Contingents from around the world gathered in Istanbul earlier this week for the first-ever United Nations World Humanitarian Summit. The goal is to overhaul how aid is delivered, and to make the world safer for refugees during what the U.N. has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis since the Second World War. Turkey’s hosting of the summit is symbolic, since that country has spent $10 billion and taken in more than 2.7 million migrants during the refugee crisis created by the five-years

Political scientist and self-described “military sociologist” Zoltan Barany argues it’s possible to predict how a general will respond to a domestic revolt if we know enough about the army, the state and society it serves, and the external environment. But first, Rebecca Cruise and Suzette Grillot talk about former Boko Haram kidnapping victims, and the expansion of NATO as the alliance invites the small Balkan nation of Montenegro to join.

In February 2011, President Obama criticized the U.S. intelligence community for not accurately forecasting the unrest in Tunisia would spread to Egypt and other Middle East countries, sparking a region-wide Arab Spring, an unremitting civil war in Syria, and the rise of ISIS. The president had harsh words for the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper about how quickly the forces in Tunisia turned against the authoritarian regime, The New York Times’ Mark Mazzetti wrote at the time:

London’s new mayor Sadiq Khan formally took office Sunday. He’s the first Muslim mayor of London, and comes from a humble background. Born in England, he’s the son of Pakistani immigrants – his mother worked as a seamstress, and his father drove a bus. The Labour Party politician is already making a splash with comments about apparent Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s views on Islam. Rebecca Cruise, a comparative politics expert and the assistant dean of the College of International

This week Germany rescinded about 50,000 convictions for homosexual behavior that occurred between 1949 and 1969. The law in question was actually repealed in 1994, but those convictions were never taken off the books, so this move marks a step toward demonstrating the country’s acceptance of sexual orientation. Rebecca Cruise, the assistant dean of the University of Oklahoma’s College of International Studies, says timing becomes an issue 50-70 years later. “They're wanting to get this law into

When anthropologist Laura Graham was working on her graduate research with the Xavante people in Brazil during the 1990s, she encountered a Catholic priest who inadvertently showed her the power of media. “He came to the community, and he brought film of Xavante that had been filmed in another area,” Graham said. “And they were so excited to see this film. But he said, ‘You can watch this film after you watch a film of Jesus Christ and the Resurrection.’ So it was this kind of bribe. And that

Suzette Grillot and Rebecca Cruise discuss new London mayor Sadiq Khan, and Germany's decision to rescind the conviction of 50,000 Germans convicted of homosexuality between 1949 and 1969. Then, Suzette talks with anthropologist Laura Graham and filmmaker David Hernández-Palmar about their work with indigenous populations in South America.

Thom Shanker spent nearly 14 years covering the Pentagon for The New York Times, and says U.S. foreign policy should be about earning respect and trust instead of winning hearts and minds. He’ll also talk with Suzette Grillot about his book Counterstrike that focuses on the U.S. campaign against Al Qaeda. But first, Suzette and Rebecca Cruise discuss the North Korean Workers Party's first Congress in nearly four decades, new details about American missionary Kenneth Bae's time in a North Korean

North Korea, past and present, is at the top of the international consciousness this week. The reclusive country convened the Seventh Workers’ Party Congress in Pyongyang on Friday. It’s the highest political gathering the country holds, and the country hasn’t held one in 36 years, before the current leader Kim Jong-un was born. During the Sixth Party Congress in 1980, then-leader Kim Il-sung announced his son Kim Jong-il would succeed him. The second-generation Kim led the country from 1994

Thom Shanker took a job as the Pentagon correspondent for The New York Times in May 2001. Four months later hijackers crashed American Airlines Flight...