Tallberg Foundation Podcast

The competition between China and the United States is the defining geopolitical reality of the 21st century. The evolution of its new Great Game will determine whether our collective future will be one of prosperity or disaster. This week, we talk to Kishore Mahbubani, the renowned Singaporean global strategist. He knows both super powers, understand the risks of a potential collision and has ideas about how to avoid one. His most recent book—as well as this conversation—asks, Has China Won?

The United Nations turned 75 this year—but the pandemic overwhelmed its birthday party. The UN, built in a different world, has succeeded in its core mission: preventing World War III. But is the UN, as it is now constructed, relevant to the problems of the 21st century? In this episode Alan Stoga talks to Jan Eliasson, a Swedish and global diplomat who served as Deputy Secretary-General, about a world that seems unwilling to embrace global solutions for global problems.

Do you think we live in a world that is increasingly dangerous, full of not just Great Power competitors, but potential enemies? Such a world is described by General H.R. McMaster, a highly decorated U.S. military officer, former national security advisor and historian in his book, Battlegrounds. In this episode he discusses with Alan Stoga how he believes the U. S. and like-minded countries can maneuver through today’s complicated global realities to produce peace and prosperity for their citizens.

Like a great magician, the pandemic has drawn our attention away from things that are hiding in plain sight. One of those has been the plight of millions of refugees and migrants who are in camps or trying to escape from war, violence or poverty. Myrto Xanthopoulou who recently was on Lesbos, Greece, Mike Niconchuk, neuroscientist and conflict researcher based in Jordan, and Megan Lopéz head of the International Rescue Committee's work in Latin America, describe the realities on the ground.

The world's a mess. The great powers today, the Chinese and the Americans, seem to disagree on most things. The UK has left the EU and the Europeans are split. China's pushing its neighbors. Russia's pecking at Europe's borders. Although each of those has its own story, is there something more fundamental going on? Are the geopolitical tectonic plates shifting? Alan Stoga looks for answers from Robin Niblett, director at Chatham House, and an expert on British, European and American foreign policies.

South Sudan celebrated its hard-won independence in 2011, but today is considered one of the most fragile, even failed states in the world.  What went wrong?  Why are democratic governance and prosperity so elusive for the people of Sudan and much of the rest of the Horn of Africa?   Peter Biar Ajak has answers and ideas for a better future. Ajak—a South Sudanese political activist, economist and former political prisoner—recently fled to asylum in the United States and spoke with Alan Stoga.

Closed borders, hoarded medical equipment, confused policies. By any measures, the pandemic has not been EU's finest hour. But could it been bad enough that Europe's leaders now know that they must do better? Might the failures of the last months produce a more successful future for Europe? Ana Palacio, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain, Magnus Schöldtz, former Ambassador at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, talk about Europes challenges with Alan Stoga in this week's podcast.

Turkey and Greece are locked in a struggle in the Eastern Mediterranean that feels like it belongs more in 1920 than in 2020.  Is war possible?  Will Greece’s European allies come to its rescue?  What happens if Turkey’s aggressive president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan miscalculates how far he can push the Greeks? In this New Thinking for a New World podcast, Alan Stoga looks for answers from Constantinos Filis, Executive Director at the Institute of International Relations of Panteion University in At

One hundred years ago to the month, the collapsing Ottoman Empire was finally out of its misery in the Treaty of Sevre. However, in an echo of American author Mark Twain’s dictum that history never repeats, but sometimes rhymes, President Erdogan of Turkey today seems set on creating a new Ottoman power. He is playing a high stakes game that some think could even lead to war between Turkey and Greece or Egypt. Egypt’s Nabil Fahmy and Turkey’s Cengiz Çandar discuss what Erdogan wants with Alan Stoga.

Why do we seem unable to work together to manage our common home? Is the Covid pandemic considered “global” while Ebola was not, because Covid has laid waste to rich countries, while Ebola did not? Is the failure of governments that we see almost everywhere actually the failure of citizens for not demanding more of their leaders? Cardinal Michael Czerny, who heads the Vatican’s work on refugees and migrants, offers uncomfortable answers in this conversation with Alan Stoga.

