Global Dispatches -- World News That Matters

Scientific Breakthroughs and Political Retreat Set the Stage for a Crucial Global Moment in the Fight Against HIV/AIDS 01.06.2026 29min

There are two competing trends in the global fight against HIV/AIDS. On the one hand, there has been tremendous progress toward reducing the number of infections and deaths from HIV/AIDS over the last twenty years. Scientific advances in treatment and prevention, new policy tools, and political and funding commitments have driven down HIV/AIDS to the point where it is possible to foresee an AIDS-free world in the not-so-distant future. On the other hand, over the last few years, that progress has suddenly come under threat. COVID upended HIV/AIDS programs in much of the world, and more recently, sudden and swift funding cuts, including from the United States, are shaking the foundation upon which previous decades of progress were built. On June 22 and 23, these two competing forces will come to a head at the United Nations, where diplomats are gathering for a major meeting on HIV/AIDS. According to my guest today, Mitchell Warren, the High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS at the UN presents a unique opportunity for multilateral coordination toward the goal of ending HIV/AIDS as a public health threat, but that goal may be stymied. Key countries that previously led the global fight against HIV/AIDS, including the United States, are stepping back from their leadership roles, potentially upending decades of progress. Mitchell Warren is the executive director of AVAC, an advocacy group. We kick off by discussing some of the exciting new scientific innovations that may accelerate progress toward ending HIV/AIDS as a public health threat, then have a discussion of how cuts in funding and eroding political commitments are hitting just as these promising new scientific innovations are coming online. We then have a long conversation about how this dynamic may play out at the UN — and what to expect from the High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS.

What is the Future of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty? 28.05.2026 34min

The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is the "glue" that holds the entire global nuclear security architecture together — but is it fraying? I spent much of last month at the United Nations covering the review conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. This is a conference of all members of the NPT that happens every five years. Countries come together to assess progress toward the treaty's goals and plot ways to enhance the treaty's impact and effectiveness in preventing the spread of nuclear weapons, reducing nuclear stockpiles, and supporting the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. That's the idea. But on Friday, as the conference gaveled to a close, the 191 states parties could not come to an agreement. The conference failed to achieve consensus on a way forward for the NPT. And this failure comes amid a host of other challenges in the nuclear security landscape: China's rapid buildup; the end of all bilateral arms control agreements between the United States and Russia; the U.S.-Israel war on Iran; Russia's war on Ukraine; the increasing integration of AI into nuclear weapons systems; and more and more countries openly suggesting that nuclear weapons may be a solution to their security challenges. My interview guest today is Alexandra Bell, head of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists — the organization perhaps best known for the Doomsday Clock. We kick off by discussing what the NPT has achieved since it entered into force more than 50 years ago, and what this major conference at the United Nations suggests about the state of global nuclear security today? This episode is produced in partnership with Ploughshares, a foundation committed to reducing and ultimately eliminating nuclear threats.

How to Prevent Global Catastrophic Risks | Stefan Löfven and Jens Orback 26.05.2026 27min

Today's episode is produced in partnership with the Global Challenges Foundation. The foundation is dedicated to raising awareness of global catastrophic risks and strengthening global governance to address them. The Global Challenges Foundation's 2026 Global Catastrophic Risks report outlines five of the biggest risks facing humanity today -- and how to stop them. You can find the report at globalchallenges.org/gcr-2026. This is the fifth episode of this series, which has included episodes on specific risks like nuclear weapons, ecological collapse, catastrophic climate change — and even near-Earth asteroids. In today's episode, I am joined by the former prime minister of Sweden, Stefan Löfven, and Jens Orback, a strategic advisor to the Global Challenges Foundation, for a wide-ranging conversation about how we can better reform our politics and diplomacy to confront global catastrophic risks. Managing global catastrophic risks requires systems of global governance, and in this episode we discuss how we can build our common defense against these challenges.

