Deep Dish On Global Affairs

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces corruption charges ahead of Israel's election and the subsequent rollout of President Trump's Mideast peace plan. Douglas J. Feith, former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy in the George W. Bush administration, and Aaron David Miller, a twenty-year analyst, negotiator, and adviser on Middle Eastern issues at the Department of State, join Deep Dish this week to discuss the future of US-Israel relations.

Bad blood between India and Pakistan goes back decades, but tensions have escalated in recent days after a suicide bomber from a Pakistan-based militant group killed Indian paramilitary troops in Kashmir. Former US Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter and Tanvi Madan of the Brookings Institution explain what you need to know about the ongoing crisis between two nuclear powers on this week's Deep Dish podcast.

The 91st Academy Awards take place on Sunday in Los Angeles, but international markets, led by China, have eclipsed the domestic market in importance for the US movie industry, rewriting the rules about what kinds of films get made. On this week’s Deep Dish podcast, Lynda Obst, producer of Sleepless in Seattle, Contact, Interstellar, and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, and Orville Schell of the Asia Society join Brian Hanson to discuss how China is changing the US box office.

For thirteen straight weeks, demonstrators in high-visibility vests have taken to the streets in Paris and in cities around France. Government buildings have been attacked, shops looted, and cars set ablaze. On this week's Deep Dish podcast, Sophie Pedder of The Economist and Benjamin Haddad of the Atlantic Council explain what the political demonstrations mean for French President Emmanuel Macron, for France, and for Europe.

The chief of naval operations recently visited the Council and spoke with Deep Dish host Brain Hanson about China's growing global ambitions and Russia's troublesome actions in the Mediterranean and North Atlantic. Richardson also explained what the US Navy needs now to retain its supremacy in the years ahead.

Venezuela has two claimants to power: Juan Guaidó and Nicolás Maduro. Western countries back Guaidó, Putin and China favor Maduro, and the people of Venezuela are looking for a way out of their country's rolling economic disaster. Latin America expert Peter Schechter and veteran diplomate Cécile Shea join this week’s Deep Dish to discuss.

China announced its economic growth had slowed to its lowest annual rate since 1990. At the same time, Beijing and Washington remain locked in a trade war that shows no sign of resolution. Global economics expert Phil Levy joins this week's Deep Dish podcast to explain what's going on, and how lessons from the US shutdown might help explain what will happen next.

As the Trump administration prepares to withdraw from Syria, former US ambassador to Syria Robert Ford and Tamara Cofman Wittes, former deputy assistant secretary of state for near East Affairs, join this week's Deep Dish podcast to dissect the withdrawal's implications for US-Syria policy. 

A president's ability to enact their vision is not absolute. It is constrained by international laws and by the willingness of allies and partners to go along with what the White House wants. On this week's Deep Dish, Harold Hongju Koh, former Legal Adviser at the US State Department, joins Council President Ivo Daalder and Brian Hanson to discuss Koh's new book The Trump Administration and International Law.

The massive Marriott records breach was the latest in a series of economic espionage cases attributed to China. Top cybersecurity experts Lesley Carhart and Adam Segal join this week's Deep Dish podcast to discuss the evolving tactical and policy challenges involved in managing international cyber space.

The war in Yemen has created one of the greatest unseen humanitarian tragedies in the world. It finally drew public attention after the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, which triggered a debate about US involvement in the war. As peace talks begin in Sweden, Yemen expert Gregory Johnsen joins this week's Deep Dish podcast. 

Russia and Ukraine have been locked in a "frozen conflict," but Russia recently seized three Ukrainian naval vessels near the Kerch Strait to the Black Sea. In this week's Deep Dish podcast, US Navy Commander Tony Chavez joins Council President Ivo Daalder, former US ambassador to NATO, to discuss the geopolitical importance of this maritime dispute.

Sitting Conservative Member of Parliament Rory Stewart joined this week's Deep Dish podcast, along with Sebastian Mallaby of the Washington Post and guest host Phil Levy, to weigh the pros and cons of voting for Theresa May's Brexit deal. Now that EU leaders have accepted the deal, it's up to Parliament to decide what happens next.

US foreign policy since the end of the Cold War has been a resounding failure, argues Stephen M. Walt in his new book “The Hell of Good Intentions.” What’s worse, the failure is our fault, a direct result of America’s chosen grand strategy of liberal hegemony, he says. But Walt has an alternative, as he explains in this week’s Deep Dish podcast.

For the first time ever, the European Union rejected a proposed budget from a member state: Italy. A deadlock has ensued, threatening a "doom loop" that could consume Italy's economy, the eurozone, and perhaps even the global economy. Former International Monetary Fund official Isabelle Mateos y Lago and Adam Tooze, economic historian and author of Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World, join Brian Hanson to discuss this issue.

Council President Ivo Daalder and James M. Lindsay, senior vice president at the Council on Foreign Relations, discuss their new book "The Empty Throne: America's Abdication of Global Leadership"—a revealing look at President Trump’s foreign policy and its implications for the rules-based international order. 

Jair Bolsonaro won Brazil's presidency with a far-right populism that drew comparisons to President Donald Trump. But Brazil and Latin America don't fit neatly into the Western populism narrative, says Peter Schechter, host of the Altamar podcast and 20-year veteran of Latin American politics.

Two big shocks are hitting the Chinese economy at once. The first shock is within China—slowing growth, increasing debt, an aging population, and an underdeveloped consumer base. The second shock is with the United States as tensions rise and a trade war looms. Angela Lee, professor of Marketing at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, Paul Schickler, a former president of DuPont Pioneer, and Vivian Lin Thurston, a partner and global research analyst with William Blair, discuss the changing Chinese economy with the Council's Phil Levy.

Within hours of President Trump's announcement that the United States would withdraw from the Iranian nuclear deal, Iran's foreign minister was on a plane, first to China and then to Russia. This often overlooked but important geopolitical trio, Iran, Russia, and China, is the subject of a new book by Dina Esfandiary and Ariane Tabatabai.

Two distinguished public opinion surveys reveal how American foreign policy is perceived at home and abroad. Pew’s director of global attitudes research Richard Wike joins Dina Smeltz, lead author of the Chicago Council Survey on US public opinion on foreign policy, to discuss their findings.