Social science concerned with the study of politics, political systems and associated constitutions
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Host Sarah Burke interviews Cristina Howorun about her journey from traffic reporter to award-winning journalist at City TV, despite her health challenges. Cristina discusses kidney disease and her experience getting a kidney transplant which eventually began to fail. She finds herself going through the same search to find a living donor as she faces kidney failure again. Cristina emphasizes the importance of mentorship and support from other women in the industry, and she highlights her commitment to investigative journalism and social issues. More About Cristina Howorun: After earning a Master's degree in Political Studies from Queen's University and working for the federal government, she answered her true calling and became a journalist. Cristina earned a degree in Broadcast Journalism from Ryerson University while flying around in a helicopter delivering traffic reports for a variety of radio and TV stations. After graduating, she worked as a Political Affairs reporter for CTV News Windsor and CTV News London before landing at CityTV in Toronto. Cristina has covered every election since 2008, she's been embedded with the troops in the Mojave Desert, tracked down a suspected terrorist in Libya, exposed shocking levels of abuse and negligence in long-term care homes and shined a light on the dangerous living and working conditions in Ontario's jails. Six years ago, Cristina received a lifesaving kidney transplant from her cousin- but in 2024 was once again diagnosed with end stage kidney disease. She is currently on dialysis- but has not let that stop her from continuing her passion for journalism, story telling and has even completed several specials and a documentary while undergoing life-sustaining therapies. She has several projects on the go, and her latest documentary “My Fake Billionaire Boyfriend” is expected to premiere on CityTV by early summer. https://www.instagram.com/howorun/ “Prison Moms”- https://toronto.citynews.ca/video/2023/05/29/full-episode-prison-moms-veracity/ "The Gun Chase" https://toronto.citynews.ca/video/2021/04/22/full-episode-veracity-the-gun-chase-a-documentary-about-torontos-gun-problem/ "Fighting Traffick" https://toronto.citynews.ca/video/2021/10/25/full-episode-veracity-fighting-traffick/ Debt to Society https://toronto.citynews.ca/video/2024/08/26/full-episode-debt-to-society-veracity/ Breaking Brethren https://toronto.citynews.ca/video/2022/03/28/full-episode-veracity-breaking-brethren/ The Long Road Home https://toronto.citynews.ca/video/2023/02/27/full-episode-the-long-road-home-veracity/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Join Aaron Renn as he sits down with Geoffrey Kabaservice, Vice President of Political Studies at the Niskanen Center and author of Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party, From Eisenhower to the Tea Party. In this compelling episode, they dive into the decline of moderate Republicanism, tracing the transformation of the GOP from the era of Dwight Eisenhower to the rise of Ronald Reagan, the Tea Party, and beyond. Why did moderate Republicans fade from prominence? What role did populism play in reshaping the party? And is there a future for pragmatic, effective governance in today's polarized America? This conversation explores the historical shifts, key figures, and structural challenges facing the Republican Party, offering insights for anyone interested in American political history.GEOFFREY KABASERVICE LINKS:
What is due process, and who is entitled to it? Why does it matter? Cedarville University's Political Science Professor and Director of the Center for Political Studies, Dr. Mark Caleb Smith, joins Ken and Deb to explore these questions in this Christian Perspective on the News segment. Mark will take a closer look at actions from SCOTUS and the administration, offering his expert perspective on this issue in regards to deporting immigrants. As we begin this National Day of Prayer, join this Christian Perspective on the News segment and discover ways we can be praying for our Nation on Mornings with Seth and Deb!Donate to Moody Radio: http://moodyradio.org/donateto/morningshow/wdlmSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In this episode of #DefenceDeconstructed the Triple Helix team, David Perry, Charlotte Duval-Lantoine, Dr. Alexander Salt, Geordie Jeakins, Dr. Alexander Wilner, explore how current political dynamics, particularly ongoing elections, the evolving Canada–U.S. partnership, and advances in technology, are influencing the priorities and operations of the CAF and DND. Triple Helix is a network composed of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute (CGAI), the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs (NPSIA) at Carleton University, and industry that explores how a range of emerging technologies intersect with defence. // Guest bios: - Charlotte Duval-Lantoine is the Vice President, Ottawa Operations and a Fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, as well as Triple Helix's Executive Director and Gender Advisor. She is also a PhD Student at Deakin University, where she studies the influence the culture of the Canadian Army had on the killings of Somali civilians during Operation Deliverance. - Dr. Alexander Salt has a PhD from the University of Calgary's Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies and an MA in Political Studies from the University of Manitoba. His dissertation explores to what extent has the battlefield experience of the U.S. military influenced post-war organizational innovation. - Dr. Alex Wilner is an Associate Professor at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs (NPSIA) and the Director of the Infrastructure Protection and International Security (IPIS) graduate program, at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. - Geordie Jenkins is an Associate at Oliver Wyman, the leading global aerospace and defence advisory firm. In this role, Geordie advises clients in government-driven sectors in Canada, the United States, and NATO allies on a variety of issues. // Host bio: David Perry is President and CEO of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute // Recommended Readings: - “Neuromancer” by William Gibson. - “The Propagation Handbook: A guide to propagating houseplants” by Hilton Carter. - “Foundation” by Isaac Asimov. - “The Ones We Let Down: Toxic Leadership Culture and Gender Integration in the Canadian Forces” by Charlotte Duval-Lantoine. // Defence Deconstructed was brought to you by Irving Shipbuilding. // Music Credit: Drew Phillips | Producer: Jordyn Carroll Release date: 18 April 2025
Send us a textWith Canada heading to the polls on April 28th, 2025, voters across the country are weighing some big questions. Should we re-elect the incumbent party or opt for change? Who's best positioned to lead the country—and how will the next government navigate the relationship with the U.S.? Should we be focusing on local candidates or national leaders?In this episode, recorded on April 9th, we explore these questions and more with Dr. Kathy Brock, Professor Emerita in the School of Policy Studies and Department of Political Studies at Queen's University. A leading expert in Canadian public policy and administration, Dr. Brock offers non-partisan insights to help listeners think critically as election day approaches.This conversation is meant to inform, not persuade—and to offer some food for thought as you prepare to cast your vote.For information on books she has written, send her an email; kathy.brock@queensu.ca Our theme music is “Stasis Oasis”, by Tim Aylesworth Follow us on Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram, & Threads Send comments & suggestions to thekingstonianpodcast@gmail.com Episodes also air weekly on CJAI at 101.3fm (Tue. at 4pm)
On this post "Liberation Day", Cedarville University's Director of the Center for Political Studies and Professor Dr. Mark Caleb Smith joins a conversation on Mornings with Seth and Deb to comment and offers an expert's perspective on the President's announcement Thursday. Mark will explain the actions taken and offer a Biblical perspective on how to consider and respond to the headlines in a way that honors Christ and furthers His Kingdom purposes.Donate to Moody Radio: http://moodyradio.org/donateto/morningshow/wdlmSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Today we talk to Dave Korzinski researcher associate of Angus Reid, Julie Simmons Associate Proffesor of Political Studies at U of Guelph and Ken Wiebe of The Winnipeg Free Press.
