Why It Matters

Feeding the world's eight billion people has never been easy. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine shocked the market for fertilizer, that task has gotten even harder. The fertilizer crisis threatens to exacerbate food insecurity worldwide, especially in low-income countries already reeling from record-high inflation and rapidly depreciating currencies. What is fertilizer’s role in the food supply chain?

Featured Guests: 

Laura Cross (Director, Market Intelligence, International Fertilizer Association)

Michelle Gavin (Ralph Bunche Senior Fellow for Africa Policy Studies)

For an episode transcript and show notes, visit us at https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/down-and-dirty-global-fertilizer-dilemma 

Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the possibility of nuclear war felt like a problem of days past. Now, as great-power competition heats up, the potential for nuclear conflict seems higher than at any point in decades. How did the nuclear taboo fade, and what does nuclear proliferation mean for the United States?

Featured Guests:

J. Andrés Gannon (Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow, CFR)

Rupal N. Mehta (Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Nebraska-Lincoln)

For an episode transcript and show notes, visit us at https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/new-nuclear-age 

All current U.S. military personnel have one thing in common: they volunteered. But falling recruitment has raised questions of national security, military readiness, and the health of U.S. society. Can the all-volunteer force handle a changing international security landscape?

Featured Guests:

Max Boot (Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow for National Security Studies, CFR)

Amy Bushatz (Director and Executive Editor, Military.com)

Colonel Timothy J. MacDonald (U.S. Army Fellow, CFR)

For an episode transcript and show notes, visit us at https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/army-some-recruiting-trouble-all-volunteer-force

Freedom of the press is under attack around the globe, but for journalists in Latin America in particular, reporting has become a matter of life and death. Populist leaders in the region have consolidated power and clamped down on press freedom, making the area the deadliest in the world for reporters. With anti-journalist sentiment on the rise, can a free and fair press prevail in an increasingly polarized world?

Featured Guests:

Neil Brandvold (Documentary Filmmaker and Photojournalist)

Jan-Albert Hootsen (Mexico Representative for the Committee to Protect Journalists)

Carin Zissis (Editor-in-Chief, AS/COA Online)

For an episode transcript and show notes, visit us at https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/silencing-messenger-global-threats-press-freedom 

As rising global temperatures thaw the ice at the North Pole of the planet, competition between nuclear-powered states threatens to heat up the Arctic Circle even further. An increasingly minable Arctic, which contains vast natural resources, has piqued the economic interests of oil-hungry great powers, even as the warmer climate jeopardizes Indigenous tribes. Here’s how the Arctic could become the next frontier of great-power competition.

Featured Guests:

Esther Brimmer (James H. Binger Senior Fellow in Global Governance, Council on Foreign Relations)

Captain Jeff Randall (U.S. Coast Guard Military Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations)

For an episode transcript and show notes, visit us at https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/whats-cracking-arctic

*Editor's Note: In a narration for this episode, the Why It Matters team mistakenly stated that Russia will chair the Arctic Council for the next two years. In fact, Russia’s tenure ends in May, 2023. As of this writing, the next chair, Norway, has not committed to restarting stalled cooperation.

The world is entering a new era of great-power competition. As U.S. policymakers look ahead, it pays to know what global threats to anticipate. Every January, the Council on Foreign Relations publishes a survey that analyzes the conflicts most likely to occur in the twelve months ahead and rates their potential impact on the United States. But can the country prepare itself for mass immigration, cyberwarfare, and nuclear tensions while still cooperating with adversaries on global issues such as climate change?

Read the full 2023 Preventive Priorities Survey. 

Check out the Center for Preventive Action’s Global Conflict Tracker.

Featured Guest:

Paul B. Stares (General John W. Vessey Senior Fellow for Conflict Prevention and Director of the Center for Preventive Action)

In 2022, several major events reverberated around the world: a war in Europe, a global economic downturn, historic protests in Iran, the death of a queen. But these stories couldn’t cover everything that happened in our interconnected world. 

To find out what else happened this year, Gabrielle Sierra sat down with CFR President Richard Haass and three of CFR’s regional specialists to break down stories from Latin America, the Middle East, and sub-Saharan Africa. 

Featured Guests

Steven A. Cook, Eni Enrico Mattei Senior Fellow for Middle East and Africa Studies and Director of the International Affairs Fellowship for Tenured International Relations Scholars 

Richard Haass, President, Council on Foreign Relations

Ebenezer Obadare, Douglas Dillon Senior Fellow for Africa Studies

Shannon K. O’'Neil, Vice President, Deputy Director of Studies, and Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Latin America Studies

For an episode transcript and show notes, visit us at https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/another-year-living-dangerously 

For years, the world thought of the internet as a borderless zone that brought people from around the world together. But as governments pursue very different regulatory paths, the monolithic internet is breaking apart. Now, where there had been one, there are at least three internets: one led by the United States, one by China, and one by the European Union.

Featured Guests:

Anu Bradford (Henry L. Moses Professor of Law and International Organization, Columbia Law School)

Adam Segal (Ira A. Lipman Chair in Emerging Technologies and National Security & Director of Digital and Cyberspace Policy Program, Council on Foreign Relations)

Tarah Wheeler (Senior Fellow for Global Cyber Policy, Council on Foreign Relations)

The 2022 FIFA World Cup has kicked off in Qatar, and billions of fans worldwide are tuning in to the world’s most popular live event. And yet as in years past, the Qatar Cup is transpiring under the shadow of controversy.

Featured Guests

Laurent Dubois (Academic Director, Karsh Institute of Democracy and John L. Nau III Bicentennial Professor of the History & Principles of Democracy, University of Virginia)

For an episode transcript and show notes, visit us at https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/troubled-cup-beautiful-game 

The world is already witnessing the effects of climate change. One inescapable and irreversible consequence is sea-level rise, which could destroy coastal cities. How will the world adapt to rising tides?

Featured Guests:  

Alice C. Hill (David M. Rubenstein Senior Fellow for Energy and the Environment, Council on Foreign Relations) 

Klaus Jacob (Geophysicist and Emeritus Research Professor, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University) 

Henk Ovink  (Special Envoy for International Water Affairs, Netherlands) 

Gernot Wagner (Climate Economist and Visiting Associate Professor, Columbia University)

For an episode transcript and show notes, visit us at: https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/climate-adaptation-rising-tides-in-coastal-cities