been and what drove Sri Lankans to abandon the fractious ethnic politics of the past two decades. We then delve into how AKD and his National People's Power coalition can reverse Sri Lanka's democratic backsliding.

In this special live recording of To Save Us From Hell, our sister podcast about the UN, co-host Anjali Dayal and I discuss the highlights (and lowlights) from the confirmation hearing for Donald Trump’s pick as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.

Elise Stefanik, a member of Congress from New York and a staunch Donald Trump loyalist, did not display the hardcore MAGA vibes one might expect during her confirmation hearing. As Anjali and I note, she came across as a fairly conventional Republican—touching on many familiar GOP talking points about the United Nations, but without suggesting that she believes the U.S. should withdraw from the UN or pursue any particularly radical actions.

To be honest, this may come as a relief to many at the UN, especially since just hours before the hearing, Donald Trump signed an executive order demanding American withdrawal from the World Health Organization.

At long last, a ceasefire agreement has been reached in Gaza. The agreement, finalized in the closing days of the Biden administration, calls for the phased release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas and the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. It also includes provisions for the redeployment of Israeli troops within Gaza and a surge of humanitarian aid to the Strip.

Joining me to discuss this ceasefire deal, why it was agreed upon just as the new Trump administration takes office, and what comes next is Joel Burnold, managing director of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace. We begin by examining the provisions of the ceasefire before delving into a broader conversation about its potential implementation and how recent political and diplomatic changes might impact this deal and the broader prospects for lasting peace.

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Misinformation is rampant in conflict and war, and the extent to which people believe misinformation can often influence the trajectory of these conflicts. But when is misinformation actually believed, and when is it not?

My guest today, Daniel Silverman, is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Carnegie Mellon and the author of a groundbreaking new study on misinformation and war. His book, Seeing is Disbelieving: Why People Believe Misinformation in War, and When They Know Better, examines this phenomenon in depth. Through case studies spanning Pakistan, Iraq, and Syria, Daniel Silverman identifies the circumstances under which people are more or less vulnerable to misinformation. He concludes that the closer people are to a conflict, the less credulous they tend to be.

In our conversation, we begin by discussing what we mean by misinformation and disinformation before diving into his findings from these three case studies.

Donald Trump's foreign policy team is taking shape. So for today's episiode, I wanted to give listeners a deeper understanding of some of the key players that will shape US foreign policy in the years to come.

My guest is Josh Keating, a senior reporter at Vox and a veteran of DC foreign policy reporting. We go through a list of key foreign policy figures in the incomming administration, discuss the distinct foreign policy traditions and personal experiences that have informed their worldviews, and explain what baggage or, perhaps more charitably, perspectives they will bring to their new roles. We then discuss how key decisions on Ukraine may determine what faction of Republican foreign policy ideology may have the upper hand in Trump's second administration.

Get a 40% discount off a paid subcription while supporting our work! 

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