"Wake" with Luke Vargas

Anti-government protesters are in the streets of Algeria and Sudan. In Algeria, they're angry with 82-year-old President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's decision to seek fo fifth term in office, despite being too ill to even make a public appearance.

To the east and south across the Sahara Desert, protests against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir are in their third month as organizers impressively defy a state of emergency, violence and intimidation.

This week on "Wake" we'll consider whether the Middle East and North Africa are experiencing a second "Arab Spring," and if so, what's different this time around.

Helping us do that are this week's guests:

• Chloe Teevan, Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, European Council on Foreign Relations
• Zachariah Mampilly, professor of political science and international studies, Vassar College

If you enjoy this discussion, follow Wake on Twitter @WakeOnAir. To share feedback with us, send an email to [email protected].

Taped: March 8, 2019.

Hosted by Luke Vargas.

Outer space isn't about to be militarized, it's been militarized for decades, and as China, Russia and the U.S. race to outdo each other in a new domain of battle, the world is waking up to the risks that war in space pose for everyone back on Earth.

When destroying a satellite with a missile or laser can bring communications networks and financial institutions to a halt – effectively shutting off countries from the world or businesses from markets – it's troubling just how few rules exist to stop that from happening.

This week on Wake we'll look at a new U.S. report on the space arms race and discuss efforts to try and stop it.

Helping us do that is this week's guest:

• Theresa Hitchens, senior research associate, Center for International and Security Studies, University of Maryland

If you enjoy this discussion, follow Wake on Twitter @WakeOnAir. To share feedback with us, send an email to [email protected].

Taped: March 1, 2019.

Hosted by Luke Vargas.

"Banishment is back." That's the assessment by one prominent legal scholar as countries start to strip terrorists of their citizenship – sometimes rendering them stateless in refugee camps in Syria and the world's other distant battlefields.

This week on Wake we'll look at the legality and practicality of denationalization, and consider whether fear of returning terrorists is pushing western countries to toss out the established judicial playbook and resort to extraordinary legal tactics we might come to regret.

Helping us to do that are this week's guests:

• Jo Shaw, Salvesen Chair of European Institutions, University of Edinburgh School of Law
• Peter J. Spiro, co-director, Institute for International Law and Public Policy, Temple University School of Law

If you enjoy this discussion, follow Wake on Twitter @WakeOnAir. To share feedback with us, send an email to [email protected].

Taped: February 22, 2019.

Hosted by Luke Vargas.

President Trump has named his selection to lead the world bank. David Malpass is a veteran of Ronald Reagan's treasury department and the George H. W. Bush's State Department, but it's his more recent criticisms of the World Bank's size and multilateralism in general that are turning heads.

With America already pulling back from the United Nations, NATO and other multilateral institutions, is the World Bank next?

This week on Wake we'll look at the history, present and future of the World Bank and consider how it could change in the Trump era.

Helping us to do that are this week's guests:

• Nancy Birdsall, founding president, Center for Global Development
• Catherine Weaver, professor of public policy, Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin

If you enjoy this discussion, follow Wake on Twitter @WakeOnAir. To share feedback with us, send an email to [email protected].

Taped: February 14, 2019.

Hosted by Luke Vargas.

President Trump announced the U.S. withdrawal from a key 1980's nuclear arms control agreement this month, accusing Russia of violating the INF Treaty for years and saying there was no reason for the U.S. to keep playing by the rules.

Trump said maybe he could make a new deal with Russia and China, but if not, the U.S. would out-innovate and out-spend its rivals – hardly sounding concerned about another nuclear arms race.

This week on Wake we'll consider if that's where the U.S. and Russia are heading, or if there are still ways to revive arms control diplomacy.

Helping us to do that are this week's guests:

• Tom Collina, policy director at the Ploughshares Fund
• Alexandra Bell, senior policy director at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation

If you enjoy this discussion, follow Wake on Twitter @WakeOnAir. To share feedback with us, send an email to [email protected].

Taped: February 8, 2019.

Hosted by Luke Vargas.

The U.S. indicated the Chinese telecom company Huawei this week, accusing the firm of stealing intellectual property from T-Mobile.

That's part of a larger U.S. complaint that China's economic rise has been aided by the systematic pilfering of trade secrets from abroad and the funneling of that information back to domestic industries.

This week on Wake we'll consider the extent of China's intellectual property theft, what the can the U.S. can do about it and whether we're headed for a "technology cold war."

Helping us to do that is this week's guest:

• Robert Atkinson, founder and president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
• Peter Harrell, adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security

If you enjoy this discussion, follow Wake on Twitter @WakeOnAir. To share feedback with us, send an email to [email protected].

Taped: February 1, 2019.

Hosted by Luke Vargas.

It's been a historic week in Venezuela, as opposition lawmaker Juan Guaidó claimed the title of Interim President and said Nicolás Maduro had usurped power and was illegitimate in the eyes of the Venezuelan constitution.

Venezuela is on edge – Maduro has okayed violence against protesters, Guaido is in hiding, American diplomats have been ordered to leave the country as the world takes sides in the presidential crisis.

This week on Wake we'll recap what's happening in Venezuela and what could come next.

Helping us to do that is this week's guest:

• Dr. Evan Ellis, research professor of Latin American studies, Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College

If you enjoy this discussion, follow Wake on Twitter @WakeOnAir. To share feedback with us, send an email to [email protected].

Taped: January 25, 2019.

Hosted by Luke Vargas.

President Trump says the U.S. is facing a crisis at its southern border as tens of thousands of migrants wait to lodge asylum claims or attempt to pass into the U.S. illegally.

But the real crisis driving that migration is thousands of miles south in the 'Northern Triangle' region encompassing Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.

This week on 'Wake' we'll explore the breakdown in governance in those countries that's fueling waves of migration.

Helping us do that are this week's guests:

• Douglas Farah, senior visiting fellow, National Defense University
• Sarah Bermeo, associate professor of political science, Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy
• Eric L. Olson, director, Seattle International Foundation's Central America-DC Platform

If you enjoy this discussion, follow Wake on Twitter @WakeOnAir. To share feedback with us, send an email to [email protected].

Taped: January 18, 2019.

Hosted by Luke Vargas.

President Trump wants out of Syria and his aides say the U.S. is keen to reassert itself as a liberating, not an occupying military force.

Amid a push to wind down prolonged conflicts, should we expect an end to the U.S. mission in Afghanistan?

Helping us answer that question are this week's guests:

• Vanda Felbab-Brown, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution's Center for 21st Century Security
• Gil Barndollar, director of Middle East studies at the Center for the National Interest
• Graeme Smith, author, "The Dogs Are Eating Them Now: Our War in Afghanistan"

If you enjoy this discussion, follow Wake on Twitter @WakeOnAir. To share feedback with us, send an email to [email protected].

Taped: January 11, 2019.

Hosted by Luke Vargas.

We're living in an age of migration. The U.N. reports more than 25 million people are seeking shelter from conflict worldwide, as millions more uproot their lives in search of opportunities that don't exist in their home countries.

Many of us would do the same if put in their shoes. And yet, countries are increasingly locking down their borders to keep migrants out.

Making the case that we're living in an 'age of walls' is our guest:

• Tim Marshall, author, "The Age of Walls: How Barriers Between Nations Are Changing Our World"

If you enjoy this discussion, follow Wake on Twitter @WakeOnAir. To share feedback with us, send an email to [email protected].

Taped: January 4, 2019.

Hosted by Luke Vargas.