The Global Agora

What does Afghanistan withdrawal means for international politics? Is America still a superpower? And what is and could be the role of Europe in all of this? ,,There is no military power that can stand up to United States in a head to head competition. Having said that, if we measure power by your ability to get what you want, the United States is weaker because it doesn't know what it wants." This is a observation from Erik Jones, the new Director of the Robert Schuman Centre at the European University Institute. How relevant is these day his book Weary Policeman: American Power in an Age of Austerity that he coauthored in 2012? Listen to our conversation.

,,I think we, no matter what, need to be doing everything practically at our power to get people out of Afghanistan that want to leave the country". This is how Melissa Siegel, Professor of Migration Studies at Maastricht University and the United Nations University-MERIT, sees the current situation in Afghanistan. We also discussed what kind of coordinated approach the European Union and its partners should take to help the Afghans and how not to talk about migration. Did the West give millions of Afghans hope and now everything is probably lost? Our interview took place before the attack outside Kabul's airport on August 26th that killed at least 169 Afghans and at least 13 US service members. Listen to our conversation.

The interview took place during the 8th EMN Training Seminar on Migration organized by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Slovakia that is the coordinator of the National Contact Point of the European Migration Network (EMN) in the Slovak Republic. The event was financed by the European Union.

Ukraine celebrates the 30 anniversary of its independence that was established on August 24, 1991. The country's sovereignty might be limited by the annexation of Crimea and  by the war Russia started in 2014. But the fact that Ukraine was able to keep its independence is not a small thing. This is according to Susan Stewart, Senior Fellow at Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP) - The German Institute for International and Security Affairs. How does she compare Ukraine of 1991 to Ukraine of 2021? What does she think about The Crimean Platform, about a new Kyiv's diplomatic initiative? And what can Ukraine's government do in regards to the situation in Donbas? Listen to our conversation.

Russia has recently published a new National Security Strategy. What does it mean for the Russian Armed Forces? How were they changed by recent wars, reforms and modernization programs? How bad or good is the West in reading Russia's military intentions? I talked to Johan Norberg, Senior Military Analyst from the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI). What does he think about the risk of the West-Russia war? Listen to our conversation.

Will Tehran return to nuclear talks? What to expect from a new Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi? How differently will US President Joe Biden deal with Iran compared to President Donald Trump but also to President Barack Obama? And how to react to Iranian provocations and attacks? I talked to Barbara Slavin, director of the Future of Iran Initiative, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and a lecturer in international affairs at George Washington University. What does she call Raisi? Do you wanna know? Listen to our conversation.

In July, The Foreign Affairs Council adopted a decision setting up an EU military training mission in Mozambique (EUTM Mozambique). The aim of the mission is to train and support the Mozambican armed forces in protecting the civilian population and restoring safety and security in the Cabo Delgado province. The mandate of the mission will initially last two years. During this period, its strategic objective will be to support the capacity building of the units of the Mozambican armed forces that will be part of a future Quick Reaction Force. How much is the conflict in Cabo Delgado becoming international? The Rwandan troops are already there, South Africa is sending 1 500 soldiers and Americans are training Mozambican marines. Since 2017, a jihadist insurgency in Cabo Delgado has killed more than 3 000 people and displaced more than 800 000. But a deployment of foreign troops is not without risks. What can go wrong? I talked to Emilia Columbo. She is a a senior associate to the The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Africa Program, and a senior security risk analyst at VoxCroft. Previously, she served as a senior analyst at the CIA, covering African and Latin American political-security issues. Listen to our conversation.

Japanese athletes are winning more medals and the country is getting more COVID-19 infected people. This is a current reality of the Tokyo Olympics. What is the media image of the Games in Japan? What do people think about the situation and will it affect the politics in the country as the parliamentary elections will take place in October? Political scientist Yuki Shiraito thinks that at this moment people do not have a clear opinion about the Games. Our conversation took place on Monday afternoon Japanese time so he was also able to update me in a real time about the successes of Japanese athletes but also about the increased number of the COVID-19 cases. Dr. Shiraito is Assistant Professor of Political Science, Faculty Associate of the Center for Political Studies, and Faculty Member of the Center for Japanese Studies at the University of Michigan. Listen to our conversation.

The Forbidden Stories consortium and Amnesty International had access to records of phone numbers selected by Israeli NSO Group clients in more than 50 countries since 2016. An unprecedented leak of more than 50,000 phone numbers shows how NSO's technology, commonly known as the Pegasus spyware, has been systematically abused for years. As The Forbidden Stories and Amnesty emphasize, potential targets include human rights defenders, academics, businesspeople, lawyers, doctors, union leaders, diplomats, politicians and several heads of states. Among them was also a Hungarian investigative journalist Szabolcs Panyi. His outlet Direkt36 belongs to The Pegasus Project media partners. How did he find out that he was under surveillance? Did he change his life? Why is he not surprised that Viktor Orbán's government was using the Pegasus spyware? And what does he think about the responsibility of the Israeli government? Listen to our conversation.

It's the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attack by Norwegian far-right extremist Anders Breivik. On July 22, 2011 he detonated a car bomb outside the prime minister's office in Oslo. The explosion killed eight people. Brevik than drove to Utøya island where he shoot 69 people who gathered at a Labour Party youth camp. His victims were mostly kids. Breivik ended up behind bars, perhaps indefinitely. But what does he mean for the violent far right scene? How has this scene evolved? And can we expect another attack, similar to Breviks's? I talked to Professor Matthew Feldman, Director of the Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right. Listen to our conversation.

The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) just came out with a report Cyber Capabilities and National Power: A Net Assessment. The countries covered in this report are the US, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, France, Israel, China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam. The IISS has divided the 15 states into three tiers of cyber power. But taking into account the methodology of the report, only in the US merits inclusion into the first tier. But how does America behave in cyberspace? Does it prefer cooperation with allies or perhaps not that much? And what about China and Russia? I had a chance to talk about the report and related topics with Greg Austin who leads the Cyber, Space and Future Conflict Programme at the IISS. Do you want to know what his biggest concern is regarding what the big powers are doing in cyberspace? Listen to our conversation.