CX Goalkeeper - Customer Experience, Business Transformation & Leadership
In this engaging episode of the CX Goalkeeper Podcast, I sit down with Peter Ryan, a leading voice in customer experience (CX) and BPO strategy, to explore the key CX predictions for 2025. From Agent AI to market consolidation and real-time voice translation, Peter unpacks trends that are reshaping how companies deliver customer service and drive business outcomes. This is an unmissable conversation for CX leaders aiming to stay ahead of the curve.About the GuestPeter has a degree in Political Studies from the University of Saskatchewan and an MBA from Dalhousie University. Although headquartered in Montreal, Québec, Canada, Peter's clients come from every corner of the globe, so odds are he knows your city well.Peter's passion for CX and BPO shines through in the connections he makes worldwide, and his ability to bring great people together is second-to-none.Contact Peter today and learn how he can help your business thrive in the dynamic world of customer experience outsourcing.Relevant Linkshttps://ryanadvisory.com/about/ https://ryanadvisory.com/top-cx-predictions-for-2025/ Podcast: CX Files: https://cxfiles.libsyn.com/The Top 3 Key LearningsAgent AI will redefine CX operations by supporting both agents and customers, increasing efficiency, and improving employee satisfaction.Mergers and acquisitions will shape the mid-market BPO space, as companies strive for scale, agility, and competitive advantage.Real-time voice translation will unlock new offshore opportunities, enabling businesses to provide multilingual services from non-native speaking regions.Top 3 Quotes"Agent AI is going to be the key AI driver in the CX space going into 2025.""In CX, anyone standing still is moving backwards—you must stay informed and adaptable.""Real-time automated voice translation could be one of the biggest game changers in our industry."Chapters00:00 Welcome and Introduction 01:38 Guest Introduction: Peter Ryan 02:50 Values Driving Professional Career 04:23 Top CX Predictions for 2025 04:30 Agent AI Transformations 07:56 Consolidation of Mid-Market BPO Players 10:04 Real-Time Automated Voice Translation 14:25 Economic Impact on CX Budgets 16:29 Future of Customer Analytics 18:39 Fast Forward: CX in 10 Years 20:55 Final Thoughts and Golden NuggetKeywordscustomer experience, CX predictions 2025, Peter Ryan, Gregorio Uglioni, Agent AI, mid-market BPO, voice translation AI, CX trends, CX Goalkeeper Podcast, customer analytics, CX transformation, AI in contact centers, BPO consolidation, CX strategy, customer service innovation, offshore CX delivery, real-time voice AI,
Paul Thomas,Political Studies, U of M: Election 2025! Carrie Shipley, author "Party On: 10 Pescatarian Finger Food Feasts From Around The World", and your calls on your election issues.
If you work across time zones, borders, and cultures, this is the show for you. This is your host Leonardo Marra, welcome to the international business podcast. Today, we delve into the Gulf countries. With the rapid growth in smartphone and internet penetration in Saudi Arabia, how can businesses leverage the digital landscape to enhance customer experience and market reach? Why is Dubai a hub for AI? How are Gulf businesses shifting supply chains towards emerging markets in Central Asia? And much more…We do this with 3 expert guests. Check further below for their detailed information.Join Leonardo on Patreon for:Podcast Archive: 102 episodes (40+ hours).Podcast Bonus Episodes: New exclusive content.Early Access: Upcoming YouTube videos and newsletters.Thinking Process Journal: Insights into Leonardo's content preparation, including a curated reading list and personal reflections.Q&A: Submit questions for future episodes, and receive a shoutout when they are answered.With guests:With a globe-spanning career, Corina Goetz has embodied roles as diverse as Advisor, Educator, Confidente and Specialist in Middle Eastern culture. By creating Star-CaT, a Middle Eastern Advisory, Training, and Consulting firm, she has spent over 20 years forging trusted relationships with leaders from the Gulf, royal families, and business magnates. Her remarkable success includes escalating a company's regional client base from zero to a 6 million annual turnover. As a German national and non-Arabic speaker, she brings a unique perspective to the table, embodying the bridge between the West and the Middle East. Having navigated the complex cultural landscapes herself, she understands the subtleties of communication, attire, and social structures in the Gulf. Through Star-CaT, her mission is global – to educate, guide and assist companies in navigating the dynamic business environment of the Gulf with confidence and cultural intelligence which then leads to exeptionnel commercial success.Corina's expertise in Middle Eastern customs and business etiquette has made her an indispensable ally to a variety of clients, including prestigious names like Aka, Corinthia London, Sarova Group, Monteverdi Tuscany, King & Spalding, Dr. Rita Rakus, and Acorn Capital Advisors. She is committed to ensuring her clients not only meet but exceed the expectations of their Middle Eastern counterparts.Oksana Didyk is a strategic consultant and researcher specializing in the Gulf region's energy, food and agriculture, culture, and logistics sectors. With 12 years of experience in business strategy, lean management, and market entry, she has advised governments, trade organizations, and multinational companies on navigating complex regional dynamics. Oksana is also completing her PhD in Political Studies, focusing on political branding and governance in the Middle East, giving her a deep analytical edge in understanding the region's economic and geopolitical landscapes. Combining academic insight with hands-on expertise, she helps businesses not just enter the Gulf, but truly succeed in it.Giorgio Morocica is the Head of Business Development at Edugo.AI, a Gen AI-powered Learning Management System, acquired in 2023. Giorgio is also the founder and CEO of "The Founders Club" an international community with the mission to help founders and entrepreneurs create a scalable business EXIT successfully. Furthermore, he is an Angel Investor with currently 6 startups in his portfolio and a mentor for startup founders and entrepreneurs. He holds a bachelor's degree in linguistics from Università per Stranieri di Siena and a triple master's degree from ICN Business School, University of Bologna, and East China University of Science and Technology.If you work across time zones, borders, and cultures, come on the show to share your story. Connect with the host Leonardo Marra
Today we talk to RICHARD CLOUTIER, JACOB ROBBINS-KANTOR, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, POLITICAL STUDIES, BISHOPS UNIVERSITY,TARA SMITH, GM OF MR FURNACE.
