Independent Thinking

Roxanne Escobales speaks with experts from our US and Americas programme, Dr Christopher Sabatini and Vanessa Rubio-Márquez, about Argentina's on-going election.

Joining them from Buenos Aires are journalist Natalia Gherardi who is covering Argentina's election up-close.

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If Milei meets Massa in a second round, all bets are off for Argentina's election

Latin America's anti-femicide crusades need help

Mexico: The election race to succeed AMLO has started

Presented by Roxanne Escobales. Produced by John Pollock. Sound by Matthew Docherty.

Bronwen Maddox speaks with New York Times journalist Steven Erlanger about President Biden's trip to Israel and the prospects of an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza.

Joining them are Sam Rose from UNRWA and Dr Elham Fakhro from our Middle East and North Africa programme.

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President Biden's Middle East visit reveals the challenges for US diplomacy

Israel has the capacity to significantly damage Hamas with a ground offensive

MENA countries should lead the way de-escalating the Israel–Hamas war

Presented by Bronwen Maddox. Produced by John Pollock. Sound by Matthew Docherty.

Bronwen Maddox speaks with Reuters journalist Steve Farrell about the attacks by Hamas on Israel and the Israeli military response now underway in Gaza.

Joining them also are Professor Yossi Mekelberg and Dr Elham Fakhor from our Middle East and North Africa programme.

Don't miss our expertise:

Why has Hamas taken hostages?

MENA countries should lead the way de-escalating the Israel–Hamas war

The Israel–Hamas war and its fallout

Presented by Bronwen Maddox. Produced by John Pollock. Sound by Matthew Docherty.

Bronwen Maddox speaks with Rory Stewart about the state of British politics in a world of populist leaders. Journalist Robert Peston meanwhile joins us from the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester.

Later in the show, Roxanne Escobales and Olivia O'Sullivan discuss whether Rory Stewart is right about the state of Britain, and whether his time in government was a success or failure.

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In conversation with The Rt Hon Rory Stewart

President Biden should not rush a deal on Israel–Saudi normalization

The future of the Republican Party

Presented by Bronwen Maddox. Produced by John Pollock. Sound by Matthew Docherty.

Bronwen Maddox speaks with Ambassador Roya Rahmani, Shaharzad Akbar and Tobias Ellwood MP about the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, and whether the West should engage with the Taliban.

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Seizing MENA's moment

Presented by Bronwen Maddox. Produced by John Pollock. Sound by Alex Moyler.

World leaders met in New York this week for the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). All the P5 leaders bar America's Joe Biden stayed away however. Is the UN losing its relevance in international affairs?

Joining Bronwen Maddox on the show this week are Mark Malloch-Brown, former Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Roger Boyes, Diplomatic Editor for The Times, and Leslie Vinjamuri, the Director of the US and Americas programme.

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Rishi Sunak's speech will make the UK harder to take seriously at COP28

If the SDGs are to survive, multilateral development banks must embrace reform

Western policy towards Iran lacks both goals and goalposts

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Presented by Bronwen Maddox. Produced by John Pollock. Sound by Alex Moyler.

G20 leaders met in New Delhi this week to discuss economic cooperation. Underlying the summit however were wider international tensions and a sense of India on the rise.

Joining Bronwen Maddox on the show this week are Samir Puri, a visiting lecturer in War Studies at King's College London, Chietigj Bajpaee, the new South Asia fellow at Chatham House, and Leslie Vinjamuri, the director of the US and Americas programme.

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US–India ties deepened at the G20. But domestic politics could pull the countries in different directions

The G20 lives on, but mistrust between the West and China hampers progress

The G20 showcases India's growing power. It could also expose the limits of its foreign policy

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Presented by Bronwen Maddox. Produced by John Pollock. Sound by Alex Moyler.

September 16 marks the one-year anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old woman killed in police custody. Since her death Iran has been rocked by a year of protests in which over 500 people, many of them women, have been killed.

Joining Bronwen Maddox in the studio this week are former BBC journalist Rana Rahimpour, Dr Sanam Vakil, the Director of our Middle East and North Africa programme and journalist Michael Goldfarb.

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Making climate an election issue risks undermining the UK's international role

The G20 showcases India's growing power

Whether 1.5°C is 'alive' or 'dead', a new climate plan will be required

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Presented by Bronwen Maddox. Produced by John Pollock. Sound by Alex Moyler.

Independent Thinking is back after a short summer break for the start of Season 2 of the podcast. This week, for our first episode, we're returning to the much-discussed topic of Ukraine's counter-offensive.

Since June, the Ukrainian armed forces have been fighting hard to breach the defensive lines established by the Russian army in the east and south, the so-called 'Surovkin Line'. Joining Bronwen Maddox on the show this week are Christopher Miller, the Ukraine correspondent for the FT and the author of the book 'The War Came to Us: Life and Death in Ukraine' and Ulrike Franke, a Senior Fellow with the European Council on Foreign Relations. Joining them in the studio here in London are James Nixey and Orysia Lutsevych, the director and deputy director respectively of our Russia and Eurasia programme.

Read our expertise:

US allies need to wake up to the Trump question

Pushing Ukraine to negotiate now would be disastrous

How to end Russia's war on Ukraine

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Presented by Bronwen Maddox. Produced by John Pollock. Sound by Alex Moyler and Abdul Boudaif.

In the final episode of our first season, we return to the topic we started Season 1 of the podcast with: China and how Beijing sees the world post-February 2022. Since the start of the invasion of Ukraine, Western capitals, especially Washington and London, have been watching ties between Russia and China closely, attempting to decipher any signs of disagreement or even disapproval between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. 

We discuss how China views the invasion of Ukraine, the ties between China and Russia and above all how both countries view the EU, NATO, and the transatlantic alliance. 

Joining Bronwen Maddox on the show this week is Yu Jie, a Senior Research Fellow with our Asia-Pacific programme; Samuel Ramani, a tutor of international relations at the University of Oxford and author of the book Putin's War on Ukraine and Marcin Kaczmarski, a Lecturer in Security Studies at the University of Glasgow.

Read our expertise:

China's new scientists

How to end Russia's war on Ukraine

Ukraine is disappointed after the NATO summit – but not discouraged

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Presented by Bronwen Maddox. Produced by John Pollock. Sound by Matthew Docherty and Abdul Boudaif.