Deep Dish on Global Affairs

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 IMF official Isabelle Mateos y Lago and economic historian Adam Tooze 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, Paul Schickler, and Vivian Lin Thurston 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.

Sheila Bair was front and center for the 2008 fiscal crises as George Bush’s appointee to the FDIC. Notably, she was also among the small number of officials who voiced concerns about the dangers of subprime mortgages before the meltdown. On this episode of Deep Dish, we ask her what we’ve learned about the global crisis and how vulnerable we are today.

Of the 50 most violent cities in the world, 47 are in the Americas. This week's Deep Dish features World Bank citizen security expert Flavia Carbonari, Mario Maciel from San Jose's Gang Prevention Task Force; and Medellín's Chief Resilience Officer Santiago Uribe discussing how cities can combat urban violence. 

Hurricane Florence and Typhoon Mangkhut have inflicted widespread damage to property, food production, and human life. As extreme weather increasingly uproots communities and economies, leading experts Simon Dalby and Joshua Busby join this week's Deep Dish podcast to predict how today’s climate change will affect tomorrow’s foreign policy.

The Trump administration is furious that the International Criminal Court is considering an investigation into US military action in Afghanistan. In a major speech this week, National Security Advisor John Bolton threatened the court with sanctions. One of the court’s founder’s, Ambassador David Scheffer, joins Deep Dish this week to react.

Yale Historian Tim Snyder says “if it can happen in Poland, it can happen anywhere.” Find out how this Eastern European poster child for democracy backslid into autocracy, and what lessons it holds for the rest of the West.

President Trump announced a new trade deal with Mexico to replace NAFTA, and called on Canada to join the deal or risk being left out. On this week's Deep Dish, Mexico expert Duncan Wood, Canada expert Laura Dawson, and US trade economist Phil Levy analyze the new deal and lay out what could happen next.