Podcast appearances and mentions of carol castiel

Barbara Slavin, Director of Future of Iran Initiative at the Atlantic Council, and Andrea Stricker, resident fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, discuss the pros and cons of salvaging the international deal to curb Iran's nuclear program with host Carol Castiel.

Carol Castiel along with assistant producer, Emma Wilcox, talk with a reproductive health expert who specializes in epidemiology, demography, and abortion care at the University of California, about the economic, social and health consequences of such a reversal at the federal level.

Carol Castiel adapts an interview conducted by VOA State Department correspondent Nike Ching with the US Special Envoy for Afghan Women, Girls & Human Rights and talks with Afghan analyst, Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Program and senior associate for South Asia at the Wilson Center.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has affected all regions of the world, including Latin America. Host Carol Castiel speaks with Benjamin Gedan, deputy director of the Latin American Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center and Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Council of the Americas and the Americas Society about the impact of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the politics of lifting of two controversial US border policies which affect migration at the southern US border.

Host Carol Castiel talks with former US Special Forces officer Mike Waltz, now a Republican Congressman from the state of Florida who serves on the House Armed Services Committee and the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. Waltz, who has served in the US military for over 24 years, analyzes the Biden Administration's policy toward Ukraine, Afghanistan and Africa and speaks of the need to do more to prevent malign actions by China against Taiwan. The second half of the show features an interview with historian and writer, Anne Applebaum, conducted by VOA senior Ukrainian broadcaster, Tatiana Vorozhko, on April 21, immediately after Applebaum met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv.

Against the backdrop of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Joshua Meservey, senior policy analyst for Africa & the Middle East at the Heritage Foundation, and Susan Stigant, director of Africa Programs for the U.S. Institute of Peace, join host Carol Castiel to discuss the perils of the Wagner group, Russian mercenaries operating at the behest of the Mali junta. They also give an update on and assessment of the civil war in Ethiopia and the resilience of the Sudanese people in the face of the military takeover in Khartoum which disrupted the transition to civilian rule.

Ambassador András Simonyi, former Hungarian ambassador to the United States and NATO, now senior fellow at the Atlantic council's Global Energy Center, talks with host Carol Castiel about the significance of Ukrainian resistance to Moscow's invasion and the need for the western alliance to sustain military and political support to Kyiv. Simonyi also underscores the need for Europe to wean off Russian energy sources and lauds Finland and Sweden's interest in joining NATO saying they will enhance the Alliance.

Michael Newton, Law professor and former Senior Advisor to the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues, and Visiting Harvard Law professor, Alex Whiting who is also deputy specialist prosecutor at the Kosovo Specialist Prosecutor's Office in The Hague, join host Carol Castiel to discuss potential war crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine and the important ongoing process of documenting evidence, which is needed to hold perpetrators, up to and including Russian President Vladimir Putin, accountable at the ICC or any other national or international venue.

Host Carol Castiel talks with Jim Kessler, vice president for policy at Third Way, and John Fortier, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute about critical issues dominating the US political landscape from the seven hour and 37-minute gap in former President Donald Trump's phone log on January 6, 2021, the day a violent mob attacked the US Capitol, US President Joe Biden's decision to release more oil from the US strategic petroleum reserve to mitigate rising fuel prices, the politics surrounding the confirmation of the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court and headwinds for Democrats in the upcoming midterm elections.

Jennifer Cafarella, Chief of Staff and Inaugural National Security Fellow at the Institute for the Study of War and Colin Clarke, Senior Research Fellow and Director of Research at the Soufan Center talk with host Carol Castiel about how Russia's invasion of Ukraine has adversely affected its influence abroad, from sub-Saharan Africa to the Middle East and beyond. Moscow's violations of international law and human rights have sullied its reputation; its use of mercenaries from the Wagner Group further expose Russia's battlefield losses and undermine the country's reputation as a global military power.

Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine triggered a wave of severe sanctions against Russian banks, businesses, and oligarchs by the western alliance. These sanctions have been far reaching and intended to punish the Kremlin and restrict funding and resources used to support Russian aggression. Host Carol Castiel sits down with Julia Friedlander, a former senior policy advisor for Europe in the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence in the Treasury Department, now Senior Fellow and Director of the Economic Statecraft Initiative at the Atlantic Council, to discuss the scope and impact of these sanctions.

Host Carol Castiel talks with Lauren Speranza, Director of the Transatlantic Defense and Security Program at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), about the new security reality in Europe created by the unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine. She analyses the outcome of a special NATO Summit, meetings among G-7 leaders and the European Council in Brussels aimed at strengthening unity and coordinating greater military support for Ukraine and bolstering NATO's Baltic states and eastern flank.

Andrea Kendall-Taylor, senior fellow and director of the Transatlantic Security Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) and Melinda Haring, Deputy Director of the Eurasia Center at the Atlantic Council, analyze with host Carol Castiel the current state of play of Russia's aggression in Ukraine, the extraordinary unity of NATO and the European Union in coordinating the provision of defensive weapons to Ukraine and sanctions against Russia, the leadership and courage shown by Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and the increasingly isolated Russian President Vladimir Putin who has wrought untold devastation in Ukraine, hurt the Russian people and Moscow's standing in the world.

Host Carol Castiel talks with Congresswoman Shontel Brown, a Democrat from the state of Ohio, who serves on the House Agriculture and Oversight and Reform Committees. Brown, who won a contentious special election for the seat vacated by Representative Marcia Fudge, now Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), is serving out her first term in Congress. She shares her thoughts on legislative priorities guided by the principles of equity, inclusion and diversity, enthusiasm for the bipartisan infrastructure law, voting rights, US leadership in combatting Vladimir Putin's aggression toward Ukraine and the importance of preserving democracy at home.

Host Carol Castiel talks with Russian born, Anna Borshchevskaya, Senior Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, about the latest developments surrounding Russia's invasion of Ukraine, including Moscow's underestimation of national resistance, the impact of the latest raft of sanctions on Russia, the political and economic implications of the dire humanitarian situation, and how the West's actions and inactions over the last decade have inadvertently contributed to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

In honor of Black History Month, host Carol Castiel and Issues in the News host, Kim Lewis, talk with Kay C. James, currently the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Virginia, previously president of the Heritage Foundation, a prominent conservative think tank based in Washington. James shares her views about the state and future of the Republican Party, the significance of nominating a Black woman to the US Supreme Court and the twists and turns in her modest upbringing in the segregated south to becoming an icon of the conservative movement in America.

On the 50th anniversary of former US President Richard Nixon's historic visit to Beijing, China experts Bonnie Glaser, Director Asia program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States and Zack Cooper, Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute talk with host Carol Castiel about the evolution of U.S. China relations. They also analyze the relationship through the lens of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the growing geostrategic rapprochement between Moscow and Beijing.

In honor of Black History Month, Carol Castiel talks with H.E. Patrick Gaspard, former Ambassador to South Africa, now President and CEO of the Center for American Progress about range of domestic and international issues.

Michael Kugelman, from the Wilson Center and Elizabeth Threlkeld, from the Stimson Center joins Carol Castiel to discuss the political, economic, and humanitarian state of play in Afghanistan six months the Taliban takeover of Kabul.

Carol Castiel sits down with Congresswoman Elaine Luria, a Democrat from Virginia. They talk about critical domestic and foreign issues such as preserving democracy, combatting Russian aggression against Ukraine, standing up to Beijing and thwarting international and domestic terrorism.

Host Carol Castiel talks with voting rights expert, author and president of the Brennan Center for Justice, Michael Waldman, about the factors that led to the failure of federal voting rights legislation in the Senate, dealing a blow to a key facet of President Joe Biden's agenda. Waldman tells Castiel that the wave of restrictive voting laws emanating from mostly Republican state legislatures and the Supreme Court's gutting of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965, make it even more critical to continue to fight for voting rights in America.

