Women Leaders

The world is at a point of extreme discomfort, even pain. The first year of the second Trump administration was brutal, undermining the structures of democracy within the US and actively seeking to destroy the post WWII global order everywhere else. In the global south the cuts to US aid are clearly biting but also allowing a strong presence of.China and Russia. In Iran and Ukraine people feel abandoned by the US, as do the Kurds in Syria. And in Europe, historically the US’ strongest ally, there is a sense of betrayal: of trust, of shared values, of allied promises.

Donald Trump poses a problem in himself: he is publicly rude about his allies — as people, as states — and he ignores protocol. He demands adulation, even when it is not due. He makes respect difficult, not least when he threatens to invade an allied state or demands territories as a matter of pure ownership. He denies dignity, not an easy prospect in international affairs and diplomacy.

Almut Möller is Director for European and Global Affairs at EPC and Signe Biering is a former senior Danish diplomat And an expert on moderation and facilitation. Their combined experience and wonderful insights allow for a deep and fascinating reflection on how Europe is placed and feeling in this time of extraordinary change, and what it needs to seek going forward — as people, as states, as Europeans, as allies.

This episode was recorded on 22 January 2026

Chapters

• Cultural perspectives in Europe
• Why dignity in diplomacy is important
• Navigating modern diplomacy
• The changing landscape of European alliances

Mentions

• Mark Carney’s Davos speech
• Bart de Wever at Davos

Follow

• Signe Biering website & LinkedIn
• Almut Möller LinkedIn & ECP website
• Ilana Bet-El
• Instagram @women_leaders_podcast
• Listen this episode on our YouTube channel
• Our partner European Leadership Network Twitter LinkedIn Facebook website

Credits

• Production: Florence Ferrando
• Music: Let Good Times Roll, RA from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/ra/let-good-times-rollLicense code: ZXIIIJUU2ISPZIJT

Contribute to the conversation with a comment & a 5-⭐️

Reach us on our Instagram and follow for updates @women_leaders_podcast

Watch now our episode on Youtube

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2026 undoubtedly started with a spectacular show by the US in Venezuela; the question is -- what is it a show of?? Force, for sure. Planes, drones and soldiers all invaded Venezuela in a meticulously planned operation that focused on abducting President Maduro and his wife to the US, to stand drug charges. But beyond force, this was also a show of deep disregard for the world order and for international law. Moreover, in the passing days it has become clear it is a show of disregard for the people of Venezuela: if there existed a flimsy excuse for removing the leader of another country by force it was that Maduro was clearly not the legally elected president of Venezuela as the last election was completely corrupted and that the opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez won by a wide margin. But the Trump Administration has made clear they have no interest in helping him, or indeed 2025 Nobel Prize winner María Machado, in taking office.

Ultimately, it is a show of force for greed: for the energy resources of Venezuela.

This attack seems to reflect a brutal world of might is right such as existed in the pre-Westphalian era. An emperor wants a resource or a land or obedience, and uses force to get it. Will this now be the case in other states in Latin America, or in Greenland? Will the world order survive this attack? Will NATO? To understand this better, Rachel Ellehuus, Director General of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) joins Ilana Bet-El in a sober, deep and fascinating discussion on these and many other issues.

This episode was recorded on 8 January 2026

Chapters

• Inside NATO: what does a defence adviser actually do?
• Venezuela: what US intervention signals (and what it breaks)
• The US and the world: Middle East, Africa, Ukraine, Russia
• Negotiating with states: diplomacy vs deal-making
• Are concerns over Greenland justified?

Mentions

• Interview with former NATO DSACEUR
• RUSI website

Follow

• Rachel Ellehuus LinkedIn
• Ilana Bet-El
• Instagram @women_leaders_podcast
• Listen this episode on our YouTube channel
• Our partner European Leadership Network Twitter LinkedIn Facebook website

Credits

• Production: Florence Ferrando
• Music: Let Good Times Roll, RA from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/ra/let-good-times-rollLicense code: ZXIIIJUU2ISPZIJT

Contribute to the conversation with a comment & a 5-⭐️

Reach us on our Instagram and follow for updates @women_leaders_podcast

Watch now our episode on Youtube

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tittle: Africa all around

There is a renowned inclination to view and discuss Africa largely in terms of failure and disaster. The horrendous civil war in Sudan, the coups in the Sahel, the never ending wars in the DRC, are excellent examples. More broadly, in the West the continent tends to be seen as a long project of democratisation, whilst to Russia and China it is largely a huge pit of natural resources and a useful instrument of anti west disorder.

