The Global Cable

The Global Cable is back for the new year with a conversation with Michael Weisberg. He is the Professor and Chair of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania, and this year he’s the inaugural Penn Faculty Fellow at Perry World House. Professor Weisberg is currently working on initiatives in the Galápagos Islands, educating local communities about their unique environment and how to conserve it.   He talks to us about taking part in the COP25 climate negotiations in Madrid; how a better understanding of science shapes public attitudes to major issues like climate change; why Charles Darwin inspires him; and whether we can still be optimistic about saving the world from the coming climate emergency.

Music & Produced by Tre Hester.

This week on The Global Cable, John Gans talks to Trudy Rubin, legendary foreign affairs columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer and one of our Visiting Fellows at Perry World House. She has spent her career reporting on the world's biggest stories, from the breakdown of the Soviet Union to the Iraq War.

Trudy shares her experiences with protestors on a recent reporting trip to Hong Kong; how the concept of truth is being corrupted; and what that means for democracy; and how she finds the facts in complex situations.

The Global Cable is taking a break over the holidays, and we'll see you next month!

Music & Produced by Tre Hester.

Sarah Bush, Perry World House Lightning Scholar and an Associate Professor of Political Science at Yale University, is this week's guest on The Global Cable. An expert on democracy promotion, Professor Bush studies how international actors work to support free and fair elections, and promote women's representation, in developing countries. She is currently working on a book exploring election interference.  Professor Bush talks to us about the threats facing even established democracies like the United States; whether protests can achieve regime change, and the upcoming centenary of women's suffrage in 2020. 

Music & Produced by Tre Hester. 

On this week’s episode of The Global Cable, we take a deep dive into cybersecurity with two experts in the field – Duncan Hollis, Professor of Law at Temple University and a Perry World House Visiting Fellow, and Heli Tiirmaa-Klaar, Estonia’s first ever Ambassador for Cybersecurity.

Professor Hollis’ scholarship engages with issues of international law and cybersecurity. Before joining Temple, he worked at the State Department, where he was the attorney-adviser for treaty affairs, working on the negotiation, conclusion, and implementation of U.S. treaties, and legal counsel for the Department’s Bureau of Oceans, International Environmental and Scientific Affairs.

Ambassador Tiirmaa-Klaar was named her country’s first ever Ambassador-at-Large for Cybersecurity in 2018. As the victim of one of the first major cyberattacks in 2007, Estonia has pioneered cybersecurity policy at the international level. Tiirmaa-Klaar was Estonia’s National Cyber Coordinator from 2007 to 2010, where she developed the world’s first whole-of-government cybersecurity. She later worked in cybersecurity strategy for NATO, and the European External Action Service.

On The Global Cable, they talk about how cybersecurity has changed in the last twenty years; why the Estonia attack in 2007 was the forerunner of modern hybrid warfare; the role for private sector companies in cybersecurity; and more.

Music & Produced by Tre Hester.

This week's episode of The Global Cable features Ambassador Alexander ('Sandy') Vershbow, one of our Distinguished Visiting Fellows this year.  A career diplomat since 1977, Vershbow was U.S. Ambassador to Russia and the Republic of Korea, and served in a range of senior roles in Washington, including the White House’s National Security Council. He was the first American to hold the position of Deputy Secretary General of NATO, from 2012 to 2016. On The Global Cable, Ambassador Vershbow talks about why alliances are still valuable and powerful in a fractured world, what it was like to work with Vladimir Putin, and what NATO can do to meet its biggest challenges in the months ahead. 

Music & Produced by Tre Hester.

This week's episode of The Global Cable features Harold Hongju Koh, Sterling Professor of International Law at Yale Law School. One of the country's leading experts in international law and human rights, he served for many years in government under presidents of both parties, most recently as the 22nd Legal Adviser to the U.S. Department of State from 2009 to 2013.  On The Global Cable, Professor Koh talks to us about his new book, The Trump Administration and International Law, why 'America first' so often means 'America alone', and his perspective on impeachment proceedings against the President. 

On this episode of The Global Cable, we sit down with Ambassador William Lacy Swing, who has served as an American and United Nations diplomat for half a century. He was Ambassador to six countries under four U.S. presidents, serving in countries such as Nigeria, South Africa, and Haiti.

After retiring from the State Department in 2001, Swing worked in diplomacy and peacekeeping for the United Nations. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, he headed the largest peacekeeping operation in the UN’s history. Swing then went on to serve as Director General of the International Organization for Migration, expanding its membership and overseeing its transition to becoming a UN agency in 2016.

In conversation with our host John Gans, Swing talks about how diplomacy and diplomats have changed since he joined the Foreign Service in 1963, why he believes there is a ‘perfect storm’ around the issue of migration, and what it was like to meet Nelson Mandela.

Music & Produced by Tre Hester.

On this episode of The Global Cable, we sit down with Zaina Erhaim, an acclaimed Syrian journalist who is this year’s Perry World House and Kelly Writers House Writer at Risk.

After writing for The Economist, The Guardian, and the BBC, Erhaim currently works as communications manager for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting in London. Over the last decade, she has trained over a hundred media activists in Syria – many of them women. She has also contributed to three books on journalism and the conflict in her home country, and produced two films narrated by Syrian women.

In conversation with host John Gans, Erhaim talks about what it’s like studying journalism based on the Soviet model, what objectivity means in war, what citizen journalists need to learn, and what is happening in Syria right now.

Music & Produced by Tre Hester.

On this episode of The Global Cable, we sit down with Ash Carter, U.S. Secretary of Defense from 2015 to 2017. A Philadelphia native, he trained as a physicist before starting his career with government. As Secretary of Defense, he built bridges between the military and Silicon Valley, opening Pentagon outposts in American tech hubs and establishing the Department’s first Defense Innovation Board.

In conversation with our host and his former chief speechwriter John Gans, Secretary Carter shares his thoughts on how to make decisions about new technology, what he’s learned about management from running the world’s biggest organization, and what he’s reading right now – the answer might surprise you.

Music & Produced by Tre Hester.

Welcome to Season 3 of The Global Cable, a podcast from Perry World House at the University of Pennsylvania. We’re starting out on our new season with a new host in John Gans, our director of communications and research, a new format inspired by Penn’s own founding father Ben Franklin, and an exciting new lineup of guests.

Our first episode is a conversation with John Kerry, U.S. Secretary of State from 2013 to 2017. Kerry shares his thoughts on the dangers of a changing world order and how technology has changed the nature of diplomacy; tells us what he packs in his suitcase when he’s traveling around the world; and reveals who in history he’d most like to meet. 

Music & Produced by Tre Hester.