UN and other international organizations

The Predators Threatening Africa

Africa is a large and diverse continent. Many different peoples, ethnic groups, tribes — these terms overlap but are not synonymous — speaking more than a thousand languages, organized into more than 50 nation-states.
Most of those nation-states achieved independence in the aftermath of World War II, as European imperialism and colonialism died out. In few African lands has political stability and prosperity followed.
And today, Africa is threatened by new predators. Violent and vicious jihadists are kidnapping, killing, and committing a long list of other crimes. Africa also is threatened by what I’m going to call neo-imperialism — not the European variety.
Joining host Cliff May to discuss these issues is Dr. J. Peter Pham, who was the first-ever United States Special Envoy for the Sahel Region of Africa.
Before that, Ambassador Pham served as U.S. Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region of Africa. He’s also been a denizen of think tanks. Currently he is a Distinguished Fellow at the Atlantic Council, but his first DC think tank affiliation was an Adjunct Senior Fellow at FDD.
In addition, he was a tenured Associate Professor of justice studies, political science, and Africana studies at James Madison University, and Director of the school’s Nelson Institute for International and Public Affairs.
Ambassador Pham is the author of more than 300 essays and reviews and the author, editor, or translator of over a dozen books, primarily on African history, politics, and economics.

The UN System: What Went Wrong and What Should Be Done

The U.N. and other international organizations were designed to give structure to what we like to call the “international community” – establishing and expressing what we like to call “international laws” and “international norms.”
Over recent years, however, authoritarian regimes have been increasingly dominating these entities, and utilizing them for their own, decidedly illiberal ends.
FDD scholars have just published “A Better Blueprint for International Organizations,” a monograph with a foreword by former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley, and contributions from a dozen FDD scholars. They make clear what went wrong and what can – and should – be done to fix this broken, indeed, increasingly corrupt, international system.
To discuss these issues, host Cliff May is joined by Richard Goldberg, a senior advisor to FDD and the monograph’s editor, and Morgan Viña, who served as chief of staff and senior policy advisor to Ambassador Haley and is now an adjunct fellow at FDD.

Raisi Rising

An election – of sorts – was held in the Islamic Republic of Iran last week. The victor: Ebrahim Raisi, a hardline theocrat who has been sanctioned by the US for his involvement in the mass execution of political prisoners.
Voter turnout was reportedly low.
To discuss these developments, and how the Biden administration – among others – may respond, host Cliff May is joined by Ray Takeyh, formerly a senior advisor on Iran at the Department of State, currently a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations; Reuel Marc Gerecht, formerly a Middle Eastern specialist at the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, currently a senior fellow at FDD; and Benham Ben Taleblu, also a senior fellow at FDD where he focuses on Iranian security and political issues.

Tehran’s Nuclear Secrets

David Albright is a physicist, a former nuclear inspector for the International Atomic Energy Agency, an expert on nuclear weapons and nuclear proliferation, and the founder and president of the Institute for Science and International Security – also known as “the Good ISIS.”
His important new book, written with Sarah Burkhard: “Iran’s Perilous Pursuit of Nuclear Weapons.”
It’s based on the secret archive of the nuclear weapons program of the Islamic Republic. Israeli spies located that archive in a warehouse in Tehran, and spirited much of it out of the country.
What David Albright reveals is alarming and should have a significant impact on the policies of the Biden administration vis-à-vis Iran’s rulers.
He joins host Cliff May and Andrea Stricker, who worked at the Good ISIS for 12 years, and is now a fellow at FDD where she conducts research on nuclear weapons proliferation and illicit procurement networks.

