The podcast that discusses global current affairs with women leaders!
Ilana Bet-El chats with wonderfully qualified women experts from around the world in informal but in-depth conversations that explain, analyse and highlight events of the day.
Women Leaders brings incredibly well-informed perspectives to world events: not the news, but what the news means! From geopolitics to security, defence and wars, and from economics to journalism, media and disinformation, we bring context and insight to the rapid changes in the world.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The podcast that discusses global current affairs with women leaders!
Ilana Bet-El chats with wonderfully qualified women experts from around the world in informal but in-depth conversations that explain, analyse and highlight events of the day.
Women Leaders brings incredibly well-informed perspectives to world events: not the news, but what the news means! From geopolitics to security, defence and wars, and from economics to journalism, media and disinformation, we bring context and insight to the rapid changes in the world.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
A long war is unimaginable to people in the developed world. Since WWII, most states in Europe have not experienced conflict in their lands, barring the Balkans in the 1990s, and the US has never really lived through such a reality, apart from the bombing of Pearl Harbour in December 1941 and the attacks of 9/11. And while some parts of Africa are mired in conflict as indeed is the Middle East, it is the success of the postwar order that war is largely not an ongoing backdrop to life across the globe.
And then there is Ukraine: invaded in 2014 by Russia, that illegally annexed the Crimea then sent its “little green men” into the Donbas, where there has been fighting ever since. Then came the full scale invasion on 24 February 2022. Incredibly, Ukraine repelled most of the Russian invaders, but a deadly front line was established alongside ongoing vicious Russian attacks on cities and civilian infrastructure across Ukraine.
How do you understand these events as a journalist inside Ukraine, trying to report the truth while not exposing your state at war? How do you cover these events as an international journalist, seeking the real story without endangering people? And what happens to truth and journalism in a long war in which civil society is a strong player and corruption rears its head?
To answer these and many other questions Ilana Bet-El is joined by Kristina Zeleniuk of website TSN and Kim Barker of the New York Times. A fluid, fascinating and funny conversation with passionate journalists.
This episode was recorded on 13 November 2025
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There are many aspects to our current events: trade wars, international realignments weakening democracies, strengthening autocracies, social discontent, wars kinetic and hybrid, a faltering international system and much more. Each element may be explained individually but taken together they add up to no less than a revolution: a change so fundamental that even after the wheels stop spinning there will be no return to the previous ways.
Professor Janice Stein, founder of the Munk School of Global Affairs and one of the most fascinating experts ever on wars and global affairs joins Ilana Bet-El in a deep, fast moving and incredibly informative conversation on our age of revolution. From the US to China and Europe, and from the past to the future -- this episode explains how and why the world is in such turmoil.
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As most international mediators know, Israel-Palestine is a conflict to avoid. Intellectually, it should be solvable, but in reality it is intractable.
In this episode we bring together a Palestinian and an Israeli — Dr Tahani Mustafa of the ECFR and Dr Miriam Rosman of the Dvorah Forum — hoping to move beyond intractable, due to the Gaza ceasefire. It has heralded much hope for a better future, alongside deep confusion as to what such a future can and should hold. However, the discussion ended up reflecting the absence of trust, empathy, or understanding on both sides.
This is an important and passionate episode that highlights the significant challenges in even establishing a common starting point for dialogue, let alone negotiation. From history to reality and from humanity to sympathy, there is a long way to go in creating the conditions for negotiation between Israelis and Palestinians.
This episode was recorded on 16 October 2025
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Donald Trump is everywhere: at the UN General Assembly, at special press conferences, at meetings of his military leadership and in the White House - condemning Europe and climate change one day, announcing a Gaza deal the next, doubling down on tariffs the third, doing nothing about Russia throughout. In the meantime the US seems to be ever more in turmoil, with the Federal government shut down, a sliding economy, intense political and social division.
