Deep Dish on Global Affairs

This week, soldiers with automatic weapons occupied El Salvador’s legislature, demanding more funds to fight rampant criminal gangs. For years, violence and crime have led to poor living conditions in the country and mass emigration. Rosa Anaya, a Gus Hart Visiting Fellow at the Council, joins Deep Dish to discuss her groundbreaking work rehabilitating inmates and gang members in El Salvador with Catholic Relief Services’ Second Chances.

First developed by the United Nations, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are an ambitious effort for countries to address the world's biggest problems. Yet much of the remarkable work happening now is at the sub-national level, by cities, local governments, and the private sector. Anthony F. Pipa of the Brookings Institution and Catherine P. Sheehy, global lead for sustainability partnerships at UL, join Deep Dish to discuss the way forward.

America spends more on its military than the next 10 countries combined, and the Department of Defense oversees some 1.3 million military personnel. But is it all necessary? Joining Deep Dish to discuss his provocative new book "Close the Pentagon," Charles Kenny argues that not only can the United States cut its defense budget, but it can also better secure the nation by eventually shuttering the Pentagon and channeling some of the savings to development, diplomacy, and aid.

Demonstrators have taken to the streets from Hong Kong to Lebanon, with many calling for democratic reforms. Yet policymakers in the United States are split on whether or not to support pro-democracy movements abroad. Rochelle Terman and Paul Poast of the University of Chicago join Deep Dish to debate the two competing options, which they call “America first” and “Spider-Man.”

Chancellor Sebastian Kurz of Austria, the young head of a conservative party deeply opposed to immigration, has just formed a coalition government with Austria’s Green party. Having adopted a platform that is anti-immigration, pro-business, and pro-environment, the odd pairing of these parties holds important and timely lessons for the larger realignment of left-right politics taking place across Europe. Sam Jones of the Financial Times joins Deep Dish to discuss.

Earlier this week, in retaliation for the killing of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani, Iran fired a dozen missiles on two bases in Iraq housing US troops. After, President Trump said Iran "appears to be standing down." But Kelly Magsamen, NSC director for Iran under US presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama and now at the Center for American Progress, explains on Deep Dish that the repercussions of killing Soleimani will be felt for days, months, and even years to come.

Following the killing of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani last week, Iraq's parliament voted to ask the prime minister to oust US forces from the country. It comes after violent protests in Iraq against both the Iraqi government and the US embassy in Baghdad. Emma Sky, a former political adviser to the commanding general of US forces in Iraq and now at Yale University, joins Deep Dish to explain why US-Iraq relations have deteriorated so abruptly and what it means for Iran and ISIS.

As we’ve seen in places like Syria and Iraq, today’s armed conflict is civilian-focused, driven by non-state actors, and increasingly urban. Do traditional international norms like the Geneva Conventions still matter? Peter Maurer, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, joins Deep Dish to examine why changes in the nature of war have complicated the way international law governs humanitarian crises and urban conflict.

Ever since the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine in 2014 and its meddling in US elections in 2016, relations between Moscow and Washington have gone from bad to worse. But should the United States actively work to improve relations? Or is dealing with Putin a lost cause? Molly Montgomery, a former US foreign service officer and special advisor to Vice President Mike Pence, and William Ruger, vice president for research and policy at the Charles Koch Institute, join Deep Dish to discuss.

There's no sign of a big deal soon in the US-China trade war, the US Congress has not yet passed the USMCA, and the World Trade Organization’s appeals panel is in peril. But the US jobs market is booming, with 266,000 jobs added in November. The University of Chicago’s Austan Goolsbee, a former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Obama, and The Economist's Soumaya Keynes join Deep Dish to discuss whether it’s a moment for optimism or concern about the US economy.

A centerpiece of US strategy during the Trump administration has been the idea of the "Indo-Pacific," a massive single region stretching across both the Pacific and Indian Oceans. One of the goals in this strategy is to link up India with US allies in East Asia as a counterbalance to a rising China. But how does New Delhi see the situation? Sushant Singh, deputy editor of the Indian Express newspaper, joins the University of Chicago's Paul Staniland and the Council's Brian Hanson to discuss.

While Ukraine dominates US news this week due to the impeachment proceedings, Ukrainian President Zelensky and Russian President Putin are preparing for an upcoming meeting to find a peaceful resolution to the five-year conflict in eastern Ukraine. Melinda Haring of the Atlantic Council and Joanna Rohozinska of the National Endowment for Democracy join Deep Dish to discuss the latest in Europe.

This week, a case was filed in the International Court of Justice accusing Myanmar of having committed genocide against its Rohingya Muslim minority. It is a far cry from where the country also known as Burma seemed to be a few years ago, when the long-ruling military junta opened the door for democratic elections. Historian Thant Myint-U joins Deep Dish to discuss Burma’s recent struggles with race, capitalism, and democracy, as well as the consequences for Southeast Asia.

Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Apple are massive companies, commanding so much of the market that they are now being called monopolies. Rana Foroohar, global business columnist for the Financial Times and author of the new book "Don't Be Evil: How Big Tech Betrayed Its Founding Principles—and All of Us," joins Deep Dish to discuss how these data-fueled tech behemoths are disrupting the US economy and American politics.

The breakdown of fledgling democracies in Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan, the return of authoritarian leaders, and the resurgence of protesters in the streets all suggest that democracy promotion is a failed project. But the United States still has an essential role to play in promoting democratic institutions abroad, argue Ambassador Derek Mitchell and Daniel Twining. The presidents of the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute join Deep Dish to explain why.