Will Pomeranz, deputy director of the Kennan Institute at the Wilson Center, and Andrea Kendall-Taylor, senior fellow, and director of the Transatlantic Security Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) discuss with host Carol Castiel the latest developments, including the placement of 8,500 US military personnel on “high alert” and considering the imposition of draconian sanctions on the Kremlin for its malign actions against Ukraine and Eastern European NATO members.

Host Carol Castiel talks with Ambassador William (Bill) Taylor, V.P. at the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP), formerly Ambassador to Ukraine, about Moscow's designs on Ukraine given the ominous Russian troop buildup along the Ukrainian border. Taylor assesses whether the series of high-level meetings recently held in Brussels with NATO and EU representatives and the OSCE in Vienna can stave off a Russian incursion into Ukraine. He affirms that the western alliance is united and prepared to impose punishing sanctions should Russian President Vladimir Putin decide to attack.

How can the United States strike the delicate balance between its values of democracy and human rights and its national security interests with allies who are backsliding on the former? Host Carol Castiel and VOA senior analyst, Mohamed Elshinnawi, talk with Thomas Carothers, Vice President for Studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, about his new article, “Navigating the Democracy-Security Dilemma in U.S. Foreign Policy: Lessons from Egypt, India, and Turkey,” about the democracy-security conundrum.

On this annual edition of Encounter, Kori Schake, senior fellow and the director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute and Brian Katulis, Vice President for Policy at the Middle East Institute talk with host Carol Castiel about the most pressing national security and foreign policy challenges that face the second year of the Biden Administration as midterm elections loom.

On this annual edition of Press Conference USA, host Carol Castiel and co-host, Rick Pantaleo, speak with Amy Webb, CEO and Founder of “Future Today Institute” about the latest biological, technological and metaverse trends for 2022. They will also discuss the impact of the Covid-19 vaccines on future therapies.

From the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan and constant Covid-19 challenges to military coups in Myanmar and Sudan, host Carol Castiel reviews the stories that dominated the 2021 headlines with Linda Feldmann, Washington Bureau Chief for the Christian Science Monitor and Michael Williams, Washington correspondent for Project 10 TV Australia.

On this year-end edition of Encounter, host Carol Castiel presents excerpts from our most memorable programs in 2021. From the inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States of America to the ongoing struggle with the coronavirus pandemic and much more, we present key domestic and international highlights from 2021.

Host Carol Castiel speaks with the director of the “Governance Lab” and Northeastern University professor, Beth Simone Noveck, about her new book “Solving Public Problems: A Practical Guide to Fix Our Government and Change Our World.” On this encore edition, Noveck tells VOA that citizens and governments can leverage digital technology, data, and the collective wisdom of communities to create solutions to contemporary problems from the Covid-19 pandemic to climate change to social inequality.

A bill to create a commission to study the effects of slavery and discrimination in the United States has been stalled in the House of Representatives for more than seven months. In this encore edition of Encounter, host Carol Castiel talks with Jennifer Oast, professor and chair of the Department of History at Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania, and Noah Millman, political columnist for “The Week,” about the merits and drawbacks of reparations for descendants of slaves and why the debate has been revived in recent days. Listen to Encounter on the Voice of America!

Host Carol Castiel speaks with Rose Luqiu, professor of Communications at Hong Kong Baptist University and author of the new book, “Covering the 2019 Hong Kong Protests.” Luqui tells VOA that the unprecedented protests against the 2019 extradition bill augured an erosion of civil liberties in Hong Kong, including freedom of the press. She adds that the June 2020 Hong Kong National Security Law also adversely affected journalists and weakened the autonomy Hong Kong enjoyed from Beijing under the One country, two systems policy.

