The Brookings Cafeteria

A discussion about a new volume from the Brookings Institution Press on the increasing role of offensive cyber operations in U.S. national security. Herbert Lin and Amy Zegart are co-editors of "Bytes, Bombs, and Spies: The Strategic Dimensions of Offensive Cyber Operations." Lin and Zegart are scholars at the Hoover Institution and co-directors of the Stanford Cyber Policy Program. Bill Finan, director of the Brookings Press, conducts the interview. Also, Brookings Senior Fellow Molly Reynolds examines congressional oversight of the Trump administration, from subpoenas to impeachment Subscribe to Brookings podcasts here or on iTunes, send feedback email to [email protected], and follow us and tweet us at @policypodcasts on Twitter. The Brookings Cafeteria is part of the Brookings Podcast Network.

Tamara Cofman Wittes, senior fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings, interviews Khaled Elgindy, author of the new book from the Brookings Institution Press, "Blind Spot: America and the Palestinians, from Balfour to Trump." Elgindy is a nonresident fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy and previously served as an advisor to the Palestinian Leadership in Ramallah on permanent status negotiations with Israel from 2004 to 2009, and was a key participant in the Annapolis negotiations throughout 2008. Also, Wessel's Economic Update in which Senior Fellow David Wessel offers three reasons why we don't necessarily have to address the rising U.S. budget deficit through increased taxes and cutting spending right now. Subscribe to Brookings podcasts here or on iTunes, send feedback email to [email protected], and follow us and tweet us at @policypodcasts on Twitter. The Brookings Cafeteria is part of the Brookings Podcast Network.

India has started its multi-phase, weeks long general elections that will determine the composition of the Lok Sabha, India's lower house of parliament, and also the next prime minister. Results will be announced May 23. To make sense of the world's largest exercise of democracy, today's episode features a discussion led by Brookings Fellow Tanvi Madan, director of the India Project, with three scholars, one each from the American Enterprise Institute, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Brookings India. The participants in the conversation are: Sadanand Dhume, resident fellow, American Enterprise Institute Milan Vaishnav, director and senior fellow, South Asia Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Dhruva Jaishankar, fellow, Brookings India Subscribe to Brookings podcasts here or on iTunes, send feedback email to [email protected], and follow us and tweet us at @policypodcasts on Twitter. The Brookings Cafeteria is part of the Brookings Podcast Network.

A conversation about what happened in Israel's election, between Natan Sachs--director of the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution--and Ilana Dayan, an investigative journalist with the Program "Uvda" on Israel's Channel 12. Subscribe to Brookings podcasts here or on iTunes, send feedback email to [email protected], and follow us and tweet us at @policypodcasts on Twitter. The Brookings Cafeteria is part of the Brookings Podcast Network.

Under current policies the federal debt will rise from 78% to almost 180% of U.S. GDP in three decades. In his new book, "Fiscal Therapy: Curing America's Debt Addiction and Investing in the Future," Brookings Senior Fellow William Gale explores policies to raise revenue, control spending, and increase public investments, and solve our debt problem. In this episode, Senior Fellow David Wessel interviews Gale about his new book and policy ideas. Also, Christen Linke Young, a fellow with the USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy, answers a listener's question about why health care costs so much in the United States. Subscribe to Brookings podcasts here or on iTunes, send feedback email to [email protected], and follow us and tweet us at @policypodcasts on Twitter. The Brookings Cafeteria is part of the Brookings Podcast Network.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization turns 70 in April. To discuss challenges to and opportunities for the alliance as it enters its eighth decade, this episode features a discussion among a group of leading Brookings experts: John Allen, president of the Brookings Institution; Constanze Stelzenmüller, the Robert Bosch Senior Fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings; and Michael O'Hanlon, a senior fellow and director of research in the Foreign Policy Program at Brookings. Also in this episode, Samantha Gross, fellow in the Foreign Policy program's Energy Security and Climate Initiative, and Suzanne Maloney, deputy director of Foreign Policy and senior fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy, discuss top geopolitical issues, including Russia's role in Syria, the broader Middle East, and how Iran might use oil prices to respond to continued pressure from the Trump administration. Gross and Maloney had this conversation while they were at CERA Week in Houston, Texas. Subscribe to Brookings podcasts here or on iTunes, send feedback email to [email protected], and follow us and tweet us at @policypodcasts on Twitter. The Brookings Cafeteria is part of the Brookings Podcast Network.