Eleven Days in May: The Latest Battle in the Long War Against Israel

The Islamic Republic of Iran provides Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad with rockets and other weapons, technology, training, and funding. Over 11 days in May, the two groups fired more than four thousand rockets at Israeli cities and villages.
President Biden supported Israel’s right to defend itself but, at the same time, his envoys in Vienna have been negotiating a return to President Obama’s Iran deal. Iran’s rulers want billions of dollars and other concessions in exchange for allowing America to rejoin a deal that at most slows their progress toward a nuclear weapons capability.
Since money is fungible, that means America will be helping fund Hamas and Islamic Jihad, as well as Hezbollah and Ansar Allah in Yemen.
Joining host Cliff May to discuss these developments are Lahav Harkov, Senior Contributing Editor and Diplomatic Correspondent of The Jerusalem Post; Jonathan Schanzer, FDD Senior Vice President; and Brad Bowman, Senior Director of FDD's Center on Military and Political Power.

Biden’s Mission to Realign the Middle East

President Biden has been eager to rejoin the deal that President Obama concluded with Iran’s rulers in 2015 and from which President Trump withdrew three years later.
The quarrel between advocates for, and critics of, the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) has been viewed as a disagreement over how best to prevent the theocrats in Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability.
Michael Doran, a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute, and Tony Badran, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies dissent from that view. In Tablet, they’ve written a comprehensive analysis arguing that Mr. Biden intends to both enrich and empower Iran’s rulers – while simultaneously downgrading relations with Saudi Arabia, the Gulf Arab states, Israel, and other former friends (read their article here).
In other words, President Biden is attempting to establish a “new Middle Eastern order” — one that regards the Islamic Republic of Iran as America’s primary strategic partner in the region. They conclude also that President Biden has decided not to speak candidly about this dramatic change – which they call “The Realignment.”
As for latest kinetic battle between Israel and Hamas, they see that as an inevitable consequence of the Biden tilt toward Tehran. They discuss all this and more with Foreign Podicy host Cliff May.

Beijing, the WHO, and the Pandemic

In January, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on the World Health Organization to fully investigate the possibility that the COVID-19 virus escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan. He cited new U.S. intelligence that raises troubling questions. But China’s rulers have not been forthcoming.
Is the World Health Organization making a serious attempt to get at the truth? If not, what can and should be done? Those are just some of the issues Foreign Podicy host Cliff May explores with Anthony Ruggiero and Craig Singleton.
Anthony is a senior fellow at FDD. He has more than 19 years of government experience in both Republican and Democratic administrations. Most recently he served as Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, and National Security Council Senior Director for Counterproliferation and Biodefense.
Craig is an adjunct fellow at FDD. He previously spent more than a decade serving in a series of sensitive national security roles including overseas assignments at the U.S. embassies in Baghdad, Caracas, and Mexico City.

The Thin Red Line: Joby Warrick on the U.S. Response to this Century’s Worst War Crimes

Joby Warrick is a distinguished journalist, a longtime Washington Post national security reporter, and a Pulitzer Prize-winner. His latest book is: “Red Line: The Unraveling of Syria and America’s Race to Destroy the Most Dangerous Arsenal in the World.”
To discuss Bashar al-Assad’s use of chemical weapons to mass murder his fellow Syrians, and what the U.S. did – and did not – do about it, he joins David Adesnik, FDD’s Director of Research and senior fellow on Syria, and FDDs president and Foreign Podicy host Cliff May.