Stopping Ebola Requires Multilateralism. America's Retreat Is Making That Harder | To Save Us From Hell 21.05.2026 37min

An Ebola outbreak is spiraling in the Democratic Republic of the Congo — and one of the clearest lessons from past outbreaks is that Ebola requires multilateralism: countries working together through existing institutions like the United Nations and the World Health Organization to contain the disease, support frontline health workers, share information, and prevent cross-border spread. But the Trump administration's retreat from the global health architecture built for precisely this kind of emergency has made that task harder. In this episode of To Save Us From Hell, Mark Leon Goldberg and Anjali Dayal discuss how American attacks on the WHO and other key nodes of our global defenses against disease outbreaks have made this particular Ebola outbreak more difficult to contain than it ought to be. Later in the show, they discuss the newest entrant in the race for UN Secretary-General — and whether we can expect more candidates to throw their hats in the ring.

A Surprise Attack in Mali Puts the Government -- and Russia -- on the Defensive 18.05.2026 32min

In late April, an unlikely alliance of Islamist militants and separatists from the Tuareg ethnic group launched a series of surprise attacks against government forces in Mali. They attacked the capital, Bamako; killed Mali's defense minister; and even evicted Russian forces from a key city they were defending on behalf of the government of Mali. Mali has been beset by instability since a 2012 coup, a revolt by separatist groups in the north of the country, and the establishment of several jihadist groups. In this episode, Norman Sempijja, an associate professor of governance, economics, and social sciences at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University in Morocco, Norman Sempijja, explains what this new alliance of jihadists and separatists suggests about the trajectory of the crisis in Mali — and what the international community can do to end this spiraling conflict.

How to Prevent an Asteroid Impact | Global Catastrophic Risks 14.05.2026 31min

Today's episode is produced in partnership with the Global Challenges Foundation. The foundation is dedicated to raising awareness of global catastrophic risks and strengthening global governance to address them. The Global Challenges Foundation's 2026 Global Catastrophic Risks report outlines five of the biggest risks facing humanity today, including an asteroid colliding with earth, the topic of this episode. You can find the report at globalchallenges.org/gcr-2026. To discuss the potential consequences of an asteroid impact, and how we have built a system of planetary defense to guard against this risk, I am joined by Romana Kofler, program management officer at the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, and Anja Olin-Pape, head of programs at the Global Challenges Foundation. We kick off by discussing the ways in which an asteroid impact could disrupt life on Earth and cause mass destruction, before turning to a longer conversation about how international cooperation and global governance have given us the tools to prevent an asteroid impact — and the catastrophe that would entail.

How the Iran War Is Making Sudan's Civil War Even Worse 11.05.2026 25min

The civil war in Sudan is now entering its fourth year. Full-scale conflict broke out in April 2023 following a failed democratic transition, when two powerful rival militaries, the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces, fought each other for control of the country. Caught in the middle were the Sudanese people, 14 million of whom have been displaced, making this the largest humanitarian crisis in the world by the numbers. Four years on, I wanted to learn more about the state of the civil war today, including how the Iran conflict is impacting Sudan. Many of the same outside forces in the Gulf that have backed various sides in Sudan's civil war are now themselves under attack. Further, as we explored in a previous episode, rising fertilizer prices are hitting crisis-prone places like Sudan particularly hard. My guest today is Sudan analyst Dallia Mohamed. We kick off our conversation by discussing the current trends in this war. She then explains how the Iran war is impacting Sudan's own conflict before we have a longer discussion about what can break this cycle of violence.

Inside the (Flawed) Push at the Security Council to Reopen Hormuz | To Save Us From Hell 06.05.2026 19min

The Security Council is weighing yet another U.S.-backed resolution on the Strait of Hormuz that is probably doomed from the start. In this first segment of To Save Us From Hell, Anjali and Mark explain the flawed logic behind this latest effort to return the Strait to its status quo ante bellum. Then, Mark discusses what he learned covering the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, underway at the UN — the major multilateral nuclear security gathering that happens every five years. Finally, Anjali and Mark consider the latest American effort to withhold money it already owes to the UN — threatening to plunge the organization into an even deeper fiscal crisis. The full episode is available to paying subscribers. https://www.globaldispatches.org/40PercentOff

Introducing: "Houston At Large" -- A New Podcast About How America's Fourth Largest City Impacts the World 04.05.2026 45min

