A single state election result put a number on Germany's anxiety — 44 percent — but says former European Parliament President Hans-Gert Pöttering, the real story is what comes next. In this episode of The Greater Loop, host Maryanne Maldonado sits down with Pöttering, who led the European Parliament from 2007 to 2009 and spent four decades at the center of European politics, to unpack the AfD's rise in Saxony-Anhalt, what's driving support for the party in the former East, and why he insists the numbers shouldn't be exaggerated even as he takes the threat seriously. Plus: the fraying trust in the US-Europe relationship, what a stronger AfD could mean for German support of Ukraine, and Pöttering's case for why nationalism, in the end, always means war.

Hosted by Maryanne Maldonado | The Greater Loop — A podcast of the World Affairs Council of Greater Houston
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What's Covered

• The AfD's 44 percent showing in Saxony-Anhalt — and why Pöttering says context matters before conclusions
• Why Eastern Germany's post-reunification experience shapes AfD support and skepticism toward backing Ukraine
• The erosion of transatlantic trust — from Eisenhower and Dean Rusk to today's tensions
• What an AfD role at the federal level could mean for the EU and the euro
• A tour of Europe's right-wing landscape: Meloni's Italy, Orbán's Hungary, and the shifting French right
• Germany's energy dependence on Russia and the case for closer US-German cooperation on LNG
• The unfinished project of European integration — and the European Parliament's growing power under the Treaty of Lisbon
• Pöttering's closing message to Americans: support freedom in Europe, and be wary of nationalism's costs

On the morning of September 11th, 2001, only minutes after the first plane hit the World Trade Center’s North Tower, former FBI Special Agent in Charge (SAC) Christopher Combs was racing to the airport to fly to and assist in New York. As an FBI Counterterrorism leader, he was needed immediately at the Twin Towers; but he received another urgent message – a massive explosion had just hit the Pentagon. Combs quickly rerouted.

He arrived at the devastation and chaos at the Pentagon, only 6 minutes after the attack. The world’s largest office building was ablaze, unknown numbers had been killed and many more were injured – and trapped inside. While overseeing the immense investigation and enormous, ongoing rescue operations, Combs also had to content with the imminent threat of a major structural collapse of the western side of the Pentagon and a new alert that 4th hijacked plane was only minutes away from Washington D.C. – a possible 2nd strike on the Pentagon.

For the next many tense and harrowing weeks following 9/11, Combs served as the FBI On-Scene Commander at the Pentagon and then as the FBI representative to Unified Command for the duration of on-scene operations. In addition to his work on-site at the Pentagon, Combs was part of the FBI’s leadership that would uncover and thwart numerous terrorist attacks orchestrated to kill Americans across the U.S. and abroad.

In commemoration of the 25th anniversary of 9/11, Combs presents a unique, expert and first-hand account of Al Qaeda’s attack on the Pentagon and the U.S.’s ensuing counterterrorism decisions and actions, which have shaped not just our nation, but much of the world, since 2001.

About the speaker:
Christopher Combs is Chief Security Officer at Phillips 66 and a retired FBI Special Agent in Charge with 26 years of federal law enforcement experience. Prior to joining Phillips 66, he led the FBI’s San Antonio Field Office and held senior leadership roles in counterterrorism, crisis response, and national security operations. Throughout his career, Combs directed responses to major national incidents, including the 9/11 Pentagon attack, the 2001 anthrax attacks, the Sutherland Springs church shooting, and the Austin serial bombing investigation. He is also a Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center.

About the World Affairs Council of Greater Houston
The World Affairs Council of Greater Houston believes that understanding the world isn't optional, it's essential. For more than 50 years, the Council has brought the diplomats, journalist, experts, and world leaders who shaped global events for honest, unfiltered conversations about what's really happening globally. Learn more at wachouston.org

Ask an American diplomat what he'd tell the next president, and the answer isn't policy — it's relationships. In this episode of The Greater Loop, host Maryanne Maldonado sits down with Tom Selinger, Executive Director of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training and a 27-year Foreign Service veteran, to trace 250 years of American diplomacy — from Benjamin Franklin's fur-cap debut at the French court to today's era of great power competition. They dig into what made Franklin's diplomacy revolutionary, the 1924 reform that professionalized the Foreign Service, the unseen embassy staff who keep the mission running, and the diplomatic wins and failures that shaped the modern era. Plus: what young Foreign Service officers need to succeed today, and why Selinger insists diplomacy is nothing like a business transaction.

