Global Summitry Podcasts

So, it was my great pleasure to sit down again with my colleague, Colin Bradford in the Virtual Studio to talk about the Indonesian G20 Summit and beyond. Colin has voiced concerns recently over the prospects for progress at this G20 Summit and beyond with the tensions over Russia’s war in the Ukraine and growing geopolitical rivalry between the US and China. These geopolitical tensions seem to raise critical difficulties among the G20 members in achieving progress at the G20 on critical, even existential global governance issues such as global health prevention, climate change serious debt relief for many low- and medium-income countries from the Global South.

In 2004 as a Brookings expert, Colin Bradford was the first person to push for transforming the G8 to G20 at leaders’ level and became a leading convener of conferences, workshops, and seminars to work for international institutional reforms to bring the emerging market economies more fully into the global system. Colin continues to be the Lead Co-chair of the CWD, the China-West Dialogue and a Co-Chair in the V20, Vision20, an unofficial engagement group of the G20, Colin has participated in all the recent Global Solutions Summits out of Berlin and has been named a GSS Global Fellow. Currently, Colin is a Non-resident Senior Fellow of the Global Economy and Development Program, Brookings Institution.

So come join Colin and I as we examine the threat to the roles of the G7 and the G20 and in particular the challenges that Indonesia faces for this Bali G20 Leaders’ Summit.

I was so pleased to invite Oliver back into the Virtual Studio to discuss the Brazilian Presidential run off. That second round resulted in a narrow victory for the former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known as Lula over the current President Jair Bolsonaro. This podcast explores the Lula’s Presidential victory, and Bolsonaro’s loss, and then looks at the consequences for Brazilian democracy, the effort to save the Amazon Rainforest and then the possible impact of Lula’s return to the Presidency beyond Brazil

Oliver is an associate professor of international relations at Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV) in Sao Paulo. There, with several colleagues, he launched a new School of International Relations. He is also a non-resident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington DC, a non-resident Fellow at the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi) in Berlin, and a columnist for Estado de São Paulo and Americas Quarterly.

Oliver has written extensively on the politics of the rising powers, including The BRICS and the Future of the Global Order and his most recent book from Polity, Post-Western World: How Emerging Powers are Remaking the Global Order. He is a frequent commentator on Brazilian politics as well the Hemisphere. He contributes extensively to journals and the media in Brazil and across the region.

Oliver provides real insights into Brazil’s immediate politics and the consequences for Brazil of Lula’s win and Bolsonaro’s loss.

Please join Oliver in this effort to really ‘dive deep’ into Brazil and its politics.

I was pleased to invite Jessica Chen Weiss into the Virtual Studio to discuss the outcomes of the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) held from October 16 to October 22, 2022. I was interested in exploring with her the consequences of the 20th on Chinese foreign policy and in particular on the US-China relationship.

Jessica Chen Weiss is the Michael J. Zak Professor for China and Asia-Pacific Studies and an Associate Professor of Government at Cornell University, a political science editor at the Washington Post Monkey Cage blog, and a non-resident Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Jessica is the author of Powerful Patriots: Nationalist Protest in China’s Foreign Relations (Oxford University Press, 2014).She has written recent important articles in The New York Times and Foreign Affairs on the rising US-China competition.

So come join us for this important podcast.

I was pleased to invite into the Virtual Studio former Chilean Ambassador Jorge Heine to discuss, first, the state of politics in Chile following the September 4th rejection of the proposed constitution and then to assess the impact on this rejection on the current government of Gabriel Boric of the Left in Chile. Finally, I wanted to assess the state of politics currently in Latin America.

Jorge is currently a research professor at Boston University Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies and a non-resident Wilson Center Global Fellow at The Wilson Center in Washington D.C., Jorge Heine is a lawyer, IR scholar and diplomat with a special interest in the international politics of the Global South

Jorge has served as ambassador of Chile to China (2014-2017), to India (2003-2007) and to South Africa (1994-1999), and as a cabinet minister in a past Chilean Government. Jorge was CIGI Professor of Global Governance at the Balsillie School of International Affairs, Wilfrid Laurier University, from 2007 to 2017, and a Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI).

He has published some seventeen books, including most recently Latin American Politics in the New World Order: The Active Non-Alignment Option (Anthem, forthcoming), the 21st Century Democracy Promotion in the Americas (with B. Weiffen, Routledge, 2015); the Oxford Handbook of Modern Diplomacy (with A. Cooper and R.Thakur, Oxford University Press, 2013,2015); and The Dark Side of Globalization (with R.Thakur, UN University Press, 2011), and some 100 journal articles and book chapters.

So, come join Jorge Heine and I in the Virtual Studio as we explore the current state of politics in Chile and the wider Latin American scene.

I am pleased to invite Zachary Paikin into the Virtual Studio to discuss the state of EU foreign policy. While the major countries in Europe – France, Germany and Italy maintain national foreign policies, the EU has continued to strive to promote an EU foreign policy under the leadership of the current High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security, Josep Borrel. This is perceived to be particularly significant in the light of Russia’s war against Ukraine and the rising tensions between the US and China.