I wanted to share with you a new podcast that I've had a hand in supporting. Houston at Large is a show produced by Rice University Master of Global Affairs students Luisa Tolda and Dante Garcia. The podcast aims to analyze Houston's role in international matters such as immigration, energy, and trade. The first episode of this series, presented today, features Dr. Tony Payan, Director of the Claudio X. González Center for the U.S. and Mexico at the Baker Institute at Rice University. In this episode, Dr. Payan discusses a range of issues, including how immigration impacts Houston and how current events, such as the Iran conflict, have affected Houston, a major energy hub. Congratulations to these students for bringing this podcast to life! Now here are Luisa Tolda and Dante Garicia.

A Brilliant New Book Tells The Extraordinary Story Of Ordinary Syrians In The Civil War 30.04.2026 30min

Days of Love and Rage: A Story of Ordinary People Forging a Revolution by Anand Gopal takes readers to the Syrian city of Manbij before, during, and after the civil war. Against all odds, the people of Manbij evicted the Assad regime from the city and built a democracy from scratch, even as civil war raged throughout the country. This experiment in self-rule was complex and inspiring, but ultimately short-lived: the Islamic State eventually took over the city, destroying the trappings of democracy that the women and men of Manbij had built for themselves. Days of Love and Rage is one of the best books I have read in a very long time, and I was thrilled to speak with Anand Gopal about Manbij's democratic experiment and what it means for societies facing state collapse.

The High Stakes of a Major UN Meeting on Nuclear Weapons 27.04.2026 29min

The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is the most important and impactful global agreement on nuclear weapons. 191 counties have joined the NPT since it entered into force in 1970, with just a few notable exceptions, including India, Pakistan, Israel and South Sudan. The NPT has three essential pillars: countries that do not have nuclear weapons cannot acquire them; countries that do have nuclear weapons need to work towards disarmament; and countries should have the ability to access civilian nuclear technologies, under proper safeguards. Every five years, the parties to the NPT come together for what is known as a Review Conference in which they assess progress towards these three pillars and discuss ways to enhance the treaty. The NPT RevCon, as it's known, is one the major multilateral conference on nuclear security, and it is taking place at UN from April 27 to May 22. Joining me to discuss the significance of this NPT Review Conference is Kelsey Davenport, Director for Nonproliferation Policy at the Arms Control Association. We kick off with a discussion of the NPT itself, and it's impact over the decades and then have a long conversation about the key storylines, diplomatic intrigues and key policy debates that will unfold over the next three weeks at the UN. Consider this episode your curtain-raiser for the most important global gathering on nuclear security of the half-decade. A few notes. This episode is produced in partnership with Ploughshares, a foundation committed to reducing and ultimately eliminating nuclear threats. I'll have a follow up episode at the end of conference that discusses what exactly happened during the NPT RevCon. Also, I'll be attending much of the RevCon in person. I'll be serving as something akin to a "pool reporter," covering this conference in support of dozens of international journalists who report on nuclear security issues and feeding them news and insights from the confab. This project is backed by the Stanley Center for Peace and Security Developing Story Project, an initiative to support, strengthen, and sustain reporting on nuclear weapons and related issues. I'm looking forward to this. If you are around the UN, say hi.

Let the Race for UN Secretary General Begin! 24.04.2026 45min

On Tuesday and Wednesday this week, the four candidates for UN Secretary-General made their case at the UN General Assembly. Across twelve hours spanning two days, they took questions from UN member states and civil society groups eager to learn more about their priorities, proclivities, and leadership styles should they become the next UN Secretary-General on January 1, 2027. It was a marathon — and my To Save Us From Hell co-host Anjali Dayal and I watched it all! In today's episode, we tell you what we learned. To kick things off, we explain how the process for selecting a UN Secretary-General works — and how these hearings fit into it. We then break down what we heard from each of the candidates: Michelle Bachelet, Rafael Grossi, Rebeca Grynspan, and Macky Sall, bringing you the key highlights and takeaways. Consider this your curtain-raiser for a year of public campaigning and backroom dealmaking that will result in the selection of the next UN Secretary-General in the coming months.

