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Global Dispatches -- World News That Matters

Global Dispatches
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The longest running independent international affairs podcast features in-depth interviews with policymakers, journalists and experts around the world who discuss global news, international relations, global development and key trends driving world affairs. Named by The Guardian as "a podcast to make you smarter," Global Dispatches is a podcast for people who crave a deeper understanding of international news.

  1. HACE 2 DÍAS

    The Last of Syria's Political Prisoners are Still Languishing in Lebanese Jails

    When Damascus was liberated in December of last year and Bashar al-Assad fled to Moscow, thousands of the regime's political prisoners were released from jail. Around the region, Syrians who had fled the country began returning home. It was a joyous occasion for so many who had lived as refugees in neighboring countries — including in Lebanon, which had hosted more Syrian refugees than any other country. But there are still hundreds — possibly thousands — of Syrians who remain political prisoners in Lebanon. Most, if not all, of these prisoners are being detained by Hezbollah for their activities opposing the Assad regime, which was a key Hezbollah ally during Syria's civil war. In today's episode, I speak with one of those detainees — whom I will call Omar — who managed to smuggle a phone into a prison in Lebanon. Omar was detained in 2024, but prior to that he worked to expose Hezbollah's mass detention of Syrian opposition activists. In our conversation, he tells his story and that of his fellow detainees. This episode came about through a chance encounter with Mouaz Moustafa as we were both attending the Halifax International Security Forum last week. Mouaz Moustafa is the director of the Syria Emergency Task Force and has played a key role in supporting Syria's democratic transition since the fall of the Assad regime. I actually met Mouaz a couple of years ago at this same conference, and when I ran into him in hallway this year, he pitched me the story and offered to translate the interview. This episode would not have happened if not for the Halifax International Security Forum, so a special thank you to the conveners of this important global gathering.

    19 min

  2. 20 NOV

    Live From Kabul — The World's First Capital Facing Total Water Collapse

    Kabul is running out of water. If present trends continue, the capital of Afghanistan could run completely dry by 2030. There are several reasons for this. The first is climate change: there is less snowmelt to feed the city's aquifers. The second is aging infrastructure: pipelines are decrepit or, in some cases, non-existent. The third is management: in a city reeling from water shortages, people are drilling their own wells in yards and basements, with no regulation from the de facto Taliban government. The fourth is population pressure: the city has grown sixfold in the last twenty years. And over the last year alone, millions of Afghans who had fled to neighboring Iran and Pakistan have been forcibly returned, adding to already substantial resource pressures. This is causing extreme stress on the people of Kabul, who, according to my guest today Marianna von Zahn, are now spending about 30% of their income on water. Marianna von Zahn is the Afghanistan Country Representative and Director of Programs for Mercy Corps, which recently released a report on the dire water crisis in Kabul and will soon release a similar report on water shortages in other parts of the country. We kick off by discussing the scale and impact of the crisis in Kabul before having a longer conversation about what can be done to mitigate it. This includes exploring ways the international community can work with Taliban authorities to stave off an impending humanitarian catastrophe. https://www.globaldispatches.org/40percentoff

    24 min

  3. 17 NOV

    A Brilliant New Biography Tells the Story of the Cold War Era UN Secretary General U-Thant

    U Thant was a Burmese diplomat and the third Secretary-General of the United Nations. He assumed the role following the death of Dag Hammarskjöld in a plane crash in the Congo in 1961, and soon became one of the most consequential players in international affairs for over a decade. Thant's contributions to some of the key global challenges of the era were widely celebrated at the time but have since been overlooked—until now. A brilliant new biography, Peacemaker: U Thant and the Forgotten Quest for a Just World, places the former Secretary-General at the heart of several crucial moments of the 1960s, including the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War, post-colonial struggles in the Congo, and much more. The book is written by Thant Myint-U, a historian who has worked at the United Nations—and who also happens to be U Thant's grandson. In our conversation, Thant describes how his grandfather went from being a schoolteacher in rural Burma to, just 15 years later, playing a key role in mediating the Cuban Missile Crisis as UN Secretary-General. We also discuss Thant's efforts to end the Vietnam War before it escalated, and his work confronting a fascist regime in a breakaway region of the Congo. More broadly, we explore the lessons that the current UN system and its Secretary-General can draw from U Thant's remarkable tenure. Thant Myint-U is the author of Peacemaker: U Thant and the Forgotten Quest for a Just World.

    35 min

  4. 13 NOV

    How the UN General Assembly Can Get Its Peace and Security Groove Back

    My interview guest today, Axel Marschik, is a veteran Austrian diplomat who has thought extensively about how the General Assembly can play a more robust role in peace and security when the Security Council fails to do so. In a paper that was widely discussed around the UN, Ambassador Marschik proposed that the General Assembly craft pre-authorized sanctions that would be automatically triggered if the Security Council is "unable or unwilling to act to confront some of the most serious violations of international law, including aggression and mass atrocity crimes." Under his proposal, the General Assembly would design a suite of sanctions in the abstract that would become very real—and automatically imposed on the offending party—through a General Assembly vote should the Security Council fail to take meaningful action. In our conversation, Ambassador Marschik fleshes out this idea, including what sorts of sanctions he has in mind and how to translate this concept into a General Assembly resolution creating such a mechanism. Ambassador Marschik currently serves as Austria's Ambassador to Germany and previously served as Austria's Permanent Representative to the UN from 2020 to 2025. This episode of Global Dispatches is produced in partnership with Lex International Fund, a philanthropic initiative dedicated to strengthening international law to solve global challenges. It's part of our ongoing series highlighting the real-world impact of treaties on state behavior, called "When Treaties Work."