Hosted by Maryanne Maldonado | The Greater Loop — A podcast of the World Affairs Council of Greater Houston
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What's Covered

• Benjamin Franklin's unconventional diplomacy in Paris and how he won French support for the Revolution
• The Rogers Act of 1924 and the birth of a professional, nonpartisan Foreign Service
• What actually happens inside an embassy — from local staff and medical teams to security specialists
• Untold diplomatic successes, including the evacuation of 2,500 Americans from Sierra Leone and James Baker's role in German reunification
• A candid look at diplomatic failure: the early US response to the Balkans crisis
• How career diplomats balance professional continuity with implementing a new administration's policy
• The skills the next generation of diplomats will need — curiosity, flexibility, and resilience
• Selinger's advice for the next US president: diplomacy is relationship-building, not a transaction

Trade wars are rarely about trade alone — the real question, says Johns Hopkins SAIS trade expert Dr. Christopher Sands, is whether either side can afford to keep digging in. In this episode of The Greater Loop, host Maryanne Maldonado sits down with Sands to unpack how the US-Canada relationship went from decades of stable alliance to full-blown tariff escalation in just eighteen months, what's really driving Trump's approach to Canada, and whether Carney's "no deal is better than a bad deal" stance can hold. Plus: the ripple effects on American households and small businesses, the political theater behind the Lake Ontario renaming, and what's actually at stake for USMCA's future.

Hosted by Maryanne Maldonado | The Greater Loop — A podcast of the World Affairs Council of Greater Houston
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What's Covered

• How eighteen months of tariffs, IEEPA rulings, and Section 122 and 338 actions took the US-Canada relationship from USMCA cooperation to open trade war
• Trump's long game: reshoring industry, "Buy America," and why he views Canada as free-riding on US defense
• Mark Carney's political comeback — uniting Canada's provinces and opposition around a hardline stance
• The Lake Ontario/"Lake America" flashpoint and what it reveals about Trump's negotiating style
• Why small and mid-sized businesses are absorbing the brunt of retaliatory tariffs, and what it means for inflation
• Canada's September 8th retaliation and the looming January 2027 US counter-retaliation
• The future of USMCA: can a 16-year renewal survive this level of legal and political friction
• Sands' case for what a real North American trade bloc could still become — if both sides can find their way back to the table

Fear of a wider war is easy — the harder question, says defense strategist Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution, is how this one actually ends. In this episode of The Greater Loop, host Maryanne Maldonado sits down with O'Hanlon, six months into the US-Iran conflict, to unpack why "short war" predictions almost always fail, what's really happening in the Strait of Hormuz, and whether Iran is betting it can outlast Washington politically. Plus: the strain in the US-Israel relationship, what role China and Russia are playing behind the scenes, and O'Hanlon's blunt definition of what "winning" should actually mean.

Hosted by Maryanne Maldonado | The Greater Loop — A podcast of the World Affairs Council of Greater Houston
Subscribe for global affairs content that connects the world to your world.

What's Covered

• Why leaders who promise short wars are almost always wrong — and how overconfidence shaped the US-Iran conflict
• Iran's Strait of Hormuz strategy: wearing down the US economy ahead of the midterms
• Is diplomacy still realistic? What has to happen before talks can actually work
• The strained state of US-Israel alignment and Netanyahu's influence on Trump's decision-making
• How China and Russia are indirectly propping up Iran's ability to withstand the war
• Why the Gulf states are stuck between fear of Iran and fear of all-out confrontation
• Succession inside Iran's leadership — and why the next generation may be even harder line
• O'Hanlon's case for what "winning" should really mean: reopening the Strait, ending the violence, and curtailing Iran's nuclear ambitions

Fear of AI is everywhere — but according to Leon Coe, founder of Amplify Intelligence and president of the Houston AI Club, the only way that fear becomes reality is by doing nothing about it. In this episode of The Greater Loop, host Maryanne Maldonado sits down with "the Houston AI guy" to unpack what AI actually is, why compute is becoming the new oil, and how Houston — with its energy, medicine, and shipping muscle — could quietly become the applied AI capital of the world. Plus: who should write the rules for AI, the biggest AI myths still floating around, and why Leon's boldest predictions for 2026 came true months ahead of schedule.