But Africa is a vast continent of 54 states, with a population of over 1.5 billion people. The differences between the north and the south are vast as are those between the east and the west — and it has vast potentials for production and investment. To understand both the issues and the potentials there can be no better guide than Amaka Anku, Head of the Africa Practice at the Eurasia Group. In a sharp, passionate and humorous discussion with Ilana Bet-El she takes us through a whistle stop tour of the continent past, present and potential futures. Bottom line: African states post colonialism are young, but they need to move on towards a positive narrative of their states.

This episode was recorded on 11 December 2025

Chapters

• What are the key investors in Africa?
• Why Africa struggle for effective governance?
• Colonial legal and democracy industrialisation
• Population growth and economic challenges
• Zoom on the Sahel region and the return of coups
• Why Russia and China are back in African countries?

Mentions

• Eurasia Group
• Africa political map
• BBC “Benin coup plot leader hiding in Togo”

Follow

• Amaka Anku LinkedIn, Eurasia group
• Ilana Bet-El
• Instagram @women_leaders_podcast
• Watch this episode on our YouTube channel
• Our partner European Leadership Network Twitter LinkedIn Facebook website

Credits

• Production: Florence Ferrando
• Music: Let Good Times Roll, RA from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/ra/let-good-times-rollLicense code: ZXIIIJUU2ISPZIJT

Contribute to the conversation with a comment & a 5-⭐️

Reach us on our Instagram and follow for updates @women_leaders_podcast

Watch now our episode on Youtube

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

According to Wikipedia, 28 is “approximately the number of grams in an ounce, and used as such in commercial trade.” This may explain why there were 28 points in the US plan to end Russia’s war on Ukraine: it was drafted by people interested in commerce and trade, and the US stands to gain some US$ 300 billion from this deal. However, the US financial gain is the only original element in the plan, the rest being a list of Russian demands denying Ukraine sovereignty by taking land from it, defining its military, its constitution and its elections, and forcing cultural and religious issues upon it.

That this draft was cooked up by US forces friendly to Russia is common knowledge, but that does not make the event, let alone the plan, less of an abomination: Ukraine was treated as no more than item, while the EU was not consulted — despite being listed as liable to underwrite much of the programme. 

At base, this is a plan to reward aggression and the taking of land by force while imposing penalties upon those who object.

To understand what exactly is wrong with the proposals, and where Ukraine goes from here, Ilana Bet-El is joined by two true women leaders: Dr Hanna Shelest, Director of Security Programmes at the Foreign Policy Council "Ukrainian Prism (https://prismua.org/en/)", and Iryna Krasnoshtan, Programme Director at the International Center for Ukrainian Victory (https://ukrainianvictory.org/). With the facts at their fingertips and the passion of fighters, this conversation explains what is at stake for the world as well as Ukraine.

This episode was recorded on 27 November 2025

Chapters

• Dissecting the 28 point “peace proposal”
• The international dynamics of the war in Ukraine
• Why Ukrainians and Europeans are left out of the conversation?
• What would a Ukrainian peace plan look like?

Mentions

Ukraine Analytica Ukraine Institute

28 point plan

Washington roiled by leaked transcript of Witkoff-Ushakov call

Agathe Demarais article on the US-Russia Plan , De Wever Overstates Belgium's Risks

Follow

Iryna Krasnoshtan LinkedIn Hanna Shelest LinkedIn

Ilana Bet-El Women Leaders Instagram & YouTube

ELN

Credits

Production: Florence Ferrando

Music: Let Good Times Roll, RA from #Uppbeat

Contribute to the conversation with a comment & a 5-⭐️

Reach us on our Instagram and follow for updates @women_leaders_podcast

Watch now our episode on Youtube

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A long war is unimaginable to people in the developed world. Since WWII, most states in Europe have not experienced conflict in their lands, barring the Balkans in the 1990s, and the US has never really lived through such a reality, apart from the bombing of Pearl Harbour in December 1941 and the attacks of 9/11. And while some parts of Africa are mired in conflict as indeed is the Middle East, it is the success of the postwar order that war is largely not an ongoing backdrop to life across the globe.

And then there is Ukraine: invaded in 2014 by Russia, that illegally annexed the Crimea then sent its “little green men” into the Donbas, where there has been fighting ever since. Then came the full scale invasion on 24 February 2022. Incredibly, Ukraine repelled most of the Russian invaders, but a deadly front line was established alongside ongoing vicious Russian attacks on cities and civilian infrastructure across Ukraine.

How do you understand these events as a journalist inside Ukraine, trying to report the truth while not exposing your state at war? How do you cover these events as an international journalist, seeking the real story without endangering people? And what happens to truth and journalism in a long war in which civil society is a strong player and corruption rears its head?

To answer these and many other questions Ilana Bet-El is joined by Kristina Zeleniuk of website TSN and Kim Barker of the New York Times. A fluid, fascinating and funny conversation with passionate journalists.

