Carnegie Council Audio Podcast

Waleed Alhariri, U.S. director of the Sana'a Center for Strategic Studies, discusses major developments in the Yemen conflict, which remains the world's worst humanitarian crisis. With renewed momentum at the UN and in U.S. Congress, an increased international focus on the war after the Jamal Khashoggi murder, and a fragile ceasefire in Hudaydah, Yemen's biggest port, Alhariri is "carefully optimistic" that conditions could improve in the coming months.

Elana Beiser of the Committee to Protect Journalists discusses the latest CPJ report, which finds that for the third year in a row, 251 or more journalists are jailed around the world, suggesting the authoritarian approach to critical news coverage is more than a temporary spike. Also for the third year running, Turkey, China, and Egypt were responsible for about half of those imprisoned, with Turkey remaining the world's worst jailer.

Pacific Delegates Austin McKinney and Chetan Pedada both have military backgrounds and technology expertise. They discuss ways in which machine-learning and military cooperation could help the Philippines cope with climate change and natural disasters and also reflect on the human impact that climate change is already having on these islands and how Filipinos are working together to respond.

Yoko Okura of Mercy Corps discusses her recent visit to Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh, the site of a camp for 1 million Rohingya refugees. She learned every day, that 700 tons of trees--four football fields--are being cut down for firewood and construction, bringing an increased risk of landslides and floods. She also reflects on her visit to Manila with Carnegie Council and the advantages of traveling with a group from different disciplines.

There are few, if any, who understand the Korean Peninsula situation better than Ambassador Hill. He served as U.S. ambassador to South Korea and assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, and was head of the U.S. delegation to the 2005 six-party talks aimed at resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis. In this wise and witty talk he explains where we are today, how we got here, and where we're likely to go in the future.

Carnegie Council Senior Fellow Nikolas Gvosdev and host Alex Woodson discuss the state of foreign policy after the midterm elections. How can newcomers like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have a tangible effect in Washington? Will Democrats be able to unite behind a platform? Plus, they look ahead to 2020 and speak about Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Nikki Haley and how American values will play into the future of international relations.

"You saw the Russians start to pay attention to social media, in particular after Obama's election, because the way that he was elected was new to them. They always watch our elections very closely. So you see them toying around in this whole space of the sphere of information, the use of information as a tool of political warfare, developing new tools." Molly McKew delves into Russian disinformation campaigns in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Artificial Intelligence's potential for doing good and creating benefits is almost boundless, but equally there is a potential for doing great harm. This panel discusses the findings of a comprehensive three-year project at The Hastings Center, which encompassed safety procedures, engineering approaches, and legal and ethical oversight.

Historian and Carnegie Council Senior Fellow Ted Widmer looks back to the end of the First World War, and the upheaval that followed it in Europe and the U.S., and forward to a new stage in the Trump presidency. Plus, he and host Alex Woodson discuss ways to improve American democracy and what can be learned from the legacy of President George H. W. Bush.

"Were we a business, were we a mission, were we a public service, or were we a profit center?" Alan Rusbridger, former editor-in-chief of "The Guardian," grapples with the questions facing all newspapers in this new age where people "communicate horizontally" rather than via the old, vertical "tablet of stone model." He explains how "The Guardian" has not only survived but prospered and has surprisingly positive things to say about new media.

Education for Employment's Mariel Davis discusses some of the many issues surrounding women's employment in the Middle East and North Africa, focusing on the story of a young Palestinian working in the hospitality industry. Plus, she details the struggles of working--and trying to work--in war-torn Yemen.

"The analogy that is at the heart of this book is about a jungle and a garden," says Robert Kagan. "In order to have a garden and sustain a garden, you've got to be constantly gardening. For me at least, that is a good analogy for this liberal world order, which itself is an unnatural creation which natural forces are always working to undermine." Human nature has not fundamentally changed, and this peaceful period is an aberration.

The Rohingya are seen as fundamentally 'other,' says Prasse-Freeman. "Hence, even if they have formal citizenship, they wouldn't really be accepted as citizens, as full members of the polity." Could Aung San Suu Kyi have done more to prevent the persecution? How important was the hate speech on Facebook? How can the situation be resolved? Don't miss this informative and troubling conversation.

The right to benefit from scientific progress was enshrined in the United Nations' 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, explains University of Copenhagen's Professor Helle Porsdam. Unfortunately, many people, including scientists and policymakers, don't know much about it. How was the right to science developed? What are examples? And, with an anti-science administration in the White House today, what are the contentious issues?

Professor Saiph Savage is an activist scholar and technology expert who is using large-scale data to study the sophisticated ways in which trolls target certain groups and bombard them with misinformation--for example U.S. Latinos were targeted in the 2018 midterm elections as were Mexicans in their 2018 presidential election. But her message is one of hope. In Mexico, citizens eventually saw through misinformation campaigns and others can too.

Trump has a love-hate relationship with the press, which he calls "the enemy of the people" when it crosses him, knowing nothing of the origins of the phrase, says Marvin Kalb. Yet the pillars of democracy are the sanctity of the court and the freedom of the press. "I think that President Trump—not wittingly, unwittingly—is moving this nation away from our common understanding of democracy toward something that edges toward authoritarianism."

Can violent societies get better? Rachel Kleinfeld discusses her latest book, "A Savage Order: How the World's Deadliest Countries Can Forge a Path to Security." Her conclusion is ultimately optimistic: Though it's never easy, real democracy (not autocracy in disguise) and a vibrant middle class can provide a path out of violence.

When most Americans think about the Taliban, their minds go to Osama bin Laden, terrorism, and the endless war in Afghanistan. But as Jonathan Cristol writes in his book, "The United States and Taliban before and after 9/11," there is much more to the story as both sides met countless times in the 1990s, with the Taliban eager to have good relations with America. What was the bigger stumbling block for the U.S.: women's rights or al-Qaeda? What are the lessons for today?

In this illuminating conversation, China scholar Joshua Eisenman discusses his two latest books: "Red China's Green Revolution," which overturns the conventional wisdom (both in China and abroad) that Chairman Mao's commune system was a failure; and a co-edited volume "China Steps Out," which explains why for China (unlike the United States), developing regions are a cornerstone of its foreign policy.

As activists, politicians, and environmentalists come to terms with a dire report on global warming from the UN's IPCC, Janos Pasztor, executive director of the Carnegie Climate Geoengineering Governance Initiative (C2G2), remains focused on the governance of the potential use of climate change "mitigation" technologies. What do these discussions look like in China? What do smaller countries think? And how challenging is it that climate change remains a political divisive issue in the U.S.?