How the Iran War Is Already Fueling a Global Food Crisis 20.04.2026 26min

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz is causing a surge in food prices around the world — particularly in places already in the midst of a humanitarian crisis. And it's about to get worse. This is the planting season for much of Africa and Asia, and fertilizer shortages mean that farmers are cutting back. Come this fall, crop yields will be reduced. One of the epicenters of this trend is Sudan, which, after three years of civil war, is the site of the world's largest humanitarian emergency. This is where I caught up with my interview guest, Kate Philipps-Barrasso, Vice President for Policy and Advocacy at Mercy Corps, a large international humanitarian relief organization. She spoke with me from Port Sudan, on the Red Sea, where she describes the immediate impact that the war in Iran has had on access to food and water. Mercy Corps recently released a report showing how fuel, fertilizer, and shipping disruptions have affected Somalia, Sudan, Pakistan, Ethiopia, and Myanmar, including the kinds of decisions farmers are making right now. The war in Iran's impact on global food prices has thus far been on the periphery of commentary about the conflict — but as this conversation shows, there is great urgency in understanding the cascading humanitarian consequences that are already unfolding.

Can International Institutions Survive Democratic Backsliding? Live from Lewis & Clark College 16.04.2026 1t 11min

Today's episode was recorded live at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, for the annual Lewis & Clark International Affairs Symposium. The theme of this year's symposium was Crumbling Pillars: The Age of Authoritarianism. For this live episode, I speak with Lewis & Clark professor Kyle Lascurettes about how democratic backsliding and authoritarian resilience are impacting the United Nations and other international institutions. Kyle Lascurettes and I speak for about 25 minutes before a really interesting question-and-answer session with students. A huge thank you to the students for both their great questions and for organizing the whole thing. This was the 64th annual Lewis & Clark International Affairs Symposium, which is entirely student-run. I had a great time meeting many of the students and spending the day on this gorgeous campus.

How China Views the Iran War 13.04.2026 27min

As I am recording this on Friday, April 10, JD Vance is en route to Islamabad, Pakistan, for negotiations over a ceasefire announced on April 7. This ceasefire is shaky at best. It is clear that there was never a common understanding between Iran and the United States about what might be included in a ceasefire, but American and Iranian delegations are headed to Islamabad to discuss these details. My view is that this will likely be a long and drawn-out process with limited chances for meaningful progress in the near term. Still, the level of violence in the region is reduced from what it was before the ceasefire, and that is a good thing. There has been some reporting that China played a backroom role in helping convince Iran to come to the negotiating table, which I find interesting given the wide range of views among the Chinese foreign policy elite about how Beijing should approach this conflict. My guest today, Jacob Mardell, is Lead Analyst at Sinification, a Substack that tracks these very debates in Chinese foreign policy. He scours Chinese publications, blogs, and official statements to help the rest of us get a pulse on foreign policy debates in China. We have a long conversation about the contours of Chinese thinking about the war in Iran and the broader Middle East, including whether China might be willing or able to step in as a credible mediator, as well as the risks and opportunities China sees if the U.S. gets bogged down in another war in the Middle East.

From Detection to Decision-Making: Understanding Pandemic Risk | Before the Outbreak, Episode 2 09.04.2026 28min

Pandemic Risk Assessment is an emerging scientific toolkit designed to assess how pandemic risk is evolving over time. Rather than predicting the next outbreak, it integrates evidence across scientific disciplines to identify the drivers and estimate the probabilities of pandemic outbreaks. And in so doing, it can help policymakers prioritize prevention and preparedness investments before crises emerge. Pandemic Risk Assessment is still an emerging field, but there is growing momentum to institutionalize it, with discussions exploring a range of possible models, including options inspired by bodies such as the IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which is the UN-backed scientific body that regularly updates policymakers on the latest findings on climate change. Joining me to discuss why pandemic risk assessment is needed, what a robust scientific process might look like, and how to make it a permanent feature of our global pandemic preparedness landscape are Serina Ng and Ben Oppenheim. Ben Oppenheim is a non-resident fellow at the Berkeley Risk and Security Lab and at the Center for Global Development. Serina Ng is a Director at the World Health Organization and Executive Head of the G20 Joint Finance Health Task Force Secretariat, which is hosted at the WHO. Today's episode is produced in partnership with the United Nations Foundation as a part of a series called Before the Outbreak, which examines the role of disease surveillance in stopping the next pandemic

