Global in the Granite State Tim Horgan

For the past 77 years, since the founding of Pakistan at the partition of British held India, the United States and Pakistan have worked together to try and bring stability to this region of the world. As the fifth largest country in the world, as measured by population, and sitting at a geopolitical strategic crossroads, Pakistan remains an important partner on a wide range of issues of global, regional, and national interest. Whether it is managing their own relations with India, balancing the interests of the United States and China, or working on transnational issues such as climate change and terrorism, this country plays a key role in responding to the various challenges facing the world today. In this episode, we speak with Pakistan's Ambassador to the United States, Masood Khan, to explore the role that Pakistan would like to fill in the international system, to discuss where interests overlap, and to identify what Pakistan wants to see from its relationship with the United States. Through this conversation, we highlight the importance of understanding the deeper relationships than what is typically talked about. By discussing how the US-Pakistan relationship goes deeper than counterterrorism, we can better understand the ways this relationship can be leveraged to benefit both countries. Ambassador Masood Khan is currently serving as Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States, a role he has held since 2022. Prior to that he was the President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir from August 2016 to August 2021. Immediately before becoming the President he was the Director General of the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad, one of the top think tanks in Pakistan.Ambassador Masood Khan had a distinguished diplomatic career. Most notably, he served as:Spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2003 to 2005;Pakistan’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organizations in Geneva, Switzerland, from 2005 to 2008;Pakistan’s Ambassador to China from 2008 to 2012; andPakistan’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Headquarters, New York, from 2012 to 2015.In his earlier diplomatic career, he held important diplomatic positions in China, The Netherlands, United Nations (New York) and the USA (Washington D.C. from 1997 to 2002).Over the years, he has also held leadership positions in the international community which include:President of the Conference on Disarmament,Chairman of the Committee on Internet Governance of the 2005 World Summit for Information Society.President of the Biological Weapons Review Conference 2006,President of the Governmental Group of the International Labour Organization (ILO),Chairman of the ILO Reform Committee,Chairman of the Council of the International Organization for MigrationChairman of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Geneva.Chairman of the Group of 77 and China.In New York, Ambassador Khan represented Pakistan as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council from 2012 to 2013 and became the President of the Security Council in January 2013.While in New York, he was also theVice President of the Economic and Social Council,Vice President of the UN General Assembly andPresident of the Executive Board of UNICEF.Ambassador Masood Khan also remained Pakistan’s Chief Negotiator (Sherpa) for the US-led Nuclear Security Summits, from 2009 to 2015.

On the heels of the latest aid package for Ukraine from the United States, the Global in the Granite State reached out to one of our exchange alumni, Member of Parliament Nataliya Pipa, from Ukraine to hear about what life is currently like in the country and what this latest round of support will mean for their ongoing fight against Russia. Providing key insights into how the people of Ukraine have proven resilient in the face of this unprovoked war, MP Pipa gives listeners a first hand account of the devastation, while sharing the joy of knowing that people and governments still care about the freedom and future of Ukraine. MP Pipa visited New Hampshire in July of 2021 through the Open World Leadership program, having the opportunity to share best practices with her local counterparts on creating accountability in government. One year later, she was back to thank the people of New Hampshire for their support for her country in the early stages of what is now a three year old war. This compelling conversation will provide listeners with a better understanding of the war, what is at stake, and what Western support means. While some will debate whether or not weakening the Russian Military and its morale is in our own national interest, you cannot deny the importance of this support to Ukraine, from a Ukrainian perspective. Nataliya Pipa has been a Member of Parliament since 2019, representing a western region of Ukraine, including part of the city of Lviv. Prior to becoming a Member of Parliament, she was involved in volunteering, working on the ecological situation in Lviv and fighting illegal constructions. Along with other activists she managed to stop illegal construction and to create a public space “Square of Dignity”. Her main focus in the Parliament is on education and she has a specific interest in the expansion of education programs. She is married to a teacher and has two young sons. 

While much attention is paid to the illegal invasion of Ukraine by Russia, it is important to note that Russia continues to try and exert influence across the world. This is particularly true across the Middle East, where Russia has tried to center itself as the reliable partner for autocratic leaders throughout the region. Russia has a long history of engagement with Middle Eastern Leaders, but after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it saw its influence wane, down to just a couple of countries. Over the past ten years, however, they have regained a foothold through the Syrian Civil war and have increased their engagement with other countries, especially in the wake of the Arab Spring. While Russia has many interests in the region, our speaker, Vice Admiral John W. Miller (ret.), proposes that the driving force of Russian interests are two fold; to create transactional relationships that benefit Russia, and to disrupt the U.S.' vision for the region. Join us for this episode to gain critical insights into why Russian engagement in the Middle East is an issue that all Americans should be aware of and why it is in the U.S.' national security interest to counter their growing influence. This episode will highlight the number of ways in which the U.S. and Russia approach this region and how many countries would prefer to partner with these large global actors.  Admiral John W. Miller serves as the President and CEO of The Fozzie Miller Group, LLC and as a Principal Partner of Global Alliance Advisors, LLC, both Washington DC based national security firms positioned at the intersection of government policy, defense acquisition programs, and industrial performance. The firm teams with US and international clients to deliver solutions that blend national security strategies and industrial growth into achievable national security objectives.Admiral Miller also serves as a Highly Qualified Expert and Senior Mentor to the U.S. Naval War College, providing advice and expertise to the U.S. Navy on a wide range of operational and educational subjects.His last three assignments in the Navy were as Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command/Commander U.S. Fifth Fleet/Commander/ Combined Maritime Forces; Commander, Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center; and Commander, Carrier Strike Group Eleven.Admiral Miller also serves as a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and as an active member of the U.S. Naval Academy Foundation Board of Trustees. 