The share of felony defendants in the criminal justice system who are required to post bail to avoid pre-trail detention is increasing, while the share released without bail is dropping. Simultaneously the amount of time from arrest to adjudication has also increased. These and related factors have significant negative economic impacts on the individuals involved, and are linked to increased recidivism. In this episode, Jay Shambaugh, the director of the Hamilton Project at Brookings and a senior fellow in Economic Studies, talks about new research on monetary sanctions in the criminal justice system. Also, John Ratliff, in a new Metro Lens, talks about how America's governors are pursuing digital innovation policies. Subscribe to Brookings podcasts here or on iTunes, send feedback email to [email protected], and follow us and tweet us at @policypodcasts on Twitter. The Brookings Cafeteria is part of the Brookings Podcast Network.

Since its independence from Britain in 1947, India has evolved into a strong electoral democracy—the largest in the world—and one that has proven resilient in the face of the populist tide pressuring many western democracies. India has also emerged as a powerful nation in the Indo-Pacific region, contributing to global democratic institutions and norms in ways not always noticed in the West. In this fourth and final episode of the Democracy and Disorder Project podcast series, host Torrey Taussig talks with Dhruva Jaishankar, a fellow in Foreign Policy at Brookings India in New Delhi, about India's evolving role in the liberal international order. Taussig is a nonresident fellow with the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings and a Robert Bosch Foundation Fellow based in Berlin. Subscribe to Brookings podcasts here or on iTunes, send feedback email to [email protected], and follow us and tweet us at @policypodcasts on Twitter. The Brookings Cafeteria is part of the Brookings Podcast Network.

Indonesia, a presidential democracy, is the largest Muslim-majority nation in the world and the fourth most populated on earth. It is also the largest nation in Southeast Asia—Indonesia's archipelago of over 18,000 islands stretches the distance from Seattle to Boston. In this episode, Senior Fellow Jonathan Stromseth interviews Tom Pepinsky, a professor at Cornell University and nonresident senior fellow at Brookings, about democracy in Indonesia. The two discuss the history of Indonesia's transition to democracy, the upcoming (in April) presidential election, the roles of Islam and the military, and relations between Indonesia and the United States. Subscribe to Brookings podcasts here or on iTunes, send feedback email to [email protected], and follow us and tweet us at @policypodcasts on Twitter. The Brookings Cafeteria is part of the Brookings Podcast Network.

The Arab Spring movements that started in 2010 and 2011 across North Africa and the Middle East sparked a new debate on the future of democracy in the region. Yet in the years since, the region has seen a return to civil war and proxy warfare, most violently in Syria. The Arab world is still searching for a new democratic narrative as it navigates economic downturns, crackdowns, and the occasional possible bright spots, including a nascent democracy in Tunisia. What will the be the next debate on democracy in the region? And what are opportunities for improving good governance? In this third episode of a four-part podcast series from the Democracy and Disorder Project at Brookings, host Torrey Taussig talks with Salam Fayyad—former prime minister of the Palestinian Authority (2007-13) and a distinguished fellow at Brookings—and Sharan Grewal, a post-doctoral fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings, about these and related issues. Subscribe to Brookings podcasts here or on iTunes, send feedback email to [email protected], and follow us and tweet us at @policypodcasts on Twitter. The Brookings Cafeteria is part of the Brookings Podcast Network.