At least so far, what plagues Africa is less Covid-19, than its consequences: collapsed economies, an industrial world that is closing to Africa, severe climate change, and the urgent need to grow and develop faster to serve its young, demanding population. How can Africa cope? Are solutions—or, at least, possibilities—to be found at the local, national or regional level? Alan Stoga talks to Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, mayor of Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown, and Carole Wainaina, a leader of Africa50

Why do nations, rich and poor, tolerate widespread slavery, human trafficking and even the buying and selling of young children in the 21st century?  These abominations exist everywhere and at a scale that makes them one of the largest global criminal enterprises.  How is that possible? In this episode Alan Stoga explores the darkness of slavery—which consumes even very young children—with India’s Sunitha Krishnan.  Sunitha, leads a dangerous, discouraging fight to rescue the enslaved and stop t

Like everything in life, Covid is producing losers and winners, not the least from the global recession it has spawned. It’s even possible that the economic effects will linger long after the pandemic has faded—and that the winners will still be winners. That’s one of the issues explored in the conversation with German business leader Kurt Lauk and long-time top American central banker Terry Checki. What happens when the global economy collapses, but global financial markets boom?

Why has the US stopped investing in itself? Why do things—from cell phones to highways to schools to trains—work better in countries that used to look to the US as their model?  We speak with Christine Loh who is a Hong Kong-based academic, environmentalist, and former government official with deep ties to the United States. Her conversation with Alan Stoga raises questions about how and if the country can recover its dynamism.  Not to be trite or political but can America be great again?

Maybe this mess—a pandemic, collapsing economy and racial inequalities laid bare—is exactly what the US needs. Maybe the outcome will be a more normal country, instead of one that thinks it is exceptional. That might be better for Americans and the rest of the world, argues Jorge Castañeda, a Mexican educator, author and former Foreign Minister. In this episode, Castañeda talks about his latest book, “America Through Foreign Eyes” and explains why the US is headed in exactly the right direction.

Looking for silver linings may be an integral part of the human condition. Even during the bleakest moments—like during a global pandemic, leadership failures and profound social stress everywhere—we try to find bits and pieces of positive energy and new ideas. Juan Enriquez, one of the world’s leading authorities on the economic and political impact of life science technology, and Fio Omenetto, who works at the cutting edge of living materials engineering, on a search for the upside of the global mes

American Carnage or American Dream? It matters to everyone everywhere whether or not the US is in terminal decline or resetting the basis of its democracy and its society. If the former, the global order will change in incalculable ways. If the latter, life after the pandemic could actually be better. Three global thinkers—a Mexican journalist (Ana Paula Ordorica), a Kenyan poet (Sitawa Namwalie) and a Congolese choreographer (Faustin Linyekula)—what they think is happening in America now.

Like everywhere else, Morocco must cope with the potentially overwhelming health, economic and political consequences of the pandemic. But unlike most places, the country has a well-designed, focused strategy to mitigate the worst of what is happening and, possibly, to position itself—and the rest of Africa—for a better future. In this episode Ahmed Reda Chami—President of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council of Morocco—discussed the challenges facing his country as well as the rest of

In the midst of a global pandemic, leaders and people have turned local. That is not all bad: some people are working to strengthen their local communities, exploring new grassroots solutions and showing support for local businesses. Could these contribute to a new normal that is more people-oriented and more sustainable? Listen to Rosario Diaz Garavito, The Millennials Movement, Baiqu Gonkar, Art Represent and David Ross, Copia, discuss the different future that could emerge from the Covid crisis.

Tomas Anker Christensen, Denmark’s Climate Ambassador, and Daniel Martinez-Valle, CEO of Orbia, discusses both the need and opportunity for urgent, positive creative climate activism in the wake of the pandemic. Also the need to develop effective partnerships between government and corporations, to find a better balance between globalism and nationalism, and to innovate solutions that assure the transformation to a low carbon economy creates, rather than destroys, jobs, growth and economic opportunity.