US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping attempted to fend off further escalation over contentious issues like Taiwan, human rights, and the global balance of power and reach some agreement on health security and climate change at a recent virtual summit. East Asia experts Richard Fontaine, CEO of The Center for a New American Security, and Dean Cheng, Senior Research Fellow at the Asian Studies Center at The Heritage Foundation talk with host Carol Castiel about the challenges ahead for the US-China relationship.

Host Carol Castiel and reporter Nabeel Biajo of VOA's “South Sudan in Focus,” speak with former US Ambassador to South Sudan, Tom Hushek, as the world's youngest nation commemorates its 10th anniversary. While hopeful that South Sudan can overcome its political, economic, and social challenges after a devastating civil war, Ambassador Hushek warns that it will require enormous political will as well as the help and steadfast commitment of the United States and the African Union

Will Pomeranz, deputy director of the Kennan Institute at the Wilson Center, and Andrea Kendall-Taylor, senior fellow and director of the Transatlantic Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, discuss the motives behind Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko's creation of an artificial migrant crisis on the border with Europe and the malign role played by Russian President Vladimir Putin in this ruse with host Carol Castiel. They also analyze the Russian troop buildup on the border with US ally Ukraine.

After unprecedented nationwide pro-democracy protests rocked Cuba in July, Havana preempted a large demonstration slated for November 15. But the Cuban protest anthem, “Patria y Vida” won song of the year at the 22nd annual Latin Grammy Award ceremony even as one of the musicians behind the song — Maykel Osorbo — remains imprisoned in Cuba. Host Carol Castiel talks with Lillian Guerra, Professor of Cuban and Caribbean history at the University of Florida, about the significance of the protests and policy recommendations for the US government that would both challenge the authoritarian regime and support the Cuban people.

Ambassador Tibor Nagy, former assistant secretary of state for African Affairs and former US Ambassador to Ethiopia and Ambassador Donald Booth, former US Ambassador to Ethiopia and former special envoy to Sudan and South Sudan, diagnose the roots of the looming crisis in Ethiopia as well as recommend keys to a peaceful outcome with host Carol Castiel.

John Fortier, resident scholar at The American Enterprise Institute, and Jim Kessler, executive vice president for policy at Third Way, discuss the main issues dominating the US political landscape with host Carol Castiel, including the implications of the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races for the 2022 midterm elections. A decisive Republican victory in Virginia is seen as a “wake-up” call for Democrats nationwide and a good omen for Republicans who seek to win back one or both houses of Congress in 2022. Program Note: Late Friday night (11/05/21), Democrats set aside differences and passed a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, sending it to President Joe Biden to sign into law. This program was recorded before the legislation was passed.

“Libya is a microcosm of global disorder” says Jason Pack, author of the upcoming book: “Libya and the Global Enduring Disorder.” Host Carol Castiel and VOA senior analyst Mohamed Elshinnawi talk with Jason Pack, who is also a scholar at the Middle East Institute, about the upcoming elections in Libya and the domestic and external impediments to long-term stability in this oil-rich North African nation.

Host Carol Castiel speaks with several Afghan analysts from the innovative think thank Newlines Institute, who discuss the ideas in their article “Challenges of a Talibanized Afghanistan.” They discuss the looming humanitarian crisis as millions of Afghans face potential starvation, the probable resurgence of transnational jihadist groups, the geopolitical ramifications of a “Talibanized” Afghanistan for neighboring South and Central Asian countries, and the difficulty of ordinary Afghans, especially women and girls, to keep their hard-won freedoms under the Taliban.

Cameron Hudson, former chief of staff to the US Special Envoy to Sudan and Ismail Kushkush an independent Sudanese journalist, discuss the factors leading to the recent coup in Sudan with host Carol Castiel. They tell VOA the military fear losing control over key economic sectors in which they have business interests and the prospect of facing accountability for past atrocities. Hudson and Kushkush say the Sudanese who rose up to throw off the yoke of military rule under Omar al Bashir, are likely to mount a strong resistance to this attempt at subverting the democratic transition.