China is seemingly enjoying the show, lapping up the Global South and assembling world leaders for international meetings and a vast military parade to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of WWII. Backing Russia in its war of aggression against Ukraine, it is clearly happy to pick up world leadership as the new US seemingly sheds most vestiges of it. Yet all the while it is also negotiating a trade deal with the US, flooding the global market with over production and watching its own economy in turmoil.
So what is China really doing? Can it survive the tariffs? Can it pick up where the US leaves off or is it just part of the turmoil? Lauren Gloudeman, Director, China at Eurasia Group joins Ilana Bet-El to talk through the current China challenge in all its aspects. A deep and interesting conversation with someone who knows people, language and culture!
This episode was recorded 30 September 2025
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Eurasia website
Lauren’s previous episode “Trade Wars”
Trump at the UNGA - China commitments at the UN Climate conference
Other episodes “China, the world, and power” “China All Around”
Chapters
Understanding China's role in global affairs
Trump's objectives with China
How China's economic is doing?
China's relationship with Russia
Is it a new Cold War between China and the West?
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Lauren Gloudeman LinkedIn
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Production: Florence Ferrando
Music: Let Good Times Roll, RA from #Uppbeat
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Development is at an end according to renowned economist Adam Tooze. Given the fast moving events of our current circumstances, that could be a reference to the human condition as we know it. However, Tooze is writing about development as a correlate of foreign aid financing, which to many means rich states giving money to poor ones — an area that has undoubtedly taken a massive hit. Be it the sudden closure of USAID earlier this year or the shift of EU and NATO states to defence spending or indeed the populist inspired interest in isolationism, the inclination to fund others is diminishing.
But development is not just about foreign aid: it is also about allocating the means to improve the one to the benefit of all. Be it national eradication of disease or international drives towards better governance and prosperity, the core idea is not charity. So what is it? There can be no better person to explain and explore the wide and complex world of development and its core international function than Susan Brown, United Nations Assistant Secretary General at the UN Development Programme UNDP and head of its advocacy efforts. A woman with incredible experience of the international world, she brings in-depth knowledge, common sense and a lot of wit to the core needs of the world. A sharp and important conversation.
This episode was recorded 17 September 2025
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The summer is over but it has hardly been a period of repose and relaxation: the world has continued in its turmoil, not least at the behest of the US. In moves that have often baffled traditional US allies, the current Trump administration has made brash moves claiming to be about Making America Great Again (MAGA) but which ultimately seemed to signify US retreat from global leadership. From attacks on science and education within the US to courting Vladimir Putin while alienating the EU, Canada and other western allies, it seems as if the current US administration is intent upon making real China and Russia’s wish for a multipolar world without a second, or indeed any thought.
How do these changes manifest within the US? Is the external perspective even registering? Does it matter? And why does the Democratic Party seemingly find it so difficult to muster a response? To broach these questions and so much more Ilana Bet-El is joined by Jodi Rudoren, Editorial Director of Newsletters at the New York Times — and to be clear, there are 100 newsletters that reach over 17 million people! — in a lively and probing discussion into life, politics and ideas in the US in the second Trump administration.
This episode was recorded on 4 September 2025
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While the eyes of many have been on the US, Ukraine, Russia, Iran, Israel, Gaza, the wider Middle East and much more, the southern Caucasus, that collection of states composed of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, have been roiling between order and disorder - and attracting the attention of many power players. In Georgia, the Russia-backed government is cracking down on opposition leaders, while Armenia is in political disarray following Azerbaijan’s military offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh in September 2023.
Traditionally the playground of Russia - either as the Russian Empire or the Soviet Union - all three states are currently in flux, attracting the attention of Turkey, the US and the EU. Russia, on the other hand, immersed in its insane war on Ukraine, has lost its grip. Apparently insignificant states and regions have a nasty habit of suddenly coming to the fore, dominating the agenda and changing geopolitical focus. The southern Caucuses may be ripe for such a twist, not least as the war in Ukraine drags on, dragging Russia ever further away from prosperity and regional domination.
