Talking Policy

How is the war in Ukraine impacting African countries? In the latest Talking Policy episode, Lindsay Morgan talks with Prince Paa-Kwesi Heto, a doctoral candidate at UC Irvine and Ghanaian political economist, about food price increases, the risk of debt distress, and Western calls for African countries to “get off the fence” and condemn Russia.

In the latest in the Talking Policy series on Ukraine, Asli Bali, a professor at the UCLA School of Law and expert in human rights law and comparative constitutional law, talks about the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Ukraine and beyond, what obligations the international community has to protect civilians, and why ending the war should be the most important priority. A graduate of Williams College and the University of Cambridge, Yale Law School and Princeton University, Bali previously worked for the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and currently serves as co-chair of the advisory board for the Middle East Division of Human Rights Watch. This interview was recorded on April 18, 2022.

In the latest in the Talking Policy series on Ukraine, Susan Hyde, a Professor of political science at UC Berkeley and IGCC researcher on the Future of Democracy initiative, talks about the relationship between the war in Ukraine and the global war for supremacy between democracy and autocracy. This interview was recorded on April 14, 2022.

In this interview, IGCC affiliate Patrick Hulme interviews Branislav Slantchev, a professor of political science at UC San Diego who studies military coercion, intrawar negotiations, the conduct of war, and how wars end. A native of Bulgaria, who previously lived in Ukraine, Slantchev offers candid thoughts on the limits of analysts’ predictions about war, the true cause of Putin’s aggression, and the futility of red lines. This interview was recorded on March 23, 2022.

In the latest from Talking Policy’s series on Ukraine, Lindsay Morgan talks with Jana Grittersova, an Associate Professor of political science and cooperating faculty in the Economics Department at UC Riverside, and Vinnie Aggarwal, Distinguished Professor and Alann P. Bedford Chair in Asian studies at UC Berkeley, about the economic implications of the war in Ukraine. Grittersova is a former central banker at the National Bank of Slovakia and worked as an economist at the European Commission in Brussels. Aggarwal specializes in the intersection between business and politics and the role of international economic and trade organizations.

In the latest from Talking Policy’s series on Ukraine, James Lee, an IGCC postdoctoral fellow and Taiwan expert, talks with IGCC director and UC San Diego professor Tai Ming Cheung about how Russia’s invasion of and campaign in Ukraine may impact Chinese military strategy; the implications of the war for Chinese-Russian relations; and how he thinks the academic and policy worlds need to shift amidst the latest global upheaval.

In the latest from Talking Policy’s series on Ukraine, we talk with UC San Diego professor of political science, Christina Schneider, who co-leads IGCC’s Future of Democracy initiative, about the already-significant implications of the invasion of Ukraine on European economic, military, and humanitarian policies. This interview was conducted on March 10, 2022.

In the latest from Talking Policy’s series on Ukraine, Michael Nacht, who holds the Thomas and Allison Schneider chair in public policy at UC Berkeley and is a specialist in US national security policy, nuclear weapons, and regional security issues affecting Russia and China, shares candid thoughts on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Putin's strategy, and the risk of nuclear confrontation.

The war in Ukraine is challenging assumptions about the world among policymakers and ordinary citizens alike. To help listeners understand what is happening, what it means, and what might happen next, a new Talking Policy series will bring together experts from across the University of California to answer questions about the political, economic, security, and humanitarian implications of the Ukraine invasion. In this episode, IGCC’s Lindsay Morgan interviews Vice Admiral Charlie Martoglio about events unfolding in Ukraine and how they relate to growing great power rivalry between democracies and authoritarian regimes.

Concern is growing that disinformation, spreading at an unprecedented speed and scale, is causing grave damage in the U.S. and globally to everything from elections to vaccine uptake. But could the headlines be wrong? Do as many people believe in conspiracies as is generally assumed? In the latest Talking Policy episode, we talk with political scientists Molly Roberts and Seth Hill about why belief in conspiracy may be overblown.