What makes a foreign policy decision great? And what turns one into a historic catastrophe?

Jim Lindsay, Senior Vice President at the Council on Foreign Relations, surveyed hundreds of historians from the world's largest professional association devoted to US foreign policy, and asked them to rank the 10 best and 10 worst decisions in American history, spanning from the Declaration of Independence in 1776 all the way to 2020.

The results are fascinating, sobering, and uncomfortably relevant right now.

The best decision? The Marshall Plan, the post-WWII commitment that rebuilt Western Europe, pushed back Soviet expansion, and solidified democracy across the continent. The worst? The US invasion of Iran, a war launched on pretenses, followed by a bloody occupation that squandered blood and treasure for little strategic gain.

But the list doesn't stop there. The refusal to admit Jewish refugees before World War II. The Vietnam War doubling down. The Senate's rejection of the Treaty of Versailles. And the lessons embedded in each one that echo loudly in the decisions being made right now.

Hosted by Maryanne Maldonado | The Greater Loop: A podcast of the World Affairs Council of Houston

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Check the upcoming program with James Lindsay

https://wachouston.org/event/james_lindsay/

Two powerful earthquakes. More than 50,000 people unaccounted for. A death toll still climbing. And a government blocking aid deliveries to maintain control.

Venezuela was already one of the most fragile states in the Western Hemisphere. Now it's facing a catastrophe that is exposing and deepening every crack in its political and economic foundation.

Maryanne Maldonado sits down with Henry Ziemer, Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), to break down what's really happening on the ground in Venezuela, and what it means for the country's political future, its oil sector, its $240 billion debt restructuring, and the surprisingly transformed relationship between Washington and Caracas.

Because here's what's jarring: US Marines are now operating at La Carlota Air Base in downtown Caracas. The same country that burned aid trucks at its border in 2019 is now receiving American military assistance relatively freely. That's not a small shift. That's a geopolitical earthquake on top of a geological one.

Hosted by Maryanne Maldonado | The Greater Loop: A podcast of the World Affairs Council of Houston

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Topics covered:

Iran's national team can't spend the night in the United States. A referee arrived with a valid visa and was turned back at the border. FIFA promised free movement for all teams. Trump didn't care.

Welcome to the 2026 World Cup, the most geopolitically charged sporting event in modern history.

Maryanne Maldonado sits down with Dr. Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, Fellow at Rice University's Baker Institute Middle East Institute and one of the leading voices on the intersection of sports, politics, and global affairs, to break down what's really happening beneath the surface of this tournament. From sportswashing and FIFA's Faustian bargain with Trump, to what Houston's diversity means in a World Cup era of ICE fears and diaspora communities, to the jaw-dropping scenario of the US potentially playing Iran on July 3rd, this episode connects the beautiful game to the ugliest geopolitical tensions of our time.

And when the final whistle blows? The legacy might not be the politics. It might be a generation of American kids who fell in love with soccer.

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The headlines called it a diplomatic breakthrough. A leading China expert calls it something else.

Scott Kennedy, Senior Advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and one of America's foremost authorities on the Chinese economy, with 38 years of on-the-ground experience in China, joins Maryanne Maldonado to break down what actually happened at the Trump-Xi summit in Beijing, and what was conspicuously left unsaid.

The two sides agreed to a framework of "constructive strategic stability." But Kennedy argues that framework is far more comfortable for Beijing than Washington. China used rare earth restrictions to force the US to retreat on tariffs and export controls, and in doing so, grabbed control of the dial that sets the temperature of the entire relationship. Now both sides hold it. And Taiwan, Iran, human rights, and Chinese industrial policy were all quietly sidelined in favor of soybeans, beef, and Boeing contracts.

What does this summit mean for Taiwan? For Iran? For the future of AI competition between the world's two superpowers? And when historians look back in five years, what will this moment actually represent?

 Hosted by Maryanne Maldonado | The Greater Loop — A podcast of the World Affairs Council of Houston

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