World Affairs Report

Joseph Cirincione talks to us about a “new nuclear arms race” and gives our listeners historical and political context for the current US nuclear strategy and policies, drawing upon his 35+ years of experience.   He walks our listeners through a brief history of nuclear policies and describes for us 3 danger points he is concerned about and provides insider knowledge as to what are the biggest security concerns facing the world today., including Iran and North Korea.

Mr Cirincione visited the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh in partnership with The Iran Project.

Biography:

Joseph Cirincione is president of Ploughshares Fund, a global security foundation. He is the author of the books Nuclear Nightmares: Securing the World Before It Is Too Late, Bomb Scare: The History and Future of Nuclear Weapons and Deadly Arsenals: Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Threats. He has worked on nuclear weapons policy in Washington for over 35 years and is considered one of the top experts in the field. He served previously as vice president for national security at the Center for American Progress, director for non-proliferation at Carnegie Endowment, and senior associate at Stimson. He worked for nine years as professional staff on the U.S. House of Representatives Committees on Armed Services and Government Operations. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a former member of the International Security Advisory Board for Secretaries of State John Kerry and Hillary Clinton. He also teaches at the Georgetown University Graduate School of Foreign Service.

Mr Cirincione is an MSNBC nuclear security expert and his commentary has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Financial Times, Kyodo News, Moscow Times, Foreign Policy, The Hill, Daily Beast, and Huffington Post.

Additional resources:

Angélica talks with Mr. Charles Stout, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the World Affairs Council, about his recent trip to  Qatar. Mr. Stout was selected from a competitive process to participate in a WACA Leadership Mission to Qatar in October 2018, sponsored by the Embassy of the State of Qatar.

For more than 20 years, the WACA National Office has arranged in-depth fact-finding trips as a benefit to Council leaders, stakeholders, and members, as well as WACA partners. Through Leadership Missions and Study Tours, WACA has given groups of professionals the opportunity to engage in dialogue with top government officials, business leaders, journalists, and other experts to gain a better understanding of the political, national security, economic, social, and cultural landscape of the host country.

With a focus also on key issues shaping bilateral relations with the United States, this WACA Leadership Mission will allow participants to use their firsthand knowledge of Qatar to design and present Council programs, events, and activities that foster genuine grassroots understanding of and international engagement with Qatar in their local communities.  Itineraries and professional meetings were organized by the Embassy of Qatar. Arrangements were made for the WACA delegation to interact with senior leadership in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors to further enhance delegates’ understanding of Qatar.

This week, Anna interviews three YLAI fellows about their experience in Pittsburgh and what it’s like being an entrepreneur in Latin America.  Their biographies are below along with links to more information about the YLAI program.

GlobalPittsburgh hosted the U.S. Department of State’s Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative (YLAI) Fellowship Program in the greater Pittsburgh area. YLAI empowers innovative business and social entrepreneurs from Latin America & the Caribbean to strengthen their capacity to advance their entrepreneurial ideas and effectively contribute to social and economic development in their communities through four-week U.S. fellowships and entrepreneurship training. Pittsburgh was selected as one of the 20 U.S. host cities and worked with Meridian International Center, a premier nonprofit, global leadership organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., in the implementation of the program.

Biographies of our interviewees, Ricardo Valencia, Trinidad Schlotterbeck, and Victoria Malek Pascha, can be found in the Global Pittsburgh press release here: https://www.globalpittsburgh.org/files/YLAI-2018-Pittsburgh.pdf

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Angelica speaks with Nathan Darity and Sara Noel from the Global Switchboard about their upcoming second annual Hub + Spoke event. Guests will hear and interact with stories that demonstrate the impact that organizations in The Global Switchboard’s network are having both globally and locally. Throughout the evening there will be short presentations that include screenings of short video stories highlighting how global issues impact local individuals everyday, and speakers highlighting The Global Switchboard’s collective impact work in the following areas. Guests will be given opportunities to get involved with and support this work.  For more information, please visit:  theglobalswitchboard.org/hub-spoke

In this episode, Angelica and Dr. Cynthia Watson from the National War College discuss the increasing presence of China in Latin American economics and politics. Dr. Watson explains how China leverages its influence to affect Latin American relationships with Taiwan, what China’s goals in the region are, the resources that China needs from Latin America, and why China isn’t seeking military dominance in the region.

Special note:  This podcast reflects Dr. Watson’s personal analysis and is not any statement of government policy.

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David Ranz, a diplomat for over 25 years, joins us to discuss his career and his current job as Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary at the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs. He walks us through the history of US-Pakistan relations from pre-Cold War to present day, why Pakistan’s relationship with India affects its relationship with Afghanistan and other neighbors, why the US is concerned about terrorist organizations operating in Pakistan, and current challenges in the US-Pakistan relationship including nuclear weapons policies. Mr Ranz shares valuable insider knowledge from his decades of experience in the State Department, including clarification of the recent announcement suspension of military assistance to Pakistan. “Democracy is predicated on the notion of an informed public,” Mr Ranz tells us, sharing his advice on how American citizens can continue to follow State Department updates and to find credible sources on international news and global events.

About David Ranz

A native of New York, David J. Ranz is a member of the Senior Foreign Service. A career diplomat since 1992 focused on the Arab and Muslim world, Mr. Ranz is currently Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia (India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Maldives) in the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs. He was formerly Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Pakistan, and prior to that, Director of the Office of Pakistan Affairs. Mr. Ranz previously served as Chargé d’Affaires, a.i., Acting Deputy Chief of Mission, and Counselor for Political Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, Egypt; and as Spokesman and Counselor for Public Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq. Mr. Ranz has also served in Rabat, Morocco; Jerusalem; Karachi, Pakistan; and Washington, DC. Mr. Ranz was the 2004 recipient of the U.S. Department of State’s Herbert Salzman Award for International Economic Performance, and 2013 runner-up for the James Clement Dunn Award for Excellence. Mr. Ranz has also received five State Department Superior Honor Awards, and a U.S. Department of the Army Commander’s Award for Public Service from General (ret.) David Petraeus. Mr. Ranz graduated summa cum laude from Yale University in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science, and received a Master in Public Policy degree from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University in 2005. Mr. Ranz is married to Taly Lind, a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Agency for International Development, and has two children. He speaks Arabic, French, and Hebrew.

More than a million Rohingya people have fled their homes in Myanmar to escape ethnic and religious persecution. Jesse Hartness from Save the Children joins the podcast to discuss the Rohingya Crisis and the ways in which Save the Children is working to provide Rohingya children with healthcare and education. At its peak, the Rohingya Crisis saw more than 10,000 people per day moving across the border into Bangladesh. Today, Bangladesh plays host to the world’s largest refugee camp with nearly 1 million people — double the size of any previous camp. Save the Children has been involved in Bangladesh since 1970, and today’s expanded relief mission employs nearly 1,600 staff members and volunteers.

Jesse Hartness

Jesse Hartness is the Senior Director for Emergency Health & Nutrition at Save the Children. He has been working for Save the Children for more than 12 years in over a dozen countries. As a

About Save the Children: https://www.savethechildren.org/us/about-us