Zach Paikin today is a Researcher in the EU Foreign Policy unit at CEPS (Centre for European Policy Studies). He is also a Nonresident Research Fellow with the Institute for Peace & Diplomacy in Toronto and a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Global Policy Institute in London. Zach is also an affiliated expert with the Minsk Dialogue Council on International Relations.

Zach has a number of publications with CEPS, including with colleagues: ‘The EU’s Strategic Compass: A guide to reverse strategic shrinkage?’

So come join Zach Paikin and I as we examine EU foreign policy.

I was pleased to invite Elizabeth into the Virtual Studio to discuss the state of South Africa both its foreign policy in the midst of the Russian War against Ukraine, its participation in the BRICS and the state of its politics under the continuing governance by the ANC.

Elizabeth Sidiropoulos is the chief executive of the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA), which she has led since 2005. She has over two decades of involvement in politics and international relations in South Africa, and her expertise lies in South Africa’s foreign policy, South-South Cooperation and the role of emerging powers in Africa. Elizabeth is also the editor-in-chief of the South African Journal of International Affairs.

Elizabeth has published on various aspects of South Africa’s foreign policy. She has co-edited a volume on: Values, Interests and Power: South African Foreign Policy in Uncertain Times (2020), and she has also recently completed a collaboration with scholars across five continents on the Handbook on Development Cooperation for Achieving the 2030 Agenda, published by Palgrave in 2021.

So join me in the Virtual Studio to discuss the state of South African politics and policy with Elizabeth Sidiropoulos.

It was great to invite Peter Draper back into the Virtual Studio to discuss the state of the WTO following conclusion of the WTO 12th Ministerial that took place in June finally after several lengthy delays. It was an opportunity to examine whether the WTO Ministerial had been able to make progress in resolving the many issues challenging this multilateral institution and to assess the leadership of the current Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. Finally, I wanted to get Peter’s view on how much growing geopolitical tensions, especially between US and China are hindering reform progress at the WTO.

Peter Draper is currently the Jean Monnet Chair in Trade and the Environment and the Executive Director of the Institute for International Trade, University of Adelaide, Australia. Peter is also the Deputy Dean International: Faculty of Arts, Business, Law, and Economics. Peter is also non-resident senior fellow of the Brussels-based European Centre for International Political Economy and an Associate Researcher at the German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS) formerly the German Development Institute.

So, it is my pleasure to sit down with my colleague, again, Yves Tiberghien. I wanted bring Yves into the Virtual Studio to talk about the recently assassinated Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe. What was Abe’s impact on Japan and Japanese foreign policy of this long serving Japanese Prime Minister.

Yves is the Director Emeritus of the Institute of Asian Research at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and is currently a Professor of Political Science. The Director of the Centre for Japanese Research and the current holder of the Konwakai Chair in Japanese Research at the University of British Columbia. He is also a Distinguished Fellow at the Asia-Pacific Foundation of Canada and the Canadian PAFTAD Chair. His most recent publication is The East Asian Covid-19 Paradox, published in 2022 with Cambridge Elements.

So come join Yves and I as we explore the impact of Shinzo Abe.

We were glad to welcome back Matthew Goodman from CSIS in Washington to the Virtual Studio. As you can see from his short bio below, Matt has had both public and private sector roles and has been directly involved with the G7/8 and G20 in past U.S. administrations.

it was great to catch up with him to focus our attention on the Indo-Pacific and Biden Administration policy in the region as well as the recently concluded German G7 Summit. We also wanted to explore with Matt the growing difficult relationship between the two leading states of the region, the U.S. and China, and how the relationship has shaped Biden foreign policy.

Matthew is senior vice president, senior adviser for Asian economics, and holds the Simon Chair in Political Economy at CSIS. Matthew has served in both the private sector at Goldman Sachs and Albright Stonebridge Group and has also held several significant roles in the public sector including early in his career as an international economist at the U.S. Treasury Department and at the Tokyo Embassy. Subsequently, he was director of international economics on the National Security Council staff responsible for the G20 and, the then G8, and then former White House Coordinator for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and the East Asia Summit (EAS).

We are entering a very busy ‘Summit Season’ and I thought I would kick off this Summit Season with a conversation with Paola Subacchi. I wanted to review with her the consequences of the just completed G7 Summit hosted by Germany at Schloss Elmau, the NATO Summit in Spain, and also look forward to the November G20 Leaders’ Summit hosted by Indonesia.

Paola is a Professor of International Economics and Chair Advisory Board at the Global Policy Institute at Queen Mary, University of London, and Adjunct Professor at the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the University of Bologna. Previously, she was Director of International Economics Research at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) for over ten years. She is the founder and director of Essential Economics, an independent economic research service. She writes widely about global financial issues and her most recent book from Yale University Press is The Cost of Free Money (2020).

Paola has long been an acute observer of these global summits and their consequences for global governance and global order. Let’s join Paola in the virtual studio to discuss these recent or pending Summits.