India is currently in the midst the single worst spike in COVID cases experienced anywhere in the world since the start of the pandemic. 

On the line with me to explain how and why the COVID crisis got so bad so quickly in India is Michael Kugelman, Asia Program Deputy Director and Senior Associate for South Asia at the Woodrow Wilson Center. We kick off discussing the current humanitarian emergency in India before having a broader conversation about the political and international implications of India's spiraling health crisis. 

On April 22 and 23rd, the White House hosted the Climate Leaders Summit which featured more than 40 world leaders. Joe Biden kicked off the summit with a major announcement that the United States has set a target to reduce by 50% its carbon emissions by the year 2030

On the line with me to discuss the significance of the White House announcement and its implications for climate diplomacy is Pete Ogden, Vice President for Climate and the Environment at the United Nations Foundation.  

The American foreign policy tradition has been recently dominated by just a few ideologies: neoconservatism of the Regan and George W. Bush eras and the liberal internationalism of the Clinton and Obama administrations. 

Robert Wright, has helped to introduce and popularize a new kind of intellectual tradition to the public square called "Progressive Realism."  He explains some key principals of a progressive-realist foreign policy and how this ideology might be applied to some key foreign policy challenges, including competition with China and conflict in the middle east. 

Guest:  Robert Wright is the author of several books, including  NonZero: The Logic of Human Destiny and runs a newsletter of the same name.

On April 14th President Biden announced that American Troops will be leaving Afghanistan by September 11, 2021, formally ending US military engagement after twenty years of war. What contributed to this decision? What impact will it have on internal dynamics in Afghanistan and does this mean the Taliban will gain control? 

On the line with me to discuss the implications of the decision to end US military presence in Afghanistan is Adam Weinstein,  Research Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft

The COVID-19 pandemic is just the latest iteration of what Charles Kenny calls an unending war between humanity and infectious disease. His new book "The Plague Cycle" documents and describes how the course of human history has been shaped by infectious disease from thousands of years ago to early 2021.  

For the last several months Niger has experienced a surge in attacks against civilians by violent extremists. This region of West Africa, the Sahel, has experienced profound and growing security challenges in recent years. What distinguishes this new upsurge in violence in Niger is that civilians are being targeted -- and on the basis of their ethnicity. 

Guest: Ornella Moderan the Sahel Program Head for Institute for Security Studies.    

When economies started tanking last year as COVID-19 spread rapidly around the globe, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund mounted their crisis response. Now, one year later we can assess some of the impact of the response of these institutions, and what comes next as countries continue to try weather this economic storm. 

On the line with me to discuss how the World Bank and IMF have responded to the COVID-19 crisis is Scott Morris, Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development. 

On March 30th, leaders from 23 countries plus the heads of the World Health Organization and the European Union called for a new international treaty to confront the next pandemic. Global health expert Kate Dodson explains what would be included in a new international treaty on pandemic preparedness and response; how might a pandemic treaty be negotiated among world powers; and asks if a new global pandemic treaty even a good idea?  (It is) 

Guest: Kate Dodson, Vice President for Global Health at the United Nations Foundation.

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Benin is a geographically small country in West Africa, located between Nigeria and Togo. Since the 1990s Benin has earned a reputation as a strong and stable multiparty democracy.

However, that has all changed in recent years and Benin is in the midst of democratic backsliding ahead of elections in which opposition parties have been sidelined. 

On the line with me from Benin is Jose Biaou, the spokesperson for the Alliance Patriotic de Nouvelle Espoir --  The New Hope Patriotic Alliance.

Asad Hussein was born in a refugee camp in Kenya after his parents fled conflict in neighboring Somalia. He was born into extreme poverty and stateless, yet despite the odds he became the first person from his refugee camp admitted to an Ivy League school. 

His family's incredible story is told in the new book Beyond the Sand and Sea: One Family's Quest for a Country to Call Home by journalist Ty McCormick, who is a senior editor with Foreign Affairs.