To understand these fascinating dynamics, Ilana Bet-El is joined by the excellent Tinatin Japaridze, Eurasia analyst at the Eurasia Group. With fascinating insights into each state and the region as a whole, she helps clarify why Russia is on a losing pitch in the South Caucasus, the West is on the up, democracy does not always deliver, and peace is necessary - if elusive.
This episode was recorded 10 July 2025 and we will be back in September after a short summer break!
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The NATO summit in The Hague (24-25 June) will be recalled for a number of reasons: the allies, barring Spain, committed to raising their spending on defence to 5% of GDP by 2035, a sum deemed inconceivable before; there were no significant disagreements, not least because all allies went out of their way to ensure that US President Trump was not upset, by anything; and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, formerly Premier of the Netherlands for a decade who objected to any form of extraneous collective spending, on defence and much more, managed to overshadow all Trump pacifiers by referring to him as Daddy.
One of the signs that the past five years have been dense and intense is that there has been a NATO summit every year since 202. But then again, in a world of increasing tensions and wars, latterly in Iran and endlessly in Ukraine, Gaza and the wider Middle East; in a world of Putin, Xi and of course Trump, summits are necessary just to keep allies on board, or at least afloat. But they also showcase the harsh reality of a world of Strong Men who think of themselves as Big Men, making history.
This is a marked change to the previous decades, definitely since the end of the Cold War, and to understand its meaning, as well as the spectacle of the NATO summit, Ilana Bet-El is joined by two Big Women Leaders who were ambassadors to NATO: Kerry Buck of Canada and Muriel Domenach of France. Reflecting on the alliance, the summit, security, defence, common values and much more, this strong discussion takes us on a Transatlantic tour in a time of major change.
This episode was recorded on 26 June 2025
Chapters
What was the outcomes of NATO Summit?
Trump evolution over the NATO Summits
How Europeans deal with Trump behaviour?
What is the future of NATO?
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Kerry Buck LinkedIn, X/Twitter
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Production: Florence Ferrando
Music: Let Good Times Roll, RA from #Uppbeat
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In a world of kinetic wars and increasing expenditure on defence and security - coupled with the culture wars so exacerbated by the extremes of left and right - we often forget, or probably ignore, the wider context of bombs and ideologies: people. And in many parts of the world humans are diminishing in numbers, rapidly - apart from most parts of Africa, no continent any longer attains the 2.1 replacement rate of fertility.
The United Nations Population Fund just released an important report on this reality. The Fertility Fallacy presents fascinating insights on the roles of income, expectation and the inadequacy of policies seeking to either boost fertility or blame one of the genders (usually women). At base, it suggests people are not irrational: if they feel insecure, and the choice is in their hands, they will have less babies.
The core problem is, of course, the future: who will work to pay for the aging populations? Who will inhabit the earth? How can we deal with these issues and changes better? Birgit van Hout is very well placed to provide a comprehensive picture: as Director of the UNFPA Representation Office to the European Union she not only deals with these issues daily, but also sits in the continent with the lowest overall fertility rate.
An important and lively discussion on the underpinning realities of our lives and societies, in the most basic and crucial sense.
This episode was recorded on 12 June 2025
Chapters
Can women really have it all?
Why are women having fewer children than they want?
The real crisis behind the demographic decline
How COVID, war and media affect younger generations
The backlash against women’s rights and roles
What is comprehensive sexuality education — and why it matters?
What solutions are there to the fertility crisis?
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New York Times article on the report
EU Work-life balance directive
Giles Merritt Timebomb
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Birgit Van Hout LinkedIn X/Twitter
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Production: Florence Ferrando
Music: Let Good Times Roll, RA from Uppbeat
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The vast majority of humanity experiences war as a spectator — which is excellent. The distance from the reality of noise and danger and hurt and debris allows for passionate opinions on right and wrong, disgust and despair. But for those living and experiencing the harsh reality, whether as a combatant at the front or an endangered civilian behind the lines, war is ghastly. Being shelled and bombed is not the same as watching it on a screen, however horrifying we may find it; and shelling and bombing civilians is never right; ever.