How Existing Disease Surveillance Networks Can Catch New Outbreaks | Before the Outbreak, Episode 2 06.04.2026 33min

Many of our best surveillance tools today that were originally built to target specific diseases like polio and malaria have become critical infrastructure for outbreak response and early warning across a wide range of pathogens. This includes laboratory networks, diagnostic tools, and community health workers—all of which play vital roles in broader outbreak preparedness. In today's episode, two experts who have helped create platforms to monitor and respond to specific diseases explain how those systems have been leveraged to detect and respond to outbreaks of all kinds. Hamid Jafari served as Director of Polio Eradication for the World Health Organization's Eastern Mediterranean Region, and Krystal Burungi Mwesiga is an entomologist at the Uganda Virus Research Institute, where she works as a research and outreach associate with the Target Malaria, a not-for-profit research consortium. We kick off by discussing how these disease-specific surveillance platforms work, then broaden the conversation to how they've been adapted to respond to other outbreaks—and what can be done to make these tools even stronger. This episode is produced in partnership with the United Nations Foundation as part of a series called "Before the Outbreak" that examines the role of disease surveillance in stopping the next pandemic.

Introducing: "Before the Outbreak" — A Three-Part Series on Disease Surveillance and Pandemic Preparedness 02.04.2026 24min

Robust disease surveillance systems are the foundation of strong public health systems and are essential to preventing, detecting, and responding to health threats before they escalate. Commitments to and investments in quality disease surveillance systems are key to smart, cost-effective public health decision-making, which is needed more than ever. Before the Outbreak is a three-part podcast series produced in partnership between Global Dispatches and the United Nations Foundation, in which we explore how the world sees, anticipates, and prepares for current and emerging health threats. Through stories and science, this series highlights the critical functions that protect us – before the outbreak begins. Our debut episode features the expertise of Dr. Ciro Ugarte, Director of Health Emergencies at the Pan American Health Organization, and Dr. Pardis Sabeti, a professor at Harvard University's School of Public Health. We begin by defining our terms—that is, what do we mean by disease surveillance? We then discuss how disease surveillance works in practice and what can be done to strengthen our global defenses against the next pandemic.

How To Prevent Weapons of Mass Destruction in a Changing Geopolitical and Military Landscape | Global Catastrophic Risks 30.03.2026 29min

Today's episode is produced in partnership with the Global Challenges Foundation. The foundation is dedicated to raising awareness of global catastrophic risks and strengthening global governance to address them. The Global Challenges Foundation's 2026 Global Catastrophic Risks report outlines five of the biggest risks facing humanity today, including weapons of mass destruction, the topic of this episode. You can find the report at globalchallenges.org/gcr-2026. Wilfred Wan is director of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Programme at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Michael Wernstedt is acting head of Common Security at the Global Challenges Foundation. We kick off by discussing how geopolitical and military trends are increasing the risks surrounding weapons of mass destruction, before turning to a longer conversation about how to strengthen international cooperation and global governance to prevent the use of WMDs—and the catastrophe that would entail.

The Case Against Rodrigo Duterte at the International Criminal Court 26.03.2026 31min

One year ago, in 2025, former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was extradited to The Hague to face charges of crimes against humanity and murder for orchestrating a campaign of extrajudicial killings against people he deemed to be involved in the drug trade. Over the course of several years while he was president, thousands of people were killed by police and hit squads. Now, he faces justice at the International Criminal Court. Nearly one year to the day after his extradition, Duterte faced his first major court proceeding: the confirmation of charges against him. This is a major moment for the Philippines and the International Criminal Court. Joining me to discuss the case against Rodrigo Duterte is Diane Desierto, Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law School and Professor of Global Affairs at the Keough School of Global Affairs at Notre Dame. We begin by discussing the specific charges against Duterte before having a broader conversation about the significance of this case for both the Philippines and the future of the ICC.