The Agenda Podcast

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In 1944 delegates from 44 countries gathered in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire in the United States to agree on a system of economic order and global cooperation. Eighty years later, the seeds sown there for the likes of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank still dominate the world. 
 
But with the rise of countries like China and the rest of the global south, many think it's time for a substantial rethink of those Bretton Woods institutions, especially in the wake of the recent meetings of APEC, G20 and COP29.

In this special edition of The Agenda, Juliet Mann gets the opinions of Professor Marc Uzan, Executive Director and Founder of the Reinventing Bretton Woods Committee.

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As world leaders cross the planet to attend the APEC meeting in Peru, the G20 Summit in Rio and COP29 in Aerbaijan, the voice of the global south has never been more vital.  

At all of these gatherings, developing nations are fighting to get their voices heard, and pushing to create new forms of global governance that can change the way the world is run. We’ve heard a lot of talk in the past weeks, but what does the rise of the global south really look like in practice?

Joining Juliet Mann on this episode of The Agenda are Erik Solheim, Former Under-Secretary General of the UN and former head of the UN Environment Programme, Alicia García-Herrero - Senior fellow at Bruegel and Chief Economist for Asia Pacific at Natixis, and Yin Zhiguang, Professor of International Politics at Fudan University.

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The votes have been counted and Donald Trump has been returned to the White House for a second term. 

Voters in the US said the key issue for them was the economy – and whether they felt better off after four years of President Biden. But what does Trump’s re-election mean for the rest of the world? For relations with China, the EU and the rising global south? And for the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East?

Joining Juliet Mann on this edition of The Agenda to look at the US result from a more global perspective are Yawei Liu - Senior Advisor on China at The Carter Center and an adjunct Professor of political science at Emory University, Henrik Stålhane Hiim - Head of The Centre for International Security, and Michael O'Hanlon - Senior Fellow and Director of Research of the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution.

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World leaders, CEOs and Climate experts are now heading to Baku for the annual United Nations Climate Change conference  - COP29. 
 
Against a backdrop of increasingly depressing news that warming gases are still accumulating faster than at any time in human history, the plan in Azerbaijan is to consider what now needs to happen next, and who will foot the bill to save the planet. Many think the gap between the global north and south, particularly over climate financing, will be the dominant issue at this COP.

To look ahead to what exactly we might expect on this edition of The Agenda, Juliet Mann is joined by Nigar Arpadarai, UN Climate Change High-level Champion, Niklas Hagelberg, Global Coordinator for Climate Change at the UN Environmental Programme and Wu Changhua, Chair of the Governing Council of the Asia Pacific Water Forum.

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China's President Xi Jinping and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi wwere among the world leaders to join Vladimir Putin in Kazan recently for the 2024 BRICS summit. It's the first such gathering since the group added new members - Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. And, if this week's discussions are anything to go by, BRICS is only set to get bigger - with countries from across the global south pushing to join up.
 
 So what does all this really mean for the global balance of power?
 
Joining Juliet Mann on this edition of The Agenda are Arkebe Oqubay -  Former Senior Minister and Special Adviser to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, and now British Academy Global Professor at SOAS in London, Egypt's former Assistant Foreign Minister,  Hussein Haridy, Rashika Desai, Professor at the Department of Political Studies at the University of Manitoba and Director of the Geopolitical Economy Research Group and Michele Geraci - former undersecretary of state at the Italian Ministry of Economic development.

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Trade tensions between China and Europe have been in the spotlight this week as the Prime Ministers of both Spain and Norway headed to China. Both Spain’s Pedro Sanchez and Norway’s Jonas Gahr Støre held high level meetings, including with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang.

So what does this tell us about the relations between China and Europe, especially with regard to the possibility of a looming trade war over electric vehicles? 

In this episode of The Agenda, Juliet Mann speaks to Ana Palacio – Spain’s former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Manuel Torres, China Partner at Garrigues, Yan Shaohua - Associate Professor for European Studies, Fudan University and Jørgen Randers, Professor Emeritus of Climate Strategy at the BI Norwegian Business School to find out.

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Esports – or competitive gaming – is the latest member of the Olympic family. Following the first ever World Cup of esports – taking place right now in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, this time next year the inaugural Esports Olympics will take place in the same city.

Esports is already worth $2.4bn annually, and it’s predicted to grow by 20% a year. So what is behind that growth? How does it all work? And what do you need to do to become a world-class competitive gamer?

In this edition of The Agenda, Juliet Mann speaks to Ralf Reichert, Chief Executive of the Esports World Cup Foundation, Mario Ho, Co-founder and Co-CEO of NIP Group, the first Chinese Esports company to list on the NASDAQ stock exchange, and Jake Trotman, competitive gamer and Assistant Lecturer in Esports business at the University of Salford 

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Travel and tourism was of course one of the sectors devastated by Covid – with figures only now returning to pre-pandemic levels.
 
 But the return to normal has not been without its challenges, with protests across Europe as locals complain about overtourism placing an unnecessary burden on local services and pricing them out of their own homes. So has the way we travel going to change forever?

 To find out, on this edition of The Agenda, Juliet Mann speaks to Natalia Bayona, Executive Director of UN World Tourism, Pere Joan Femenia Spokesperson for the pressure group Menys Turisme, Mas Vida (Less Tourism, More Life), and Professor Harold Goodwin, Managing Director of the Responsible Tourism Partnership.

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For nearly two weeks, the UK witnessed the most violent social unrest in more than a decade. Triggered it seems by the far-right’s reaction to the murder of three young girls at a Taylor Swift dance class in the town of Southport, the violence  spread to almost thirty towns and cities, with shops looted, hundreds arrested and hotels housing immigrants and mosques attacked.

So what does this really say about the state of the UK, a matter of weeks into Keir Starmer’s premiership? And what really is the role of online disinformation, which many are blaming for the violence? 

In this edition of The Agenda, Juliet Mann speaks to Former Chief Superintendent of the Metropolitan Police, Dal Babu, Tim Bale, Professor of Politics at Queen Mary, University of London, and Roger Griffin, Emeritus Professor of Modern History at Oxford Brookes University to find out.

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The Farnborough International Air Show is one of the world’s largest. Hundreds of thousands of people descend for the week to examine the very latest technology the aviation industry has to offer.

But this year, things were a little different, with much of the talk focused on supply chain issues and the ongoing woes of industry titan Boeing – which made a big statement by deciding not to take part in any aerial displays at this years event.

To take the true temperature of the sector, on this edition of The Agenda Juliet Mann heads to Farnborough to talk to Matteo Peraldo, Aviation Expert at AlixPartners and Sebastian Borel, Chief Commercial Officer at Lilium, a company hoping to revolutionize short-haul travel with its all electric vertical take off and landing plane.