Regardless of your political leanings, we have plenty to discuss regarding this new administration with Dr. Mark Caleb Smith! Dr. Smith is a regular guest on Mornings with Seth and Deb, offering an informed and Christian perspective on the news. In this segment, we will look at a few of the many decisions that have been made by President Donald Trump during his first six weeks, gaining an historical and political perspective from Dr. Smith, who teaches political science at Cedarville University along with being the Director of the Center for Political Studies and Dean of the School of Arts and Humanities. Join Seth and Deb as we take a step back from the rhetoric and explore the news through the lens of Scripture on Mornings with Seth and Deb! Donate to Moody Radio: http://moodyradio.org/donateto/morningshow/wdlmSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Once past the first point of emergency, integration into a new society is not limited to finding – as basic as the need is – only a safe place to live. It's also about access to services, employment, and a sense of community, too. For many Ukrainians who relocated to Estonia following the full-scale war launched by Russia, digital skills can be the key to more easily addressing the needs of this new reality. The DEUCE project, led by the e-Governance Academy and funded by the U.S. Department of State, has done great in supporting this transition by empowering Ukrainian refugees with digital skills, strengthening their self-sufficiency, and training community resilience. At the heart of the initiative are “digital envoys” – volunteers, trained to help fellow community members better engage with Estonia's digital society. Through targeted mini-projects, including tools to prevent scams, improve access to local services, and enhance job market readiness, we explore what digital inclusion encompasses with Dmytro Khutkyy, Expert in Governance & Engagement at e-Governance Academy, and DEUCE digital envoy Olena Denysenko, also Analyst in Political Studies at Tartu University.
Middle East Focus Presents: 'Taking the Edge Off the Middle East,' a series of casual conversations with leading policy professionals on the most important happenings in the Middle East today - hosted by MEI's Senior Fellow Brian Katulis. Ibrahim Dalalsha, founder and director of Horizon Center for Political Studies and Media Outreach, and Shira Efron, research director at the Israel Policy Forum, join host Brian Katulis to discuss policy developments in the devastating war between Israel and Hamas, and how Israelis and Palestinians can work together toward a peaceful resolution of conflict.
If America had to choose, would it defend Estonia or Taiwan? Can Europe still count on the US to come to its defense? If necessary, does Europe have enough troops available for long-term deployment to Ukraine? What should European Union leaders do to strengthen European security in the short term, at least? I discussed these pressing topics and more with Assistant Professor Jan Kofroň from the Institute of Political Studies at Charles University's Faculty of Social Sciences. Listen to our conversation. And if you enjoy what I do, please support me on Ko-fi! Thank you. https://ko-fi.com/amatisak
Many European leaders have been aghast at American moves to unilaterally agree a Ukraine “peace deal” with Russia and their concerns have only been intensified by an explosive speech by the US vice-president that some say signals a sundering of the transatlantic alliance. What does the Trump administration's approach mean for Czech defence policy? And how likely is conscription to return? I discussed those questions, and more, with Jan Kofroň of the Institute of Political Studies at Charles University's Faculty of Social Sciences.
Top US and Russians diplomats meet in Saudi Arabia to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine. Prof. Vladamir Zeev Khanin, Department of Political Studies at the Begin Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar Ilan University said that a solution to the Ukraine war would not be a return to the lines before Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine. He told reporter Arieh O’Sullivan that Trump was looking out more for America’s interest than relations with European allies and he was keen on a strategic relationship with Russia. (photo: Denis Balibouse/AP) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Send us a textU.S. politics has been making headlines nonstop, and with so much happening, it can be difficult to keep up. In this episode, I'm joined by Paul Gardner, Assistant Professor of Political Studies at Queen's University, to help break it all down. Paul's expertise in American law and politics comes from years of research at Queen's, the Maxwell School at Syracuse University, and Princeton University, where he earned his Ph.D.Together, we dive into key topics shaping the political landscape, including the U.S. Supreme Court, Donald Trump, tariffs, and more. With things changing rapidly, this conversation was recorded on February 3rd, 2025.Our theme music is “Stasis Oasis”, by Tim Aylesworth Follow us on Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram, & Threads Send comments & suggestions to thekingstonianpodcast@gmail.com Episodes also air weekly on CJAI at 101.3fm (Tue. at 4pm)
Volodymyr Yermolenko is President of PEN Ukraine, the writers Union, and Chief Editor of Ukraine World. He is one of Ukraine's leading cultural and intellectual figures, a philosopher, essayist, translator, Doctor of Political Studies, candidate of philosophical sciences, and senior lecturer at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. It is a great privilege to be in conversation, especially here in Kyiv. In this discussion, Yermolenko unpacks the complexities of Ukrainian identity, the historical context of Russian-Ukrainian relations, and the ongoing war. He explores themes of assimilation, imperialism, and the role of language in shaping national identity, while also analyzing how media narratives influence public perception. ---------- This event was co-hosted jointly by the Fog of War & Silicon Curtain podcasts. Hosts: Yaroslava Bukhta and Jonathan Fink
In part one of this discussion, executive director of Oxfam Canada Lauren Ravon returns to discuss Oxfam's latest report: Takers Not Makers: The Unjust Poverty and Unearned Wealth of Colonialism. Ravon and Resh Budhu explore the extreme wealth and power of the billionaire class, this era of “billionaire colonialism” and what it will take to decolonize economies in Canada and throughout the world. According to Ravon: “I would say the highlight of this year's report is really well captured by the title Takers Not Makers, because we're focusing not just on this extreme and I'd say obscene wealth accumulation, not just the amount of wealth that's being held by the very few, but the fact that this is not wealth that is earned in any sense. This is wealth that has been taken, whether through corruption, through cronyism, through monopolistic power, through connections through inheritance, but also through the legacy, the very life legacy of colonialism." About today's guests: Lauren Ravon, executive director of Oxfam Canada, is a committed feminist and social justice advocate with more than 15 years of international development experience. Lauren has been with Oxfam Canada since 2011, holding a number of roles – including director of Policy and Campaigns – and working tirelessly to put women's rights at the heart of the global Oxfam confederation. Before joining Oxfam, Lauren worked at the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development (Rights & Democracy), where she was program manager for the Americas and oversaw the Centre's office and human rights programming in Haiti. She has also worked on programs to tackle gender-based violence and promote sexual and reproductive rights with Planned Parenthood Global and the International Rescue Committee. Lauren has conducted extensive policy research and campaigned on issues of food justice, women's economic equality, sexual and reproductive health and rights and the role of women's movements. She holds master's degrees in international affairs and development studies from Columbia University and the Paris Institute of Political Studies. Lauren sits on the Board of Directors of the Humanitarian Coalition. Transcript of this episode can be accessed at georgebrown.ca/TommyDouglasInstitute. Image: Lauren Ravon / Used with permission. Music: Ang Kahora. Lynne, Bjorn. Rights Purchased. Intro Voices: Ashley Booth (Podcast Announcer); Bob Luker (Tommy) Courage My Friends Podcast Organizing Committee: Chandra Budhu, Ashley Booth, Resh Budhu. Produced by: Resh Budhu, Tommy Douglas Institute and Breanne Doyle, rabble.ca. Host: Resh Budhu.