Haiti is a country that has suffered through a long, hard history. From disasters, both natural and man-made, the people of Haiti continue to strive to create a bright future for themselves. However, today that goal seems further away than ever and many people would be hard pressed to see the light at the end of the tunnel. How did a land that was once the Pearl in the Crown of the French Empire ends up in such chaos? In this episode we explore the rich and challenging history of this country, while looking at the current crisis and explaining the difficult road ahead. However, this is not all doom and gloom, as there are glimmers of hope that we can look to in order to see a brighter future for the people of this island nation.Sophie Rutenbar is a visiting fellow in the Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings, which she joins as a Council on Foreign Relations international affairs fellow. She also currently works as a visiting scholar with the Prevention and Peacebuilding Program of the New York University Center for International Cooperation.Rutenbar was previously the mission planning officer for the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti. Based in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, she worked in the front office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General conducting strategic planning for the United Nations in Haiti. Before that, she served as political affairs officer with the policy planning team of the United Nations Department of Peace Operations. In that role, she worked extensively on U.N. peacekeeping and peace and security reform processes, including supporting the Action for Peacekeeping Initiative (2018-present), the secretary-general’s Peace and Security Restructuring (2017-18) and the High-Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations (2015). Rutenbar also helped lead efforts to enhance U.N. peace operations’ capacity to respond to the evolving technology landscape and strengthen U.N. efforts to engage with non-state armed groups.Her other experience at the U.N. has included working with the United Nations Department of Field Support, United Nations Mission in South Sudan, and the U.N. Secretary-General’s high-level panel on the global response to future health crises. She joined the United Nations in 2013 as the first U.S.-sponsored associate expert/junior professional officer in the U.N. Secretariat, working with the policy planning team for the Departments of Peacekeeping Operations and Field Support.Before joining the U.N., Rutenbar worked for organizations in Sudan and South Sudan, including observing the 2011 referendum process on independence for southern Sudan with the Carter Center and working for USAID’s Sudan and South Sudan Transition and Conflict Mitigation Program. She also has experience in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, and Thailand.She was a 2005 Truman Scholar and previously served as co-president of the board of the Truman Scholars Association. She is also a security fellow with the Truman National Security Project. Rutenbar graduated magna cum laude from the University of Texas at Dallas, where she studied global politics as a Eugene McDermott Scholar. Through the Marshall Scholarship, she received master’s degrees in conflict, security, and development from the War Studies Department at King’s College London and in human rights from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

You may have heard the name before, when they burst onto the international scene in the wake of the Arab Spring, challenged the central government and eventually a Saudi led international response. However, with the civil war winding down in Yemen, the Houthis name recognition seemed on the decline. The war in Gaza has brought this group back to the forefront of the world's mind, as they began firing rockets and drones at cargo ships in the Red Sea, stating that they would stop only when the war in Gaza came to an end. So who are the Houthis and what do they stand for? This group has an interesting background that brought them from a local political party, based on a historical Zaydi Islamic kingdom that ruled North Yemen for around 1,000 years to an international disruptor who has changed the way that upwards of 12% of global trade occurs. In this episode we talk with Sarhang Hamasaeed, Director of the Middle East Program at the US Institute of Peace, to learn more about the history of this group, what they are looking to accomplish, and why they were so successful in capturing and maintaining critical territory from the internationally recognized government. It is important to understand global issues and the people driving it, as we look to understand potential policy responses. 

Over the past couple of years the idea of weaponizing migration has come to the forefront, particularly as the current case of Russia enabling migrants to access the Russia Finnish border and Belarus using travel agents to bring migrants to their border with Poland in 2021. However, this "hybrid warfare tactic", as several targeted states have termed it is not something new, it is instead a well worn path used by state and nonstate actors for centuries. To get a better understanding of what weaponized migration is and is not, we spoke with Dr. Kelly Greenhill, professor at Tufts University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as well as author of the book "Weapons of Mass Migration: Forced Displacement, Coercion, and Foreign Policy", probing some interesting stories of people being used as political pawns to extract concessions from targeted governments. Throughout this conversation we covered not only the how and why of weaponized migration, but also the ways in which targeted states and communities can respond (some more palatable than others). One of the most interesting things to note in this is that this coercive tactic only works when the targeted country's population is divided over immigration debates. This means that the United States, which has not been able to agree on immigration policy changes since 1994, is very vulnerable to this and needs to prepare for various countries to utilize this tactic both very publicly and in more clandestine ways. As the Presidential Election season is upon us and the Southern Border remains a hotly debated issue, it is interesting to wonder what the sudden appearance of migrant caravans might be in service of. Are countries trying to impact our elections by creating these caravans and encouraging them to move north? What can malign regimes extract from the Biden Administration simply by threatening to release waves of people upon the US' southern border?Join us for this engaging conversation and dive into the realities of this all too common exploitation of people looking for a better, safer, and brighter future.