Talking Policy

Though COVID-19 failed to feature prominently (or at all) in the U.S. midterms, the aftershocks of the pandemic are still influencing politics in the U.S. and beyond. To help us consider the impact of public health emergencies on democracy, in this Talking Policy episode, host Lindsay Morgan talks with George Rutherford, an infectious disease specialist and professor of epidemiology at UC San Francisco, and Kim Yi Dionne, a political scientist at UC Riverside who studies health, politics, and public opinion. This interview was recorded on Nov. 3, 2022. 

In the latest Talking Policy episode, Sarah Z. Daly, an associate professor of political science at Columbia University, talks about her book Violent Victors: Why Bloodstained Parties Win Postwar Elections. This interview was recorded on October 27, 2022.

In our second dispatch from Taipei, Taiwan expert James Lee talks about his recent article in Global Asia, “The Fourth Taiwan Strait Crisis is Here,” why a Chinese invasion is unlikely, and what a Republican sweep in the U.S. midterms would mean for U.S.-China-Taiwan relations. This interview was recorded on November 2, 2022. 

America’s immigration system is “on the ballot” this November. Those were the words of Florida governor Ron De Santis, who, along with other Republicans, has been using immigration as a weapon against Democrats this election season. In the latest episode in Talking Policy’s series on the Future of Democracy, host Lindsay Morgan talks with by Maggie Peters, a political scientist at UCLA, about what shapes what voters think about immigration; the effects immigrants have on the communities where they settle; and how are the politics of migration changing in the U.S. and overseas. This interview was recorded on October 20, 2022.

Democracy depends on the participation of its citizens. But many people don’t participate in their democracies. What drives, and what discourages, political participation, here in the United States and around the world? In the latest from Talking Policy, host Lindsay Morgan interviews Cesi Cruz, a political scientist at UCLA who studies how information and social networks affect political participation, and Christopher Ojeda, a political scientist at UC Merced who studies how mental health and poverty shape the political engagement of citizens. This interview was recorded on September 21, 2022. 

In Talking Policy’s Dispatches from Taiwan series, host Lindsay Morgan talks with Taiwan expert James Lee about what the mood is like in Taipei amidst rising tensions with China; whether a war is likely; and what might be Xi Jinping’s endgame. James is based at the Institute of European and American Studies at Academia Sinica in Taipei, and is a research affiliate with the UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (a Talking Policy sponsor).

Today’s increasingly potent rivalry between the U.S. and China spans many domains, but is particularly acute in the techno-security sphere. Will China overtake the U.S. and become the dominant global techno-security power? If so, when? In this interview, Talking Policy host Lindsay Morgan talks with leading China expert, Tai Ming Cheung, about China’s progress in the techno-security space, how Beijing’s moves are driving changes in the defense posture of the U.S., and what might happen if China succeeds in overtaking the U.S. Cheung, a long-time analyst of Chinese and East Asian defense and national security affairs and author of Innovate to Dominate, The Rise of the Chinese Techno-Security State, is the director of the UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation and a professor at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at UC San Diego.

China is the world's second largest economy and has become a technological powerhouse. But this year, the economy of China's main rival, the U.S., is forecast to grow at a faster rate than China's for the first time since 1976. Is China's economy at a crossroad? In this interview, Barry Naughton, one of the world's most highly respected economists working on China, says that increased government intervention is bad for China’s long-term interests and for the world, and answers questions about what role the private sector will play in China’s economy going forward, whether China is looking for a new economic model (and if so, what is it?), and whether talk of decoupling from the United States a real possibility or just bluster.

Barry Naughton co-leads IGCC research on China's science, technology, innovation, and industrial policy and is an economist at UC San Diego's School of Global Policy and Strategy.

Innovations like artificial intelligence, autonomous weapons, cyber technologies, and even new capabilities in space have the potential to change the way countries fight during war time, and how they compete during peace time. But having new technologies available is one thing. Effectively using them is another. In this interview, IGCC fellow Shira Eini Pindyck explains why militaries that are gender inclusive are better at adopting and using innovations.

In this episode of Talking Policy, IGCC Postdoctoral Research Associate and Taiwan expert James Lee is interviewed by guest host and IGCC affiliate Patrick Hulme about whether Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will embolden China in Taiwan—or not.