This week, Mark sits down with returning guest, Geoff Kabaservice, the VP of Political Studies for the Niskanen Center. They discuss a wide range of topics from, "are we overreacting," to "what does the future look like?" With Geoff's brilliant knowledge of world political history, he explains what the next two years look like. If you're thinking about the other side as your enemeis and about removing them from public life altogether, then you have wandered into Nazi life Geoff Kabaservice Mark then gives his thoughts on how to spot someone who is about to fall down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole, and what you can do to stop them. We need to honor other people's dignity.Mark Becker Rational Revolution with Mark Becker is a part of the Civic Media radio network and airs Saturdays at 2 across the network. . Subscribe to the podcast to be sure not to miss out on a single episode! To learn more about the show and all of the programming across the Civic Media network, head over to https://civicmedia.us/shows to see the entire broadcast line up. Follow the show on Facebook and X to keep up with Rational Revolution with Mark Becker. Guest: Geoff Kabaservice
John Steenhuisen met with President Cyril Ramaphosa last night to address the differences that have caused tensions within the Government of National Unity. Africa Melane will be in conversation with Mbasa Mvenene, Political Scientist and Political Studies lecturer at Walter Sisulu University, to discuss the implications of these developments.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
About the Talk In this episode of the Governance Podcast Associate Director Sam DeCanio, Dr. Jonny Benson, and Professor Jason Brennan discusses the relationship between knowledge, expertise and democracy. The conversation discusses whether democracy should be understood primarily as a system involving electoral choice, or whether democracy is a type of political system incorporating additional elements such as deliberation and the rule of law. We also discuss questions regarding voter knowledge and political accountability, democracy versus rule by knowledgeable experts or the administrative state, and the types of information markets and democracy require to function effectively. The Guest Jonny Benson is a Lecturer at University of Manchester whose research examines democratic theory with a strong connection to the interdisciplinary tradition of politics, philosophy, and economics (PPE). He is particularly interested in contemporary challenges to democracy, including the rise of anti-democratic thought, the relationship to the market economy, and issues of voter knowledge, misinformation, and political polarization. Benson's first book, Intelligent Democracy: Answering the New Democratic Skepticism was published in 2024 by Oxford University Press. His articles have appeared in journals such as the American Political Science Review, Political Studies, Politics, Philosophy & Economics, Synthese, and Economics and Philosophy. Jason Brennan (Ph.D., 2007, University of Arizona) is the Robert J. and Elizabeth Flanagan Family Professor of Strategy, Economics, Ethics, and Public Policy at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. He specializes in politics, philosophy, and economics. He is the editor-in-chief of Philosophy & Public Affairs, editor of Public Affairs Quarterly, and an associate editor of Social Philosophy and Policy. He is the author of 17 books: Questioning Beneficence (Routledge, 2024), with Sam Arnold, Richard Yetter Chappell, and Ryan Davis; Democracy: A Guided Tour (Oxford University Press, 2023), Debating Democracy, with Hélène Landemore (Oxford University Press, 2021), Business Ethics for Better Behavior, with William English, John Hasnas, and Peter Jaworski (Oxford University Press, 2021), Why It's OK to Want to Be Rich (Routledge Press 2020), Good Work if You Can Get It (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020); Injustice for All: America's Dysfunctional Criminal Justice System and How to Fix It, with Christopher Surprenant (Routledge, 2019); Cracks in the Ivory Tower: The Moral Mess of Higher Education, with Phil Magness (Oxford University Press, 2019); When All Else Fails: Resistance, Violence, and State Injustice (Princeton University Press, 2018); In Defense of Openness: Global Justice as Global Freedom (Oxford University Press, 2018), with Bas van der Vossen; Against Democracy (Princeton University Press, 2016); Markets without Limits, with Peter Jaworski (Routledge Press, 2016); Compulsory Voting: For and Against, with Lisa Hill (Cambridge University Press, 2014); Why Not Capitalism? (Routledge Press, 2014); Libertarianism: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, 2012); The Ethics of Voting (Princeton University Press, 2011); and, with David Schmidtz, A Brief History of Liberty (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010). He is co-editor, along with David Schmidtz and Bas Van der Vossen, of the Routledge Handbook of Libertarianism (Routledge, 2017).
A new forest finance fund known as the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF) will work like an investment portfolio (unlike the familiar – and often ineffective – forest conservation loan or grant funds), and if enacted as intended, it will reward 70 tropical nations billions in annual funding for keeping their forests standing. Co-host Mike DiGirolamo speaks with three people who have analyzed the fund: Mongabay freelance reporter Justin Catanoso, Charlotte Streck – co-founder of Climate Focus – and Frédéric Hache, a lecturer in sustainable finance at the Paris Institute of Political Studies. They tackle the critical questions regarding what the proposed fund could – and would not – do. “I think that TFFF is an initiative that has great potential because it is put forward and supported by tropical rainforest countries. It is not [a] mechanism that has been defined by donors or by any experts. It is now pushed and promoted by the countries that harbor all this tropical forest,” says Streck. For additional background, find Catanoso's report on the TFFF for Mongabay here. View and hear our podcast team's picks of top 2024 episodes here. Like this podcast? Please share it with a friend, and leave a review. Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all of our previous ones. Image caption: Cecropia tree in Peru. Image by Rhett Butler for Mongabay. ---- Time stamps (00:00) A brief primer of the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF) (03:10) Details from Justin Catanoso (10:24) Digging deeper with Charlotte Streck (25:17) Critiques and concerns from Frederic Hache (35:50) Credits
In our final episode of the Courage My Friends podcast series, season seven, we are joined by author, professor and director of the Geopolitical Economy Research Group at the University of Manitoba, Dr. Radhika Desai, and author, professor and Chair of International Relations and Political Science at St. Thomas University, Dr. Shaun Narine. We discuss the shifting balance of power in global politics, BRICS, de-dollarization, the rise of Asia and the Global South, the challenges it poses to the rules-based international order of the Global North and Canada's place within an inevitably multipolar world. Speaking on the growth of multipolarity, Desai says: “Lenin argued that imperialism, by which he meant the stage capitalism had arrived at in the early 20th century, was the highest stage of capitalism … Beyond it, there was not much capitalism had to give to humanity… After 40 years of neoliberalism … it is quite obvious that it is suffering from senility … low growth rates, low investment rates, low innovation rates … It is far from fulfilling the needs of humanity … it is far from keeping the West powerful. Part of the emergence of multipolarity … is the decline in the vigor of Western capitalist economies.” Reflecting on Canada as a middle power in a multipolar world, Narine says: “I think in a world where multipolarity is mattering more and more and more … simply being an American vassal state, which is what I'd argue we largely are right now … doesn't encourage anybody to look at Canada as an independent actor … I think the first step for us to be a Middle Power means to demonstrate that we're actually capable of independent thinking and independent policy and capable of articulating interests that aren't being dictated by the American embassy in Ottawa.” About today's guests: Radhika Desai is professor of Political Studies and director of Geopolitical Economy Research Group at the University of Manitoba, convenor of the International Manifesto Group and past president of the Society for Socialist Studies. Her wide-ranging work covers party politics, political and geopolitical economy, political and economic theory, nationalism, fascism, British, US and Indian politics. Geopolitical economy, the approach to the international relations of the capitalist world she proposed in her 2013 work, Geopolitical Economy, combines Marx's analysis of capitalism with those of ‘late development' and the developmental state as the key to explaining the dynamic of international relations of the modern capitalist world. Currently, she is working on several books including ‘Hindutva and the Political Economy of Indian Capitalism' and ‘Marx as a Monetary Theorist'. Her numerous articles have appeared in Capital and Class, Economic and Political Weekly, International Critical Thought, New Left Review, Third World Quarterly, World Review of Political Economy and other journals and in edited collections on parties, political economy, culture and nationalism. She is regularly invited as a speaker and to conferences around the world. Shaun Narine is a professor of International Relations and Political Science at St. Thomas University in Fredericton. His research focuses on institutionalism in the Asia Pacific. He has written two books on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and published on issues related to ASEAN as well as Canadian foreign policy, Canada's relations with China, and US foreign policy. He was a Killam Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2000-2002) at the University of British Columbia and has been a Visiting Fellow at the East-West Center (2000) and the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies-Yusof Ishak Institute (2017 and 2021) in Singapore. Transcript of this episode can be accessed at georgebrown.ca/TommyDouglasInstitute. Image: Radhika Desai, Shaun Narine / Used with permission. Music: Ang Kahora. Lynne, Bjorn. Rights Purchased. Intro Voices: Ashley Booth (Podcast Announcer); Bob Luker (Tommy) Courage My Friends podcast organizing committee: Chandra Budhu, Ashley Booth, Resh Budhu. Produced by: Resh Budhu, Tommy Douglas Institute and Breanne Doyle, rabble.ca. Host: Resh Budhu.