    26 min

  5. 10 NOV

    How Tanzania's Fraudulent Elections Sparked an Unusual Protest Movement

    On October 29, Tanzania held national presidential elections — and lo and behold, incumbent President Samia Suluhu Hassan "won" with a staggering 98% of the vote. Everyone knew what was going on. The election was a sham from the start: her main rival is sitting in prison awaiting a treason trial, and the election commission that certified her landslide is stacked with loyalists. Election hijinks aren't new in Tanzania, which has effectively been a one-party state for decades. What was new this time was the public reaction. Tanzanians — who don't have the same protest culture you see in nearby Kenya — poured into the streets in massive demonstrations demanding political change. For a moment, it felt like something was shifting. And then, just days later, security forces violently shut it all down, killing an unknown number of people. My guest today, Constantine Manda, an assistant professor at UC Irvine, helps unpack what happened and why this moment matters. We start with the political logic behind Samia declaring herself the 98% winner, then dig into what these protests and the crackdown reveal about Tanzania's political future.

    36 min

  6. 7 NOV • SÓLO PARA PERSONAS CON SUSCRIPCIÓN

    What Zohran Mamdani's Win Means for the UN

    New York isn’t just the cultural and media capital of the United States — it’s also the host city to the United Nations. Since 1962, City Hall has maintained a special office dedicated to liaising with the UN. Anjali and Mark discuss the history of this office and how municipal elections in New York are actually quite consequential for the United Nations. Also discussed this week: a new development in the race to replace António Guterres as UN Secretary-General; how the UN is responding to the unfolding disaster in Sudan; and whether the Security Council will approve a U.S.-drafted resolution to deploy an international security force to Gaza.

    29 min

  7. 6 NOV

    When Treaties Work: The Biological Weapons Convention

    2025 marks 50 years of the Biological Weapons Convention. Back in 1975, the treaty entered into force, and by banning biological weapons worldwide, it became the first global treaty to prohibit a particular weapon of war. The Biological Weapons Convention is widely adopted — 189 States Parties have pledged to never develop, produce, stockpile, or use biological weapons. And thankfully, these weapons have not featured much in modern conflict. But over the last 50 years, profound advances in the life sciences and bio research have emerged which, according to my guest today, pose a distinct challenge to this treaty. Jaime Yassif is the Vice President for Global Biological Policy and Programs at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a nonprofit global security organization focused on reducing nuclear, biological, and emerging technology threats. We kick off by discussing the history of this treaty, including why the time was right 50 years ago for it to come together. We spend most of our conversation, though, exploring the ways in which this treaty might be strengthened to adapt to a changing landscape of potential biological weapons risks today. This episode is produced in partnership with Lex International Fund, a philanthropic initiative dedicated to strengthening international law to solve global challenges. It's part of our ongoing series highlighting the real-world impact of treaties on state behavior, called "When Treaties Work."

    29 min

  8. 2 NOV

    A Genocidal Massacre is Underway in Sudan

    About a year and a half ago, I published an episode of Global Dispatches titled "A Genocidal Massacre Is Looming in Darfur." At the time, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces had conquered nearly all of Darfur, in western Sudan, except for its largest city, El Fasher. The RSF was laying siege to the city in preparation for an assault, and everything we knew about how this group operates suggested that if El Fasher fell, a mass atrocity would follow. Earlier this month, as it became apparent that the RSF was poised to launch its final assault, I published another episode explaining what was at stake. On October 27, El Fasher fell. And now, hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped in the city are being systematically killed. What is happening in El Fasher today was both predicted and predictable. The RSF are the rebranded Janjaweed—the same militia that carried out the first Darfur genocide twenty years ago. And since Sudan's civil war began in April 2023, every city in Darfur that has fallen to the RSF has become the site of ethnic massacres and credible accusations of genocide. Now the largest city in the region and last bastion of resistance has fallen and a major mass atrocity event is underway. My guest today, Mutasim Ali, is the same person I interviewed for that episode a year and a half ago. He is from El Fasher and serves as a legal advisor to the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights. We kick off discussing the significance of El Fasher in the context of Sudan's civil war and discuss the RSF's history of violence before having a long discussion about events ongoing in El Fasher today and what needs to be done to stop this violence. It's a heavy conversation, but worthy of your attention. Support our coverage with your paid subscription https://www.globaldispatches.org/40percentoff

    25 min
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The longest running independent international affairs podcast features in-depth interviews with policymakers, journalists and experts around the world who discuss global news, international relations, global development and key trends driving world affairs. Named by The Guardian as "a podcast to make you smarter," Global Dispatches is a podcast for people who crave a deeper understanding of international news.

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