The Global Dialogue - A PGAN Podcast

The Global Dialogue

The Global Dialogue is one of the fastest-growing English-language foreign-affairs podcasts with over 3.5 million views and 40K+ subscribers in just two months across 15 episodes. Produced by PGAN, a global network of internationally educated scholars and professionals spanning 70+ countries. New episodes regularly — subscribe and join the conversation.

  1. Has India Weaponised the Indus? Prof. Filippo Menga on the Indus Water Treaty

    6h ago

    Has India Weaponised the Indus? Prof. Filippo Menga on the Indus Water Treaty

    Fourteen months after India placed the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance, has water weaponisation actually held up? Prof. Filippo Menga, one of the world's leading scholars of hydro-politics, joins The Global Dialogue to unpack what changed India's water calculus, why the Harmon Doctrine still haunts upstream-downstream disputes and whether the threat of future water control now does more geopolitical work than actual diversion. Prof. Filippo Menga is Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Bergamo and Editor-in-Chief of Political Geography, the flagship journal in the field. One of the world's leading scholars of hydro-politics, he is the author of Thirst: The Global Quest to Solve the Water Crisis and Power and Water in Central Asia. 00:00 Intro01:26 Fourteen Months On: Has Water Weaponisation Held Up?06:14 What Changed India’s Water Calculus?14:58 Harmon Doctrine16:37 When Water Becomes a Lifeline, Not a Treaty17:15 A Collapse of Pakistan Means a Collapse of India 20:32 Attacks on Desalination Plants 22:04 Is the IWT Really Exceptional?26:51 How Information Becomes Power in Hydro-Politics29:30 Upstream vs Downstream Countries33:19 Are Dams Engineering or Power Projection?40:00 Is The Threat of Future Water Control Now Doing More Geopolitical Work Than Actual Water Diversion?43:05 The Limits of International Water Law47:44 Is the Indus Case Part of a Global Treaty Breakdown?51:13 Is the Indus a Warning for Other River Basins?55:46 Indus, Hormuz and the Future of Water Law1:00:40 In the Future Will Historians See This as The End or Reinvention of the IWT? Subscribe for conversations with leading global scholars on the forces shaping Pakistan and the world. To stay in touch, follow Pakistan Global Alumni Network :  / pakistanglobalalumninetwork    / pakglobalalumni

    1h 6m
  2. US Diplomat Who Quit Over Gaza: Hala Rharrit on Iran and Pakistan’s Moment

    Jun 26

    US Diplomat Who Quit Over Gaza: Hala Rharrit on Iran and Pakistan’s Moment

    Hala Rharrit is the first and only US State Department diplomat to publicly resign over Gaza, stepping down in April 2024 after 18 years in the Foreign Service. A career political and human rights officer with postings in Yemen, Qatar, Hong Kong, and South Africa, she served as the State Department's Arabic-language spokesperson before leaving in protest over US policy on Israel's war in Gaza. In this episode of The Global Dialogue, Hala Rharrit joins us for a wide-ranging conversation on the fragility of the ceasefire, the mounting pressure on the Trump administration, and the erosion of Western trust and media dominance across the region. The discussion centers on Pakistan's emergence as a credible mediator: what made it the right country to host this diplomacy, how it can carry that weight forward, and whether a regional bloc anchored by Muslim-majority states is a realistic prospect. Rharrit also weighs in on China's role in the mediation, the trajectory from Gaza to Iran and beyond, and makes the striking case that Netanyahu's government deliberately enabled the financing of Ham*s for years as a strategy to divide Palestinian leadership. To stay in touch, follow Pakistan Global Alumni Network :  https://pakglobalalumni.org/  YouTube: https://youtube.com/@pakistanglobalalumninetwork?si=woAmz9cKBoIilbKp  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PakistanGlobalAlumniNetwork/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pakglobalalumni/  Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@pakistan_globalalumni  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pakistan-global-alumni-network/  X: https://x.com/PakGlobalAlumni

    43 min
  3. Can Pakistan End the Iran-Israel War? | Dr. Trita Parsi

    Jun 26

    Can Pakistan End the Iran-Israel War? | Dr. Trita Parsi

    Did the United States and Israel miscalculate when they took the war to Iran? And as the region searches for an exit, is Pakistan the actor best placed to broker a conclusive end to the conflict? In this episode of The Global Dialogue, Dr. Trita Parsi, Executive Vice President of the Quincy Institute and one of the foremost voices on Iran and US foreign policy, joins us to unpack what the war revealed, what de-escalation realistically looks like now and why Pakistan's mediating role may prove decisive. We discuss whether the conflict was ever truly about the nuclear programme, the real sentiment inside Iran and the prospects for regime change, the confusion driving conflicting signals out of Washington, the future of the Abraham Accords and whether a regional security architecture is beginning to take shape. Throughout, we keep the focus where it belongs: on Pakistan as a strategic actor with the standing, the relationships, and the maturity to help close this conflict rather than watch it from the sidelines. To stay in touch, follow Pakistan Global Alumni Network :  https://pakglobalalumni.org/  YouTube: https://youtube.com/@pakistanglobalalumninetwork?si=woAmz9cKBoIilbKp  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PakistanGlobalAlumniNetwork/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pakglobalalumni/  Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@pakistan_globalalumni  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pakistan-global-alumni-network/  X: https://x.com/PakGlobalAlumni

    39 min
  4. Why Pakistan Matters: Dr Michael O'Hanlon on US-Pakistan Ties, India & Middle-Power Diplomacy | PGAN

    Jun 26

    Why Pakistan Matters: Dr Michael O'Hanlon on US-Pakistan Ties, India & Middle-Power Diplomacy | PGAN

    In this episode of the PGAN Podcast, we are joined by Dr Michael O'Hanlon — Senior Fellow and Director of Research in Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution, holder of the Phil Knight Chair in Defense and Strategy, and one of America's most respected voices on US defence policy, military strategy, and international security. The conversation centres on his latest book, To Dare Mighty Things: American Power in the 21st Century — a sweeping reassessment of how the United States should think about its military, its alliances, and its role in a rapidly shifting global order. Dr O'Hanlon walks us through the strategic logic behind America's evolving way of war, the hard-earned lessons of Iraq, and whether Washington still has a coherent grand strategy in an increasingly multipolar world. The discussion then shifts to South Asia through a Pakistani lens — the evolving US-Pakistan relationship, Pakistan's call for an independent international investigation, the dangerous trajectory of India's rising defence spending, and Islamabad's clear position that there is no space for nuclear war in the region. We close on Pakistan's recent diplomatic wins and what they reveal about the growing role of middle powers in shaping 21st-century global diplomacy. To stay in touch, follow Pakistan Global Alumni Network :  https://pakglobalalumni.org/  YouTube: https://youtube.com/@pakistanglobalalumninetwork?si=woAmz9cKBoIilbKp  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PakistanGlobalAlumniNetwork/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pakglobalalumni/  Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@pakistan_globalalumni  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pakistan-global-alumni-network/  X: https://x.com/PakGlobalAlumni

    36 min

About

The Global Dialogue is one of the fastest-growing English-language foreign-affairs podcasts with over 3.5 million views and 40K+ subscribers in just two months across 15 episodes. Produced by PGAN, a global network of internationally educated scholars and professionals spanning 70+ countries. New episodes regularly — subscribe and join the conversation.