This week Liz David-Barrett is joined by expert researchers Monika Bauhr and Marcia Grimes from the Quality of Government Institute, where they conduct and promote research on the causes, consequences and nature of Good Governance. This episode addresses the multifaceted nature of corruption and the challenges of promoting accountability in democratic systems. Monika and Marcia cover a range of topics, including the implications of transparency as an accountability mechanism, the role of elites in maintaining the status quo, and the relationship between women's representation and corruption reduction. The discussion acknowledges the challenges in measuring corruption, while highlighting innovative methodological approaches that challenge simplistic assumptions, to better understand the dynamics between democracy and corruption. Learn more about the Quality of Government Institute here: https://www.gu.se/en/quality-government And find some of Monika and Marcia's related publications here: Bauhr, M., & Grimes, M. (2014). Indignation or Resignation: The Implications of Transparency for Societal Accountability. Governance, 27(2), 291–320. https://doi.org/10.1111/gove.12033 Bauhr, Monika and Marcia Grimes. 2021. “Democracy and Quality of Government” in Bauhr, Monika, Andreas Bågenholm, Marcia Grimes and Bo Rothstein (eds). The Oxford Handbook of Quality of Government. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/33431 Bauhr, M., & Charron, N. (2018). Insider or Outsider? Grand Corruption and Electoral Accountability. Comparative Political Studies, 51(4), 415–446. https://doi.org/10.1177/001041401771025 Bauhr, M., Charron, N., & Wängnerud, L. (2024a). What candidate will fight corruption? Gender and anti-corruption stereotypes across European countries. European Political Science Review, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1755773924000134 Bauhr, M., Charron, N., & Wängnerud, L. (2024b). Will Women's Representation Reduce Bribery? Trends in Corruption and Public Service Delivery Across European Regions. Political Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-024-09925-x % year impact factor Cornell, A., & Grimes, M. (2023). Brokering Bureaucrats: How Bureaucrats and Civil Society Facilitate Clientelism Where Parties are Weak. Comparative Political Studies, 56(6), 788-823. https://doi.org/10.1177/00104140221115171 Larsson, F., & Grimes, M. (2023). Societal Accountability and Grand Corruption: How Institutions Shape Citizens' Efforts to Shape Institutions. Political Studies, 71(4), 1321-1346. https://doi.org/10.1177/00323217211067134
In a turbulent political summer, few surprises were greater than that caused by French president Emmanuel Macron's decision in June to call early parliamentary elections. Macron's party had just been trounced in the European Parliament elections; and victory for the far right seemed likely. In the end, thanks to some last minute deals, Marine Le Pen's National Rally did not win. Rather, it was an alliance of the left that secured most seats in the National Assembly. France's Socialist Party was regularly in power from the early 1980s till the mid 2010s. But it collapsed spectacularly in the elections of 2017, and its very survival today seems in doubt. So what has been going on? And have the recent elections brought any signs of revival? Joining us to explore these questions is Philippe Marlière, Professor of French and European Politics in the UCL European and International Social and Political Studies department. This episode of UCL Uncovering Politics is the first in an occasional series of episodes based on pieces in Political Quarterly. Mentioned in this episode: Marlière, P. (2024), French Social Democracy in Turmoil. The Political Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-923X.13442 UCL's Department of Political Science and School of Public Policy offers a uniquely stimulating environment for the study of all fields of politics, including international relations, political theory, human rights, public policy-making and administration. The Department is recognised for its world-class research and policy impact, ranking among the top departments in the UK on both the 2021 Research Excellence Framework and the latest Guardian rankings. https://ucl-uncovering-politics.simplecast.com/episodes/french-social-democracy-in-turmoil/transcript
What is neoliberalism? What is the nature of US capitalism today? How does the dollar act as a function of US imperialism? Listen in to the brilliant Radhika Desai. Dr. Radhika Desai is Professor at the Department of Political Studies, and Director, Geopolitical Economy Research Group, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada. She is the author of Geopolitical Economy: After US Hegemony, Globalization and Empire (2013), Slouching Towards Ayodhya: From Congress to Hindutva in Indian Politics (2nd rev ed, 2004) and Intellectuals and Socialism: ‘Social Democrats' and the Labour Party (1994), a New Statesman and Society Book of the Month, and editor or co-editor of Russia, Ukraine and Contemporary Imperialism, a special issue of International Critical Thought (2016), Theoretical Engagements in Geopolitical Economy (2015), Analytical Gains from Geopolitical Economy (2015), Revitalizing Marxist Theory for Today's Capitalism (2010) and Developmental and Cultural Nationalisms (2009). She is also the author of numerous articles in Economic and Political Weekly, International Critical Thought, New Left Review, Third World Quarterly, World Review of Political Economy and other journals and in edited collections on parties, political economy, culture and nationalism. With Alan Freeman, she co-edits the Geopolitical Economy book series with Manchester University Press and the Future of Capitalism book series with Pluto Press. She serves on the Editorial Boards of many journals including Canadian Political Science Review, Critique of Political Economy, E-Social Sciences, Pacific Affairs, Global Faultlines, Research in Political Economy, Revista de Economía Crítica, World Review of Political Economy and International Critical Thought I.G. @TheGambian Twitter: @MomodouTaal @CTayJ
Today's episode focuses on the policy challenges and politics of public healthcare in Southeast Asia, a topic which has become increasingly visible and important in Southeast Asia and in the study of the region over the past decades in the context of expanding public healthcare programs in many countries across the region and the recent experience of the global pandemic. To discuss these issues, we are joined by Professor Sarah Shair-Rosenfield, who has been conducting research on public healthcare in Indonesia and the Philippines over the past several years. Sarah Shair-Rosenfield is a Professor of Comparative Politics in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of York here in the UK. She received her PhD from the University of North Carolina and then taught at Arizona State University and the University of Essex before taking up a professorial chair at the University of York. She is the author of Electoral Reform and the Fate of New Democracies: Lessons from the Indonesian Case (University of Michigan Press, 2019) and co-author of Measuring Regional Authority: A Postfunctionalist Theory of Governance (Oxford University Press, 2016), and she has published articles in leading political science and other specialist journals. She is a co-editor-in-chief of the journal Political Studies and a co-founder of the Women in Southeast Asian Social Sciences (WiSEASS) network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