On this edition of Encounter, host Carol Castiel talks with Eric Farnsworth, Vice President of the Council of the Americas and the Americas Society, and Steve Hege, deputy regional director for the US Institute of Peace in Colombia, about the significance of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's trip to Colombia and Ecuador and challenges in bolstering democracy, equitable economic growth, combatting corruption and mitigating irregular migration from Haiti and Venezuela.

Host Carol Castiel speaks with Middle East historian and scholar, Edmund Ghareeb. about the many contributions of Arab Americans who immigrated to the United States from Syria, Lebanon Palestine and elsewhere in the 19th and early 20th centuries. His current research focuses on the heyday of the Arab language press in America, which not only spawned prominent literary and journalistic figures but also reflected an appreciation of the values of a free and independent media.

Host Carol Castiel speaks with founding partner of FutureMap and author Parag Khanna, about his most recent book “MOVE: The Forces Upending Us,” which posits that global events from pandemics, climate change, economic dislocation and political instability, induce mobility – people in search of security and a better life.

John Fortier, resident scholar at The American Enterprise Institute, and Jim Kessler, executive vice president for policy at Third Way, discuss the major issues dominating the US political landscape with host Carol Castiel including a debt ceiling extension deal, intense negotiations among Democratic lawmakers over the scope and cost of a human infrastructure bill critical to President Joe Biden's agenda, and an interim Senate report exposing former President Donald Trump's attempt to install a loyalist attorney general to pursue unfounded claims of election fraud.

Host Carol Castiel and senior broadcaster in VOA's Persian Service, Siamak Deghanpour, talk with author and Iran specialist, Hussein Banai, about the internal and external challenges facing the Iran's new hardline administration led by President Ebrahim Raisi. Banai also discusses the need for the Biden Administration, which wants to revive the nuclear deal (JCPOA) from which the Trump administration withdrew, to design a wholistic policy toward the Islamic Republic which addresses not just the nuclear file, ballistic missiles, and malign regional activities, but also Tehran's dismal record on democracy and human rights.

Host Carol Castiel and VOA senior diplomatic correspondent, Cindy Saine, talk with Mona Yacoubian, a senior official at the US Institute of Peace who tells VOA that the end of the US military intervention in Afghanistan underscores the need to prioritize diplomacy, peacebuilding, and development if the United States and other industrialized nations wish to successfully address the national security threats of the 21st century.

On this edition of Encounter, John Malcolm, vice president for the Institute for Constitutional Government and the director of the Meese Center for Legal & Judicial Studies at the conservative Heritage Foundation, and Elliot Mincberg, senior fellow at the liberal People for the American Way, spar over the merits and drawbacks of expanding the 9-member Supreme Court and making other changes such as imposing term limits to the lifetime appointments and reforming the so-called “Shadow docket” with host Carol Castiel.

On the 20th anniversary of the deadliest terrorist attack on US soil, renowned terrorism analysts Ali Soufan, former supervisory FBI agent, now CEO of The Soufan Group, and Bruce Hoffman, senior fellow for counterterrorism and homeland security at the Council on Foreign Relations, reflect on the successes and failures over the past two decades of the “war on terror” and the daunting challenges that remain with host Carol Castiel.

On the 20th anniversary of the deadliest terrorist attack on US soil, renowned terrorism analysts Ali Soufan, former supervisory FBI agent, now CEO of The Soufan Group, and Bruce Hoffman, senior fellow for counterterrorism and homeland security at the Council on Foreign Relations, reflect on the successes and failures over the past two decades of the “war on terror” and the daunting challenges that remain with host Carol Castiel.

Host Carol Castiel speaks with Northeastern University professor, Beth Noveck, about her new book “Solving Public Problems: A Practical Guide to Fix Our Government and Change Our World,” in which she recounts how citizens and governments can leverage digital technology, data, and the collective wisdom of communities to design and deliver solutions to contemporary problems from the Covid pandemic to climate change to social inequities.