Ukraine is now in its fourth year of war, and while Trump promised to end it in anything from a day to a hundred days, his overtures and partially to Russia has produced only ever more intensive attacks against civilians in Ukraine, with the largest waves yet of drones and ballistic missiles aimed at cities, including Kyiv, over successive nights. Nataliya Gumenyuk is well versed in the duality of spectator and participant of war: a foreign correspondent for many Ukrainian and international outlets before the full scale invasion, she visited war zones and conflict areas repeatedly. But as of February 2022 she shifted to explaining the war to both external and Ukrainian audiences through the Public Interest Journalism Lab, as well as documenting human rights breaches and war crimes for the Reckoning Project.
In a deep and passionate discussion with Ilana Bet-El, Nataliya brings a sense of the reality of being attacked while also explaining the importance of documenting the crimes of war as well as the necessity of EU membership to Ukraine, in order to anchor it in the west officially. And she also presents a vision for the end of the war, unfortunately without a date.
This episode was recorded on 28 May 2025
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Production: Florence Ferrando
Music: Let Good Times Roll, RA - License code: ZXIIIJUU2ISPZIJT
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During his gold plated visit to Saudi Arabia this week, Donald Trump made a speech in which he noted that the US would no longer be “giving you lectures on how to live” advising the people and states of the region to establish “your own destinies in your own way.” No more nation building and interventions, no more aid and business conditioned upon democracy and human rights, and no more post WW2 values based international order. Money, deals and hard power is the new United States policy in the world. The local regimes lapped this up, and autocrats and dictators around the world no doubt clapped their hands in glee, but many in the west were far from amused, alongside another very significant player: China. Indeed, while the week had started relatively well for China, with a 90 day halt on the massive tariffs Trump had imposed on it, the news that the US was adopting its playbook for global influence — money without ideology or human rights — was bad news: China had long sold itself to the global south as the power that spoke only money, without conditions.
China seeks to be a respected superpower, one that shapes and dominates the global order as an open rival to the US. Of that there is no doubt. However, little is really known about how it thinks about this ambition and what is its real relationship with states and continents around the world. A true woman leader on this issue as well as many aspects of China’s global policies is Dr Ivana Karásková of the Association for International Affairs. In a great conversation she not only gives a whirlwind tour of China in the world, she also explains how she came to found a Central European network of experts on China, as well as a network of women experts on China!
Chapters
China and US tarrif war
China and Russia relations
Chinese perception of the US
What are China ambitions on the world?
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Production: Florence Ferrando
Music: Let Good Times Roll, RA from #Uppbeat
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The turmoil and changes of the past five years — from the coronavirus pandemic to the second Trump administration — make clear one basic fact: the post Cold War era is over. It could be that happened already in 2008, in the financial crisis, or it could be in 2014 when Russia invaded Ukraine and took the Crimean peninsula from it. It could be any consequential date that marked a change, a clear change, from before and after. But whichever date or event is chosen, it is clear a change of times, of eras has happened — and that the cascade of events we are living through is an historic time.
To explore the meaning of this term, as well as the reality of living through it, Ilana Bet-El is joined by Professor Marci Shore of Yale University — who is definitely someone who can help examine and explain these core issues. A cultural historian of Eastern Europe who also found and finds herself drawn to the current conflict in Ukraine and works to aid the Ukrainians. An American using her understanding of Europe to analyse events in the US. A writer and deep thinker who helps us all understand this period of time in another dimension.
A strong sharp conversation about the past, the present, history and reality.
This episode was recorded on 30 April 2025
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Production: Florence Ferrando
Music: Let Good Times Roll
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What happens when a politician faces an audience of people, of citizens? This episode of Women Leaders brings you that reality, in full.