This episode was recorded on 13 November 2025

Chapters

• The call for journalism: passion and purpose
• Navigating journalism in a war zone
• The current state in Ukraine
• The impact of corruption scandal on Western support
• The critical role of Ukrainian civil society

Mentions

• TSN website
• Dmytro Khyliuk
• The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan
• Whisky Tango Foxtrot
• Articles on the corruption scandal: NABU & CNN

Follow

• Kim Barker  New York Times
• Kristina Zeleniuk
• Ilana Bet-El
• Instagram @women_leaders_podcast & YouTube channel
• ELN website

Credits

Production: Florence Ferrando

Music: Let Good Times Roll, RA from #Uppbeat

Contribute to the conversation with a comment & a 5-⭐️

Reach us on our Instagram and follow for updates @women_leaders_podcast

Watch now our episode on Youtube

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There are many aspects to our current events: trade wars, international realignments weakening democracies, strengthening autocracies, social discontent, wars kinetic and hybrid, a faltering international system and much more. Each element may be explained individually but taken together they add up to no less than a revolution: a change so fundamental that even after the wheels stop spinning there will be no return to the previous ways.

Professor Janice Stein, founder of the Munk School of Global Affairs and one of the most fascinating experts ever on wars and global affairs joins Ilana Bet-El in a deep, fast moving and incredibly informative conversation on our age of revolution. From the US to China and Europe, and from the past to the future -- this episode explains how and why the world is in such turmoil.

Chapters

• What are the challenges in global trade and economy?
• Canada’s economic strategy
• The crisis of developed democracies
• The real European Union's struggles
• The role of experts and public trust

Mentions

• Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy
• Lawyers vs. engineers: Dan Wang sees U.S.-China dynamics in a new paradigm
• Erza Klein, Abundance
• Ilana Bet-El & Rupert Smith, Le Grand désenchentement: Vivre à l'ère d'insécurité
• Tracy Chapman, Talkin Bout A Revolution

Follow

• Janice Stein Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy
• Ilana Bet-El
• Instagram @women_leaders_podcast
• Watch this episode on our YouTube channel
• Our partner European Leadership Network Twitter LinkedIn Facebook, website

Credits

• Production: Florence Ferrando
• Music: Let Good Times Roll, RA from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/ra/let-good-times-rollLicense code: ZXIIIJUU2ISPZIJT

Contribute to the conversation with a comment & a 5-⭐️

Reach us on our Instagram and follow for updates @women_leaders_podcast

Watch now our episode on Youtube

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As most international mediators know, Israel-Palestine is a conflict to avoid. Intellectually, it should be solvable, but in reality it is intractable.

In this episode we bring together a Palestinian and an Israeli — Dr Tahani Mustafa of the ECFR and Dr Miriam Rosman of the Dvorah Forum — hoping to move beyond intractable, due to the Gaza ceasefire. It has heralded much hope for a better future, alongside deep confusion as to what such a future can and should hold. However, the discussion ended up reflecting the absence of trust, empathy, or understanding on both sides.

This is an important and passionate episode that highlights the significant challenges in even establishing a common starting point for dialogue, let alone negotiation. From history to reality and from humanity to sympathy, there is a long way to go in creating the conditions for negotiation between Israelis and Palestinians.

This episode was recorded on 16 October 2025

Chapters

• Diverging perspectives on the ceasefire
• Is any path forward?
• Building trust over traumas

Follow

• Tahani Mustafa  LinkedIn, European Council on Foreign Relations
• Miriam Rosman LinkedIn, Dvorah Forum
• Instagram @women_leaders_podcast
• Watch this episode on our YouTube channel
• Our partner European Leadership Network Twitter LinkedIn Facebook, website
• Ilana Bet-El

Credits

• Production: Florence Ferrando
• Music: Let Good Times Roll, RA from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/ra/let-good-times-rollLicense code: ZXIIIJUU2ISPZIJT

Contribute to the conversation with a comment & a 5-⭐️

Reach us on our Instagram and follow for updates @women_leaders_podcast

Watch now our episode on Youtube

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Donald Trump is everywhere: at the UN General Assembly, at special press conferences, at meetings of his military leadership and in the White House - condemning Europe and climate change one day, announcing a Gaza deal the next, doubling down on tariffs the third, doing nothing about Russia throughout. In the meantime the US seems to be ever more in turmoil, with the Federal government shut down, a sliding economy, intense political and social division.

China is seemingly enjoying the show, lapping up the Global South and assembling world leaders for international meetings and a vast military parade to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of WWII. Backing Russia in its war of aggression against Ukraine, it is clearly happy to pick up world leadership as the new US seemingly sheds most vestiges of it. Yet all the while it is also negotiating a trade deal with the US, flooding the global market with over production and watching its own economy in turmoil.