Today's episode focuses on the policy challenges and politics of public healthcare in Southeast Asia, a topic which has become increasingly visible and important in Southeast Asia and in the study of the region over the past decades in the context of expanding public healthcare programs in many countries across the region and the recent experience of the global pandemic. To discuss these issues, we are joined by Professor Sarah Shair-Rosenfield, who has been conducting research on public healthcare in Indonesia and the Philippines over the past several years. Sarah Shair-Rosenfield is a Professor of Comparative Politics in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of York here in the UK. She received her PhD from the University of North Carolina and then taught at Arizona State University and the University of Essex before taking up a professorial chair at the University of York. She is the author of Electoral Reform and the Fate of New Democracies: Lessons from the Indonesian Case (University of Michigan Press, 2019) and co-author of Measuring Regional Authority: A Postfunctionalist Theory of Governance (Oxford University Press, 2016), and she has published articles in leading political science and other specialist journals. She is a co-editor-in-chief of the journal Political Studies and a co-founder of the Women in Southeast Asian Social Sciences (WiSEASS) network. Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/southeast-asian-studies
Today's episode focuses on the policy challenges and politics of public healthcare in Southeast Asia, a topic which has become increasingly visible and important in Southeast Asia and in the study of the region over the past decades in the context of expanding public healthcare programs in many countries across the region and the recent experience of the global pandemic. To discuss these issues, we are joined by Professor Sarah Shair-Rosenfield, who has been conducting research on public healthcare in Indonesia and the Philippines over the past several years. Sarah Shair-Rosenfield is a Professor of Comparative Politics in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of York here in the UK. She received her PhD from the University of North Carolina and then taught at Arizona State University and the University of Essex before taking up a professorial chair at the University of York. She is the author of Electoral Reform and the Fate of New Democracies: Lessons from the Indonesian Case (University of Michigan Press, 2019) and co-author of Measuring Regional Authority: A Postfunctionalist Theory of Governance (Oxford University Press, 2016), and she has published articles in leading political science and other specialist journals. She is a co-editor-in-chief of the journal Political Studies and a co-founder of the Women in Southeast Asian Social Sciences (WiSEASS) network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/political-science
Today's episode focuses on the policy challenges and politics of public healthcare in Southeast Asia, a topic which has become increasingly visible and important in Southeast Asia and in the study of the region over the past decades in the context of expanding public healthcare programs in many countries across the region and the recent experience of the global pandemic. To discuss these issues, we are joined by Professor Sarah Shair-Rosenfield, who has been conducting research on public healthcare in Indonesia and the Philippines over the past several years. Sarah Shair-Rosenfield is a Professor of Comparative Politics in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of York here in the UK. She received her PhD from the University of North Carolina and then taught at Arizona State University and the University of Essex before taking up a professorial chair at the University of York. She is the author of Electoral Reform and the Fate of New Democracies: Lessons from the Indonesian Case (University of Michigan Press, 2019) and co-author of Measuring Regional Authority: A Postfunctionalist Theory of Governance (Oxford University Press, 2016), and she has published articles in leading political science and other specialist journals. She is a co-editor-in-chief of the journal Political Studies and a co-founder of the Women in Southeast Asian Social Sciences (WiSEASS) network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/medicine
rWotD Episode 2761: Hermann Giliomee Welcome to Random Wiki of the Day, your journey through Wikipedia’s vast and varied content, one random article at a time.The random article for Sunday, 24 November 2024 is Hermann Giliomee.Hermann Giliomee is an author of historical and political studies, former Professor of Political Studies at the University of Cape Town (1983–2002), President of the South African Institute of Race Relations (1995–1997) and Extraordinary Professor of History at the Stellenbosch University.He co-founded Die Suid-Afrikaans, an Afrikaans journal of opinion in 1984. Giliomee was a regular columnist for the Cape Times, The Rand Daily Mail and other periodicals from 1980 to 1997 and is writing a political column for the Afrikaans morning newspapers Die Burger, Beeld and Volksblad.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:51 UTC on Sunday, 24 November 2024.For the full current version of the article, see Hermann Giliomee on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Salli.
Today's episode focuses on the policy challenges and politics of public healthcare in Southeast Asia, a topic which has become increasingly visible and important in Southeast Asia and in the study of the region over the past decades in the context of expanding public healthcare programs in many countries across the region and the recent experience of the global pandemic. To discuss these issues, we are joined by Professor Sarah Shair-Rosenfield, who has been conducting research on public healthcare in Indonesia and the Philippines over the past several years. Sarah Shair-Rosenfield is a Professor of Comparative Politics in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of York here in the UK. She received her PhD from the University of North Carolina and then taught at Arizona State University and the University of Essex before taking up a professorial chair at the University of York. She is the author of Electoral Reform and the Fate of New Democracies: Lessons from the Indonesian Case (University of Michigan Press, 2019) and co-author of Measuring Regional Authority: A Postfunctionalist Theory of Governance (Oxford University Press, 2016), and she has published articles in leading political science and other specialist journals. She is a co-editor-in-chief of the journal Political Studies and a co-founder of the Women in Southeast Asian Social Sciences (WiSEASS) network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this episode Richard Pater talks to Professor Jonathan Rynhold about the impact of Trumps's victory on the region. They explore the potential impact on the current fighting in Lebanon and Gaza as well the Iranian threat and the prospect of normalisation with Saudi Arabia. Professor Rynhold is the Head of the department of Political Studies and the Academic Director of the Jonathan Sacks institute, both at Bar Ilan University. He is also the author of The Arab-Israeli Conflict in American Political Culture.