The UN and the Illiberal International Order

With the defeat of the Axis Powers in 1945, the United States emerged as the strongest nation on earth. But rather than emulate hegemons of the past, American leaders envisioned a new and different world order.
Their goal was to organize an "international community," establish "universal human rights," and a growing body of "international law."
This project required new institutions, in particular the United Nations.
Three quarters of a century later, it requires willful blindness not to see that the UN and many other international organizations have become bloated and corrupt bureaucracies, increasingly serving the interests of despots.
To discuss what’s gone wrong and what might be done to prevent the UN and other international organizations from drifting further into the clutches of authoritarians host Clifford D. May is joined by Richard Goldberg, Orde Kittrie, and Emma Reilly.
Rich Goldberg is a Senior Advisor at FDD. Among his many government positions, Rich previously served as the Director for Countering Iranian Weapons of Mass Destruction for the National Security Council, and Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Foreign Policy Adviser to former Mark Kirk, both when Kirk was in the House and then the Senate. Rich is also an officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve. We thank him for his service.
Also joining is Orde Kittrie. He, too, is a Senior Fellow at FDD as well as a professor of law. He is a leading expert on nonproliferation law and policy, and an expert on international law, particularly as it relates to the Middle East. On lawfare, well, he wrote the book. Its title: Lawfare: Law as a Weapon of War. Orde served for over a decade in various legal and policy positions at the U.S. State Department. He was a lead US negotiator at the UN for the treaty on the suppression of acts of nuclear terrorism and participated in drafting several UN Security Council resolutions.
Joining, too, is Emma Reilly who has worked in the field of human rights for almost 20 years. She joined the UN Human Rights Office in 2012. In 2013, she blew the whistle on an exceptional and dangerous policy: UN bureaucrats giving to the Chinese government the names of dissidents, including US citizens, who planned to engage UN human rights mechanisms. The bureaucracy’s response: To not fix the problem and to attempt to fire her instead.
All three join host Cliff May for this episode to discuss what happened and what, if anything, can be done moving forward to combat this high level of corruption.

The Rise of the Illiberal World Order

In theory, the United Nations and other international organizations express the will of something called “the international community,” while enforcing something called the “liberal international rules-based order.”
In practice, the UN and other international organizations now pursue different agendas.
John Bolton served as National Security Advisor under President Trump, as U.S. ambassador to the UN under President George W. Bush, and in senior positions under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
He has long been concerned that the UN and other international organizations are drifting – or being pushed – and what such transformations portend for the United States and other free nations.
Richard Goldberg is a former director on the National Security Council. He also served as a foreign policy advisor in both the House and Senate. He is now a senior advisor at FDD.
Both join Cliff to discuss what’s become of the modern experiment in internationalism.

Our Man in Geneva: The UN is bigger – but not better – than you think.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in New York is often a high-profile figure. Think of Nikki Haley, John Bolton, Jeane Kirkpatrick — or, going back further, Adlai Stevenson, Arthur Goldberg, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and Andrew Young.
American ambassadors to the United Nations in Geneva – where there also are dozens of UN-affiliated international organizations – tend to be less well-known, but they have important work they can do – if they want to.
Ambassador Andrew Bremberg has been in that job for about a year, and he joins host Cliff May to discuss what he’s seen and done, and what the UN is and isn’t doing. Also contributing to the conversation is Richard Goldberg, a former White House National Security Council official who spent a decade on Capitol Hill overseeing U.S. foreign assistance. Rich now serves as a senior advisor at FDD and leads FDD’s International Organizations Program.

Pivoting Toward China

In 1972, Nixon went to China, where he met with Communist leader Mao Zedong.
Thanks to that bold diplomatic initiative, the United States and the People’s Republic learned to peacefully co-exist, living happily ever after.
Well, not exactly.
What Nixon called “the week that changed the world” helped China become wealthier and more powerful, but Beijing did not become America’s strategic partner — or a reliable stakeholder — in what we like to think of as the liberal, international, rules-based order.
To discuss what China’s rulers have been doing, are doing, and intend to do, host Cliff May is joined by two scholars new to FDD.
Nathan Picarsic, a senior fellow at FDD, studies Beijing’s military-civil fusion strategy, and its competitive approach to geopolitics.
Emily de La Bruyère, also a senior fellow, has pioneered novel data collection and analysis tools tailored to Beijing’s strategic and institutional structures. She uses primary-source, Chinese-language materials to provide insight on geopolitical, technological, and economic change.

Predators in the Global Jungle

David Kilcullen is an Australian-American soldier and scholar who served as a top advisor to the U.S. military in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
He also has worked in Pakistan, the Horn of Africa, and Southeast Asia.
And he’s an advisor to FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power (CMPP).
His new book, The Dragons and the Snakes: How the Rest Learned to Fight the West, looks at the military threats facing America and its allies, including what the dragons — Moscow and Beijing — and the snakes — Tehran, Pyongyang, and non-state jihadi groups – are learning from each other. He suggests the options that need to be considered if free nations are “to evolve and survive the long twilight struggle ahead.”
He discusses these and related national security issues with host Cliff May on episode 54.