Full Circle, a Brussels based organization connecting ideas with the power to act, organised a great Ideas to Action Day in which over 80 people came together to discuss the state of the world and how to find ways to making it better. Issues were raised, problems discussed, and true angst revealed — often about the digital space, social media, isolation, alienation and the failures of both politicians and national institutions. So far so good for an opportunity to sound off, but then came the surprise: a real live politician came to answer all the questions raised, in front of the audience, and we hosted the exchange for this episode of Women Leaders.
Viviane Teitelbaum, Member of the Belgian Senate, is the politician in question, and she gave a remarkably candid account of political life in democracies in the modern age. And let us be clear: she is a Belgian but her audience, as well as her answers, were true to all modern working politicians. From violence in life reflected in cyberspace to identity politics, from the complexity of reality to the complexity of explaining it, and from citizens assemblies to ways of voting, this is a conversation that really challenges a politician while also revealing modern political life as it really happens.
This episode was recorded on 5 April 2025
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2 April 2025 will go down in history, of that there is no doubt. US President Trump and his team insist this is because it was, as they termed it, “Liberation Day” from the global intertwined trade system, in which the US imposed shockingly high tariffs on all its trading partners, excluding Russia and Belarus. Nearly every other state appear to be appalled by this move — because it will harm each of them and their people and they find it incredible that the US, the leader of the free world and the global trading system for the past eight decades, appears to be the one destroying it.
The immediate effects of the tariff decision have quickly become obvious: global markets plunged, but especially those in the US; all states and regions are contemplating reactions, and retaliations. And above all, the credibility of the US has taken a big hit. Indeed, if there is a title to the Trump playbook it seems to be "How to Disrupt the World While Undermining Yourself, Potentially Strengthening Your Opponents and Alienating Your Allies."
To discuss the tariffs, the playbook, the effects and the state of the global economy, Ilana Bet-El is joined by Rebecca Christie, Senior Fellow at Bruegel and Lauren Gloudeman, Director of the China programme at Eurasia Group. In a searching conversation, they clarify much about the tariff shock, the options open to the EU and China, the effects in the US, and potentials for the future.
Recorded on 3 April 2025
Chapters
A new global trade world launched by Trump?
How US tarrifs impact China, EU and global markets?
Are Trump’ tariffs a strategy or a gamble?
China’s and Europe’s responses to Trump
What next for global trade?
Mentions
The Sound of Economics - last episode
“Did tariffs contribute to the Great Depression?"NPR , 1930s tariff war Trump calculations
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Lauren Gloudeman Eurasia group page
Rebecca Christie X/Twitter, Bluesky
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Florence Ferrando
Music: Let Good Times Roll, RA from #Uppbeat
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Democracy and freedom, die in ignorance. There is wilful ignorance, as in not wanting to know; there is collateral ignorance, as in watching silly videos and media feeds rather than seeking information; and there is imposed ignorance, when sources of information are cut off and denied. The Trump administration is blatantly indulging in the latter, both internally and externally. Within the US, the administration is hand picking the media outlets it will deal with, while also dismantling the Department of Education. Outside the US, it has chosen to defund and potentially close both Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the Voice of America — two amazing organisations that have brought facts and news across the globe, notably those in non-democratic regimes.
It seems that for the Trump administration journalism is a threat. In a world where the boundaries between media, politics and business continue to erode, the likes of Trump, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos have become central figures in shaping public discourse. Moreover, the rise of entertainment news, change of habits, explosive volumes of news pose significant challenges for journalism today.
To explore these issues, Ilana Bet-El is joined by veteran BBC journalist Kate Adie. In a conversation rich with anecdotes from her storied career, she reflects on the evolution of media, the structural crises of today’s news industry and the fundamental role of journalism in society. Amid the explosion of information and the struggle to filter truth from noise, she argues that people basically seek real news and information, not propaganda. Because in the end, the truth still matters.