With the impending "most important election of our lifetime", we discuss the issues and players with Dr. Jonathan Scriven. Our Guest: Associate Director, Honors College @ThisIsWAU. Political Studies faculty w/ focus on International Relations. Love sports, politics, and coffee. JS online: medium: https://medium.com/@jonathanscriven X: https://x.com/cjscriven IG: https://www.instagram.com/jonathanscriven/ Become a LPR member Odysee: https://odysee.com/@LPR:b?view=membership Spotify: https://anchor.fm/libertypodreview/subscribe Support the show with a purchase from Fox n Sons coffee. Use the promo code "Review" for 18% off an order of $25 or more. www.foxnsons.com LPR On Other Platforms Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/c-1988814 Spotify: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/libertypodreview Locals: https://libertarianpodcastreview.locals/ Odysee: https://odysee.com/@LPR:b Substack: tylerjanke.substack.com This show is an attempt to review the libertarian and libertarian adjacent podcasts or video podcasts. Send us your favorite podcasts or ones that you would like to have us critique.
To say Mark is geeking out is an understatement as he invites Vice President of Political Studies at the Niskanen Center, Geoff Kabaservice, to the show. Geoff, who is also author of Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party, From Eisenhow to the Tea Party, discusses excerpts from his book and aspects of the 2024 election versus this country's past. Geoff says Trump wins if he loses and wins if he wins because he'll never admit defeat and it'll fuel his cause. "Chaos is Trump's friend". As we dive further into the history of the electoral process Geoff says the electoral college has never worked the way the founding fathers ever intended and the system we have now works "less well than the popular vote". Geoff talks about how he believes the Republican Party can return to it's roots and you can find out how in this week's segment. Rational Revolution with Mark Becker is a part of the Civic Media radio network and airs Saturdays at 2 across the network. . Subscribe to the podcast to be sure not to miss out on a single episode! To learn more about the show and all of the programming across the Civic Media network, head over to https://civicmedia.us/shows to see the entire broadcast line up. Follow the show on Facebook and X to keep up with Rational Revolution with Mark Becker. Guest: Geoff Kabaservice
In a turbulent political summer, few surprises were greater than that caused by French president Emmanuel Macron's decision in June to call early parliamentary elections. Macron's party had just been trounced in the European Parliament elections; and victory for the far right seemed likely. In the end, thanks to some last minute deals, Marine Le Pen's National Rally did not win. Rather, it was an alliance of the left that secured most seats in the National Assembly. France's Socialist Party was regularly in power from the early 1980s till the mid 2010s. But it collapsed spectacularly in the elections of 2017, and its very survival today seems in doubt. So what has been going on? And have the recent elections brought any signs of revival?Joining us to explore these questions is Philippe Marlière, Professor of French and European Politics in the UCL European and International Social and Political Studies department.This episode of UCL Uncovering Politics is the first in an occasional series of episodes based on pieces in Political Quarterly.Mentioned in this episode:Marlière, P. (2024), French Social Democracy in Turmoil. The Political Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-923X.13442 UCL's Department of Political Science and School of Public Policy offers a uniquely stimulating environment for the study of all fields of politics, including international relations, political theory, human rights, public policy-making and administration. The Department is recognised for its world-class research and policy impact, ranking among the top departments in the UK on both the 2021 Research Excellence Framework and the latest Guardian rankings.
Larry Jacobs Ph.D., is the Walter F. and Joan Mondale Chair for Political Studies and director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance in the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute and Department of Political Science from the University of Minnesota joined Tom Hauser to chat about what we can expect as far as talking points and strategy from each candidate in tonight's 2024 Vice Presidential debate!
Subscribe to The Realignment to access our exclusive Q&A episodes and support the show: https://realignment.supercast.com/NYT on the emerging neopopulist consensus: A New Centrism Is Rising in WashingtonNiskanen: Geoff on the Rise of a New PragmatismReformocons: Can the GOP Be a Party of Ideas?Reihan Salam & Ross Douthat: The Party of Sam's ClubREALIGNMENT NEWSLETTER: https://therealignment.substack.com/PURCHASE BOOKS AT OUR BOOKSHOP: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignmentEmail Us: realignmentpod@gmail.comFoundation for American Innovation: https://www.thefai.org/posts/lincoln-becomes-faiGeoffrey Kabaservice, Niskanen's VP of Political Studies and author of Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party, joins The Realignment. Geoffrey and Marshall discuss the rise of "neopopulism" and "a new centrism" in Washington, the evolution of the Republican Party since the Obama era, the case for a pragmatic approach to governance, the pros and cons of "moderation," and how the abundance agenda can learn from previous failed reform movements.
0:00 - Thousands showed up for the Trump rally at McHenry FairGrounds 8:30 - Day 1 DNC 27:20 - Gerald M Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor and professor of Political Studies at Bar Ilan University, looks at Who's Really Behind Pro-Palestinian Protests at the DNC. For more on the NGO Monitor ngo-monitor.org 45:00 - Markets Specialist for Market Day Report!, Scott "the cow guy" Shellady, says the democrats keep "screwing with the laws of nature" and "won't let the free market take place" Check out Scott's Market Day Report! – 10:30am CT to 1pm CT- and The Cow Guy Close – 1pm CT to 1:30pm CT – both at RFD-TV 58:37 - Steven Bucci, visiting fellow in The Heritage Foundation's Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies, on the US strategy for Ukraine, or lack thereof 01:14:08 - Oxford Study: COVIDians are saying they were fine with harming kids because they were afraid 01:17:06 - Special Agent in Charge of the United States Secret Service, Chicago Field Office, Derek Mayer, gives Dan & Amy a look behind the DNC's security perimeter 01:33:22 - Scott McKay, publisher of the Hayride & senior editor at the American Spectator, shares some predictions, and sights he hopes to see, in a preview of the DNC. Scott is also the author of Racism Revenge and Ruin and King Of The Jungle 01:50:55 - DNC: Protest Signs See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring one key issue currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, hosted by deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan. "Ex astrophysicist now Hobbesian realist." Not many people can pull off that social media profile moniker. In fact, there's likely only one: Prof. Gerald Steinberg, the founder of NGO Monitor. Today, Steinberg is an emeritus professor of Political Studies from Bar Ilan University. Among his realms of interest, he is an expert in human rights, soft power and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). He's delved so deeply into NGOs that in 2002 he founded one himself, the Institute for NGO Research, which is a recognized organization in Special Consultative Status with the UN Economic and Social Council since 2013. NGO Monitor states that it aims to promote accountability and discussion on the reports and activities of NGOs claiming to advance human rights and humanitarian agendas in Israel. Steinberg often targets the bigger "corporate" NGOs such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, and a word that came up several times in our discussion is “hypocrisy.” But during our conversation, he also names several smaller groups that are going fair-minded work. So this week, we ask Prof. Gerald Steinberg, what matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. IMAGE: Prof. Gerald Steinberg, the founder of NGO Monitor, at The Times of Israel's Jerusalem office, July 30, 2024. (Amanda Borschel-Dan/ToI)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Dr. Jeffrey A. Engel is founding director of the Center for Presidential History at SMU and Professor in the Department of History. A Senior Fellow of the Norwegian Nobel Institute and of the John Goodwin Tower Center for Political Studies, he graduated magna cum laude from Cornell University. He additionally studied at St. Catherine's College, Oxford University, and received his M.A. and Ph.D. in American history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, before holding a John M. Olin Postdoctoral Fellow in International Security Studies at Yale University. In 2012 the Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations named him their Bernath Prize lecturer, while at SMU the students voted him their Professor of the Year.Engel has authored or edited twelve books on American foreign policy. A frequent media contributor on international and political affairs on venues including MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, National Public Radio, and the BBC, his scholarly and popular articles have appeared in such journals as Diplomatic History; Diplomacy & Statecraft; American Interest; USAToday; The Los Angeles Times; International Journal; The Dallas Morning News; The Houston Chronicle; Air & Space Magazine; and The Washington Post.