War and Peace, and Wars Between Wars

In the past — at least in the past as we like to remember it — wars began with declarations and ended with surrenders or negotiated “peace agreements.”
In the real world — most emphatically in the real world of the 21st century — there are wars, and there are wars between wars.
Jacob Nagel, a senior fellow at FDD, served as head of Israel’s National Security Council. Before that, he served in the Israel Defense Forces, rising to the rank of brigadier general.
Bradley Bowman is senior director of FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power (CMPP). He has served as a national security advisor to members of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees. He was also a U.S. Army officer, “Blackhawk” pilot, and assistant professor at West Point, from which he also graduated.
They join host Clifford D. May to discuss issues of war and peace — and the grey zone in between.
 
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More from Cliff: https://www.fdd.org/team/clifford-d-may/ 
More from Jacob: https://www.fdd.org/team/jacob-nagel/ 
More from Brad: https://www.fdd.org/team/bradley-bowman/ 
More from FDD's Center on Military and Political Power (CMPP): https://www.fdd.org/projects/center-on-military-and-political-power/ 

Deal or No Deal

Following a lengthy period of incubation, President Trump has unveiled a plan intended to resolve the long-running Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Whether it can achieve that — whether such a goal is achievable any time soon — is worth an in-depth discussion. There’s no one better to have that conversation with than Jonathan Schanzer, senior vice president for research at FDD, who has written extensively on Palestinian politics and related topics.

Nukes for the Ayatollah

The acquisition of nuclear weapons has long been a central goal of Iran’s revolutionary Islamist rulers.
President Obama concluded a deal to delay that eventuality. His claim that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action would stop Iran’s supreme leader from achieving this capability was never justified.
President Trump withdrew from the unsigned JCPOA, and has been waging what he calls a “maximum pressure” campaign to prevent the theocrats from achieving their goal. They’ve not given up yet – nor have they agreed to new negotiations.
Joining Foreign Podicy host and FDD president Cliff May to discuss the current state of nuclear play are Andrea Stricker, a research fellow at FDD and an established expert on nuclear weapons proliferation and illicit procurement networks; and Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at FDD where he focuses on Iranian security and political issues.

Israel and the Fire Next Time

Israel is not always fighting a war but neither is it ever entirely at peace.
Most recently, a battle was fought in Gaza against Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a terrorist group supported and instructed by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Soon after, Israel hit threatening Iranian military installations in Syria.
To discuss Israel’s strategy for the battles and wars, present and future, Foreign Podicy host and FDD president Cliff May is joined by Gen. Jacob Nagel, a visiting fellow at FDD and a visiting professor at the Technion Aerospace Engineering Facility. In 2016 – 17, Gen. Nagel served as head of Israel’s National Security Council, and as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s National Security Advisor. He also headed the “Nagel Committee” which was responsible for Israel’s decision to develop the Iron Dome missile defense system.
Also joining the discussion is Jonathan Schanzer, FDD’s senior vice president for research who has written extensively about the Middle East in general and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in particular.

Zombie Socialism

In 2002, scholar Joshua Muravchik wrote a history of socialism which he thought would serve as the epitaph for an experiment that had failed over and over in country after country around the world, including in Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa. But socialism has now risen from the grave — including in the United States.
Dr. Muravchik joins Foreign Podicy host Clifford D. May to discuss where this walking-dead ideology may be heading and who its victims are likely to be.

Syria‘s Sorrow and Pity

Over recent days, Syrian and Russian forces continued their bombing campaign against civilians in Syria's Idlib province — this time conducting airstrikes on a market, killing dozens.
Other examples of the Assad regime's assault on the Syrian people include the recent targeting of the hospitals that treat injured survivors. Russia and the Islamic Republic of Iran are aiding and abetting this barbarism. Also underway: efforts by Iran’s rulers to colonize Syria. The so-called international community is mostly turning a blind eye and, in some cases, actually facilitating the continuing carnage, occupation and population displacements.
To better understand who is committing these war crimes and why, host Clifford D. May is joined by Mouaz Moustafa, executive director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force; and David Adesnik, FDD’s director of research.