This episode was recorded on 20 March 2025 and is part of the third edition of the Podcasthon, an initiative dedicated to raising awareness on various charities worldwide, thanks to (great!) podcasters. For this episode, we put the spotlight on the Committee to Protect Journalists: an independent, nonprofit organisation that promotes press freedom worldwide and defends the right of journalists to report the news safely.
Chapters
What is journalism in an age of billionaires and power struggles?
The decline of traditional media and the rise of digital chaos
The battle between real news and entertainment-driven coverage
The structural crisis of the media industry
Why people still want real journalism—and why it matters
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Committee to Protect Journalists Instagram X/Twitter Youtube
Kate Adie reporting on Tiananmen Square
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Kate's BBC website
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Production: Florence Ferrando
Music: Let Good Times Roll, RA from #Uppbeat
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The car crash of the Zelensky-Trump-Vance meeting in the White House on 28 February is still reverberating around the world. The specific realities have already been analysed, dramatised, satirised, and AI re-engineered with alternative outcomes. But the true implications are being assimilated more slowly, enhanced by the bizarre claims regarding Ukraine, Europe, Russia and the world made by President Trump in his address to Congress on 4 March. The bottom line appears to be, remarkably, that the US under this administration has abandoned not only Ukraine, but also the free democratic world, the multilateral system put in place by US leadership after the Second World War, and above all its allies. Moreover, it appears to be actively backing Russia under President Putin.
If this were a pitch for a Netflix series it would probably be rejected as too farfetched. But reality has long since left farfetched behind, lining up with the alternative world of billionaires, tech bros, oligarchs, and a failed real-estate magnate cum second time US President, who apparently aspires to be king. Moreover, he seems to hold sway as such on the Republican Party, whose members of Congress have recently proposed resolutions such as adding Trump’s likeness to Mount Rushmore to reflect his “towering legacy”.
For a guided tour of this new bizarre world of the US and its role in the world Ilana Bet-El is joined by the storied US journalist Trudy Rubin, Worldview columnist at the Philadelphia Inquirer. In a fierce and sometimes funny discussion she demolishes whatever is left of the veneer of US political respectability to expose a group of thuggish bullies and cowards who now seem to be running the US — and the world. At least for now.
This episode was recorded on 6 March 2025.
Chapters
Mentions
Trudy Rubin “Trump seems a 'Putin peace' for Ukraine"
Philip Roth The Plot Against America
Financial Times editorial "The US Congress is missing in action"
New York Times “People Are Going Silent”
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Trudy Rubin X/Twitter, Philadelphia Inquirer
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Production: Florence Ferrando
Music: Let Good Times Roll, RA from #Uppbeat
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Politicians tend to aspire to a status quo: a clarity of positions and possibilities that deliver a semblance of stability. In a period of change, not to mention when things go wrong, there is a yearning for a status quo ante — a return to such clarity and stability, regardless of whether it is actually possible. It is significant that in the current world of radical change no leader or decision-maker is talking about the status quo ante: all the cards are up in the air.
To get a feel for the decision-maker’s dilemmas within this new reality, Ilana Bet-El is joined by Foreign Minister of Latvia, Baiba Braže. In a special short and sharp episode demanded by events, they focus upon the situation in Ukraine and the need to support it, the significance of upping European defence, the reality of life under Russian and Soviet occupation.
This episode was recorded on 27 February 2025.