So what is China really doing? Can it survive the tariffs? Can it pick up where the US leaves off or is it just part of the turmoil? Lauren Gloudeman, Director, China at Eurasia Group joins Ilana Bet-El to talk through the current China challenge in all its aspects. A deep and interesting conversation with someone who knows people, language and culture!

This episode was recorded 30 September 2025

Mentions

Eurasia website

Lauren’s previous episode “Trade Wars”

Trump at the UNGA - China commitments at the UN Climate conference

Other episodes “China, the world, and power” “China All Around”

Chapters

Understanding China's role in global affairs

Trump's objectives with China

How China's economic is doing?

China's relationship with Russia

Is it a new Cold War between China and the West?

Follow

Lauren Gloudeman LinkedIn

Instagram @women_leaders_podcast

Watch this episode on our YouTube channel

European Leadership Network Twitter LinkedIn website

Ilana Bet-El

Credits

Production: Florence Ferrando

Music: Let Good Times Roll, RA from #Uppbeat

Contribute to the conversation with a comment & a 5-⭐️

Reach us on our Instagram and follow for updates @women_leaders_podcast

Watch now our episode on Youtube

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

International development has come to an end, according to some economists. Be it the sudden closure of USAID earlier this year, the shift of EU and NATO states to defence spending, or the populist inspired interest in isolationism, the inclination to fund others is diminishing.

However, development is not just about foreign aid: it is also about allocating the means to improve the one that benefits all. Whether the national eradication of disease or international drives towards better governance and prosperity, the core idea is not charity. So, what actually is development? There can be no better person to explain and explore the wide and complex world of development and its core international function than Susan Brown, United Nations Assistant Secretary General at the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and head of its advocacy efforts. A woman with incredible experience in the international world, she brings in-depth knowledge, common sense and a lot of wit to the core needs of the world.

This episode was recorded 17 September 2025

Mentions

• UNDP
• Adam Tooze, The End of Development
• Women not rescued in Afghanistan earthquake

Chapters

• Current challenges facing the UN
• Understanding development and differentiating it from humanitarian aid
• UNDP's budget and funding sources
• The future of UNDP and global development
• Engaging corporates in development

Follow

• Susan Brown UNDP website & X/Twitter
• Instagram @women_leaders_podcast
• Watch this episode on our YouTube channel
• European Leadership Network Twitter LinkedIn Facebook, website
• Ilana Bet-El

Credits

• Production: Florence Ferrando
• Music: Let Good Times Roll, RA from #Uppbeat License code: ZXIIIJUU2ISPZIJT

Contribute to the conversation with a comment & a 5-⭐️

Reach us on our Instagram and follow for updates @women_leaders_podcast

Watch now our episode on Youtube

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The summer is over but it has hardly been a period of repose and relaxation: the world has continued in its turmoil, not least at the behest of the US. In moves that have often baffled traditional US allies, the current Trump administration has made brash moves claiming to be about Making America Great Again (MAGA) but which ultimately seemed to signify US retreat from global leadership. From attacks on science and education within the US to courting Vladimir Putin while alienating the EU, Canada and other western allies, it seems as if the current US administration is intent upon making real China and Russia’s wish for a multipolar world without a second, or indeed any thought.

How do these changes manifest within the US? Is the external perspective even registering? Does it matter? And why does the Democratic Party seemingly find it so difficult to muster a response? To broach these questions and so much more Ilana Bet-El is joined by Jodi Rudoren, Editorial Director of Newsletters at the New York Times — and to be clear, there are 100 newsletters that reach over 17 million people! — in a lively and probing discussion into life, politics and ideas in the US in the second Trump administration.

This episode was recorded on 4 September 2025

Mentions

• Jodi’s episode last September
• Newsletters at The New York Times: The Morning & DealBook
• Film: I’m still here

Chapters

• The current state of US Politics and news
• The erosion of trust in political systems
• The Democratic Party's struggles and future directions
• Everyday life amidst political turmoil
• Perceptions of global enemies
• The Israel-Gaza situation
• Global leadership dynamics

Follow

• Jodi Rudoren  LinkedIn & X/Twitter
• Instagram @women_leaders_podcast
• Our new YouTube channel
• Our partner European Leadership Network Twitter LinkedIn Facebook, website
• Ilana Bet-El

Credits

• Production: Florence Ferrando
• Music: Let Good Times Roll, RA from #Uppbeat License code: ZXIIIJUU2ISPZIJT

Contribute to the conversation with a comment & a 5-⭐️

Reach us on our Instagram and follow for updates @women_leaders_podcast

Watch now our episode on Youtube

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.