Venezuela: A Riches to Rags Story

More than 50 nations now recognize Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s legitimate interim president. But Cuba, Russia, Iran and China have formed an anti-American and authoritarian alliance to prop up Nicolas Maduro who, following in the footsteps of Hugo Chavez, has turned what was once a wealthy, free and promising land into an impoverished and oppressive hellhole.
To discuss what went wrong and why, and what may happen next, host Cliff May is by FDD Senior Fellow Emanuele Ottolenghi.

Israelis stay the course

In the Middle East, elections are few, far between and rarely free and fair – except in Israel. After a tight, tough race, Benjamin Netanyahu has again been chosen by Israelis, positioning him to become Israel’s longest-serving prime minister. FDD senior vice president Jonathan Schanzer was on the ground during the final days of the campaign. He joins host Cliff May to discuss the outcome and what lies ahead for Israel and the Middle East. 

International Orders and Disorders

Yoram Hazony is a political philosopher, president of the Herzl Institute in Jerusalem, and the author—most recently—of a book that’s been stirring controversy: “The Virtue of Nationalism.” He joins host Cliff May to discuss tribalism, nationalism, imperialism, freedom, sovereignty, and globalism.

Israel on the Brink, As Usual

Israeli elections are approaching, President Trump’s envoys are working on a new plan aimed at resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran continue to threaten the Jewish state with annihilation.
To help make sense of these complex challenges, host Cliff May is joined by former Ambassador Daniel Shapiro and FDD Senior Vice President and expert on Palestinian politics Jonathan Schanzer. Prior toserving as U.S. envoy to Israel under President Obama from 2011 to 2017, Ambassador Shapiro worked on both the Hill and the National Security Council. He is currently a distinguished visiting fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University.

In the Line of Fire: Human Shields

War is always going to be hell, but the laws of war are intended to make armed conflicts a little less hellish.
With that in mind, Congress recently passed—and the president signed—critical new legislation against the use of human shields: putting civilians in the line of fire to protect combatants. But more remains to be done.To discuss this war crime, host Cliff May is joined by FDD CEO Mark Dubowitz and FDD Senior Fellow Professor Orde Kittrie, who have been working long and hard to counter what Ambassador Nikki Haley told Cliff is “the most cowardly act you can imagine.”
 
From the episode:"Get Serious About Human Shields" by Mark Dubowitz and Orde Kittrie in The Wall Street Journal: https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2018/08/23/get-serious-about-human-shields/
"Lawfare: Law as a Weapon of War" by Orde Kittrie (Oxford University Press, 2016: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/lawfare-9780190263577?cc=us&lang=en&
Cliff's interview with Ambassador Nikki Haley at FDD's National Security Summit (video and transcript): https://www.fdd.org/events/2018/08/28/fdds-national-security-summit-3/
Mark and Orde speaking at FDD's panel on Capitol Hill "Legal Implications Surrounding the Use of Human Shields" (video): https://www.fdd.org/events/2018/03/16/legal-implications-surrounding-the-use-of-human-shields/
More from Mark: https://markdubowitz.org/https://www.fdd.org/team/mark-dubowitz/
More from Orde: https://www.fdd.org/team/orde-kittrie/
More from Cliff: https://www.fdd.org/team/clifford-d-may/

Ireland’s surprise attack on Israel

Anti-Semitism is sometimes called the “the oldest hatred,” and one never knows where it will pop up next. That said, many people have been surprised—as well as disappointed—to see it crop up in Ireland in the form of legislation promoting economic warfare against Israel.On this special edition of Foreign Podicy, host Clifford D. May reads his Washington Times column on this topic, and then discuss the causes, consequences and context of Ireland’s move with Melanie Phillips—a British journalist, broadcaster and author.