New Frontiers

Slavery lasted for centuries in China, and yet its particulars are not well known. In this episode of New Frontiers, historian Don Wyatt takes us back to help us understand how the institution thrived during imperial times and the roles it played in Chinese culture.   

Despite its long pedigree, Chinese slavery during medieval times has failed to attract wide scholarly attention. Hence, questions about it abound. What was slavery like in medieval China? How was it similar to—or different from—the institution of slavery found in other societies and at other times? Who were the enslaved in the Chinese context, why were they enslaved, and what function did slavery serve in Chinese society? In this episode of New Frontiers, historian Don Wyatt sits down with Mark Williams to discuss these and other issues.   

SHOW NOTES:
 For more information: Cambridge Element Slavery in East Asia
 
Music Credits

• Forte by Kestra - Summer with Sound Album
• Soul Zone by Kestra - Light Rising Album

Produced by Margaret DeFoor and Mark Williams.

After six decades of multiparty politics, Turkish democracy has collapsed. Yes, the trappings of democracy are still visible. Elections are held, parliament sits in session, the courts rule, and the elected executive leads. Yet, the substance of democracy moves ever further into the past. How did this happen? Why? And what implications does the unraveling of democracy in Turkey hold for political systems in other countries? In this episode, Mark Williams explores these topics with political scientist Sebnem Gumuscu, whose recent scholarship highlights the reality of democratic backsliding.    

Sebnem Gumuscu is an associate professor of political science and a faculty fellow at the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs here at Middlebury College. In her capacity as a faculty fellow, Professor Gumuscu co-directs the Rohatyn Center’s program on Global Trends in Autocracy and Democracy which is supported by the Cangiano Family, in memory of Leon M.  Cangiano Jr. Class of 1963. Much of her research has focused on political Islam, middle Eastern and north African politics, democratization, and democratic backsliding. Her first book, Democracy, Identity and Foreign Policy in Turkey, was published in 2014. Her second book, which is forthcoming from Cambridge University Press is titled Democracy or Authoritarianism: Islamist Governments in Turkey, Egypt, and Tunisia. Her recent article which appeared in the journal Party Politics—“Why Did Turkish Democracy Collapse? A Political Economy Account of AKP’s Authoritarianism”— was co-authored with Berk Esen.

SHOW NOTES:
Presented by the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs at Middlebury College.

Music Credits

• Forte by Ketsa - Summer with Sound Album
• Soul Zone by Ketsa - Light Rising Album

Produced by Margaret A. DeFoor and Mark Williams.

According to the US Space Force, only 2,000 of the 22,000 objects that have been tracked circling the Earth are fully operational, functioning satellites. Put differently, roughly 90 percent of the objects that can be tracked circling the globe is junk—space junk, or cosmic garbage. How did it get there, why does it keep accumulating, and how best might we address this global problem are all topics that Akhil Rao, Assistant Professor of Economics at Middlebury College, writes about in a co-authored article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In this episode of New Frontiers, Professor Rao speaks with Mark Williams about these issues and explains why adopting “orbital use fees” could be the best way to address the problem of cosmic garbage.

Show Notes:
Presented by the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs at Middlebury College.

Music Credits

• Forte by Ketsa - Summer with Sound Album
• Soul Zone by Ketsa - Light Rising Album

Produced by Margaret A. DeFoor and Mark Williams.

In this episode, Mark Williams talks with Will Pyle, the Frederick C. Dirks Professor of International Economics at Middlebury College, about recent findings he published in the journal Post-Soviet Affairs. Their discussion explores why Russians of a certain cohort—although liberated from the economic and political constraints of Soviet Communism—are not the strong enthusiasts of democracy and capitalism which many westerners believed they would become after the USSR collapsed.   

Show Notes:
Presented by the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs at Middlebury College.

Music Credits

• Forte by Ketsa - Summer with Sound Album
• Soul Zone by Ketsa - Light Rising Album

Produced by Margaret A. DeFoor and Mark Williams.

“Asia First was an insistence that Pacific affairs receive as much, if not more attention than European Atlantic relations in the cold war. Its proponents, its supporters, many of whom were very powerful, conservative voices in the Senate and in Congress felt like U.S. foreign policy after World War II was neglecting mainland Asia and therefore imperiling the whole cold war.”  — Joyce Mao

In this episode (2), Mark Williams, director of the Rohatyn Center, talks with Joyce Mao, Middlebury College associate professor of history, about the Asia First initiative and, in particular, the effects that US-China-Taiwan relations had on American domestic politics.  Why were American conservatives so interested in Asia after WWII and in China particularly? In what ways, if any, did conservative concerns over China influence US foreign policy, and how did conservatives’ interest in China help shape the development of the political right in the United States? These are some of the issues examined in this New Frontiers episode "China and the American Right."

Joyce Mao’s book, Asia First: China and the Making of Modern American Conservatism, was published in 2015 by the University of Chicago Press.

Show Notes:
Presented by the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs at Middlebury College.

Music Credits

• Forte by Ketsa - Summer with Sound Album
• Soul Zone by Ketsa - Light Rising Album

Produced by Margaret A. DeFoor and Mark Williams.

In this episode, Molly Anderson, William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Food Studies at Middlebury College, joins Mark Williams, director of the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs, to discuss her recent article titled “UN Food Systems Summit 2021: Dismantling Democracy and Resetting Corporate Control of Food Systems”. At issue is whether multinational corporations (MNC's) should have more influence and say in controlling/governing food systems than does civil society and its constituent parts most plagued by problems of food insecurity. Anderson believes MNC's should not enjoy such a privileged position over so vital a basic necessity, and offers a forceful critique of 2021 United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS), which in her view helped ensure such corporate control.

SHOW NOTES

Presented by the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs at Middlebury College.

Music Credits

• Forte by Ketsa - Summer with Sound Album
• Soul Zone by Ketsa - Light Rising Album

Produced by Margaret A. DeFoor and Mark Williams.