Chapters
Mentions
Putin’s Ukraine: The End of War and the Price of Russian Occupation
UN “Human rights 3 years into Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine”
UN “Ukraine: Torture by Russian authorities amounts to crimes against humanity”
Latvia Ministry of Foreign Affairs “Russia is using torture as a coordinated state policy against Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war”
Our previous episode with Olena Tregub & Inna Pidluska
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Baiba Braže X/Twitter
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Production: Florence Ferrando
Music: Let Good Times Roll, RA from #Uppbeat
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Historians will spend eternity trying to explain why Donald Trump and his administration turned against Ukraine and Europe but one fact is clear: on 12 February 2025 the post Cold War era ended, and the post WWII international system came to a grinding halt. President Trump spoke at length to President Putin and they agreed to start negotiations immediately without Ukraine or the EU. Subsequent events were no less surprising: an anti-European tirade by US Vice President JD Vance at the Munich Security Conference, a US demand of Ukraine to sign away most of its rare earth resources, a first US-Russia meeting in Riyadh and President Trump accusing Ukraine of starting the Russian war of aggression against it, and calling President Zelensky a dictator. Europe, and many other parts of the world, is still reeling from these developments but it is undoubtedly Ukraine that is in the eye of the storm: from trying to deny it a say over its own destiny to attempting to impose elections upon it, and from cutting defence assistance to undermining funding to its civil society, the Ukrainian reality has changed rapidly, and for the worse. To understand this reality better Ilana Bet-El is joined by two leaders of civil society in Ukraine: Olena Tregub Secretary General of NAKO - the Independent Anti-Corruption Commission in Ukraine, and Inna Pidluska Deputy Executive Director of the International Renaissance Foundation. In a brave no-holds-bar discussion they reflect on the sense of betrayal by the US and the opposing sense of Ukrainian dignity, and the deep-felt sense that might is not right.
This episode was recorded on 20 February 2025.
Chapters
How is Ukraine reacting to Trump administration’s shift?
What does Ukraine expect from Europe now?
Is Ukraine’s civil society at risk?
What kind of deal would be acceptable for Ukraine?
Mentions
James Joll, Unspoken assumptions
BBC, Ukraine in maps: Tracking the war with Russia
Fact-checking Trump claims about war in Ukraine
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Inna Pidluska LinkedIn
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Production: Florence Ferrando
Music: Let Good Times Roll, RA #Uppbeat
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Trade is the backbone of the global economy, but its workings are a mystery to many. What is a tariff? What is a trade war? Why is trade so complicated? The chaos wrought by Donald Trump's decision to impose tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico – despite a thirty-day reprieve negotiated for the latter two - makes these and many other questions imperative to answer.
Ilana Bet-El is joined by Sylvia Chen, International Trade Policy and Compliance Consultant, and Sara Nordin, Partner in the Global Trade Practice of international law firm White & Case, to gain some understanding of how international trade works. Together, they outline the basics of trade law, how tariffs connect to policy measures, and how they influence modern trade and global supply chains. This episode is a necessary exploration of the actual trade underpinning any potential trade war on the horizon.
This episode was recorded on 5 February 2025.
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There can be no doubt the world changed on 20th of January 2025. As a matter of fact, a new US President was inaugurated — a second time for President Trump — whose return to power has spooked global friends and enemies alike since his election last November. The flurry of Executive Orders issued from day one says much about the determination of this US Administration to not only dismantle the work and legacy of the Biden Administration but potentially also many elements of the postwar multilateral order.
Indeed, amongst the first measures taken by President Trump upon his return to the White House was the withdrawal of the US from both the Paris Climate Agreement, and the World Health Organisation (WHO). However, beyond the acts the bluster, the rhetoric on tariffs and bold promises to end both wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, the vast majority of actions and orders have concerned domestic matters, focused upon issues such as immigration and equality. This begs the question: is the Trump Administration more concerned with bombastic rhetoric than bombastic action when it comes to global and geostrategic affairs?
Dr Kathleen McInnis is definitely someone who can speak to this and many other related issues. Director and senior fellow of the Smart Women, Smart Power Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and a former official at the US Department of Defence (DOD), she joins Ilana Bet-El in a wide-ranging conversation. From women and "dudes" in defence and foreign affairs to modern strategic challenges, and the future of NATO and EU-US relations, this is a strong and surprising discussion concerning rhetoric, reality and continuity in America's foreign policy under President Trump 2.0.
This episode was recorded on 23 January 2025.
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