What were the religious views of America's Founding Fathers? What did influential figures like Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and George Washington believe, and how did their beliefs shape the origins of the United States of America?In this episode, Dr. Gregg Frazer provides an in-depth analysis of the Founders' religious views based on his book, The Religious Beliefs of America's Founders (paid link).Dr. Gregg Frazer is Professor of History and Political Studies at The Master's University in Los Angeles, CA.Sound Words is a ministry of Indian Hills Community Church, a Bible teaching church in Lincoln, NE. Follow on Instagram Follow on Facebook Follow on YouTube Follow on Twitter Follow on Threads Visit https://ihcc.org
This week on Babel, Jon Alterman speaks with Professor Jonathan Rynhold, the head of the Department of Political Studies at Bar Ilan University and a senior researcher at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies. Together, they talk about how Israeli public opinion has evolved since October 7th, the divisions within Israeli politics, and Israeli attitudes towards President Biden. Then, Jon continues the conversation with Will Todman and Leah Hickert to discuss the dynamics in Israeli strategic thinking and President Biden's efforts to move the conflict closer to resolution. Transcript, "Jonathan Rynhold: Israel's Divided Politics," CSIS, June 11, 2024.
“It was a wake-up call – my marriage is more important to me than that job” Emily Pace has a breadth of experience across the non-profit, public, and private sectors, including at several technology companies, the National Association of Attorneys General, the Close Up Foundation, and the Library of Congress. She was one of the leaders of Linguistics Career Launch 2021 and is now heading up Linguistics Career Launch 2024. Emily holds a B.A. in French and Arabic and an M.S. in Theoretical Linguistics, both from Georgetown University, as well as certificates from the Paris Chamber of Commerce and the Paris Institute of Political Studies. Emily Pace on LinkedIn Linguistics Career Launch 2024 Topics include – computational linguistics – corpus linguistics – annotation – NLP – networking – sabbaticals – LCL24The post Episode #49: Emily Pace first appeared on Linguistics Careercast.
Find me and the show on social media @DrWilmerLeon on X (Twitter), Instagram, and YouTube. Facebook page is www.facebook.com/Drwilmerleonctd FULL TRANSCRIPT Wilmer Leon (00:00): Did you know that the world's largest democracy India is holding its lo Saba or lower house elections right now? And I don't think we can talk about India without talking about nuclear weapons. India is a nuclear power. How does that play out on the world stage? Announcer (00:32): Connecting the dots with Dr. Wilmer Leon, where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge. Wilmer Leon (00:41): Welcome to the Connecting the Dots podcast with Dr. Wilmer Leon. And I'm Wilmer Leon. We have a tendency to view current events as though they occur in a vacuum, failing to understand the broader historic context in which these events take place. During each episode of this podcast, my guests and I have probing, provocative, and in-depth discussions that connect the dots between these events and the broader historic context in which they occur. This enables you to better understand and analyze the events that impact the global village in which we live. On today's episode. The issues before us are what will the election results mean for India? What will the results mean for the global geopolitical landscape? And we'll throw in a few other things as well for insight into this. Let's turn to my guest. She's a professor in the Department of Political Studies and director of the Global Economy Research Group at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg Canada. She's the author of numerous books. She's recently returned from a couple of trips to her home country of India. She is Dr. Rekha Desai. Dr. Desai, as always, welcome back to the show. Dr Rekha Desai (02:03): Great being with you again. Wilma Wilmer Leon (02:06): Narendra. Modi is a Indian politician. He has served as the 14th Prime Minister of India since May of 2014. He had a simple campaign slogan of Good Days are Coming. Those who support him seem to love him. His opponents argue he's done little to improve their quality of life and the quality of life across the country. What's going on with the current elections in India? Dr Rekha Desai (02:38): Well, this election has, it's actually, I should say that the election itself is not going on today. The election has been going on for the last seven odd weeks, 45 days. So it started more than 45 days ago and it ended, the last voting day was June the first. It was a seven phase election in which the Election Commission organized elections in different parts of the country over seven phases. The counting is what's going on today. It's not complete yet. So we basically have an idea mean roughly a little over half the votes have been counted, and we can say that pretty well. The trends seem to be set. Nothing has changed very much over the last two or three hours. And what we see here is that Mr. Modi has been humiliated. Let me explain why Mr. Modi went into this election campaign with the Hubristic slogan of this in Hindi, you say ispa. (03:49) So this time we will go beyond 400, 400 seats in a 543 member Loba or Parliament, the BJP at the moment, I mean that was for the larger alliance, the NDA, the National Democratic Alliance, of which the BJP is the biggest part by far. And the BJP itself was supposed to get about 370 seats. At the moment the BJP is at 240 seats, so that is 130 seats less than what they had projected to win. So that is a pretty big humiliation. What's worse for Mr. Modi is that it's going to be in the past two elections, what has been remarkable, and one of the facts which has permitted many people to say that he's some kind of very unique, amazing sort of leader who is much beloved by the country and so on. In 2014 and 2019, his party won a parliamentary majority that is more than 272 seats in the Parliament. (05:02) On its own, it didn't need its allies. And this is the first time a single party has won a majority since the election of 1984 when if you remember, Mrs. Gandhi was assassinated and the Congress party rode to power with the highest percentage of vote and highest seat count ever in its history on a sort of sympathy wave. And so since that time, no party has ever won a majority, and Mr. Modi won a majority twice. Now in this election, it does not look as though he's going to have a majority. If the present trends continue, he will be somewhere around two 40 seats and he needs 2 72 for a majority. This will be an even bigger humiliation for him. Wilmer Leon (05:49): What does this mean, if anything, in the context of governance? I understand in the parliamentary system that you can win and lose seats and that can be a humiliation as you've just indicated, but that doesn't necessarily translate into your ability to form coalitions, your ability to govern. And if you still have the ability to govern, how difficult does it become? So for example, we can look at Netanyahu in Israel and now you got Morich and others threatening to leave and that's going to break up his coalition. What does this mean for Prime Minister Modi in terms of governance? Dr Rekha Desai (06:34): Well, it means that he will have to concede a lot to his coalition partners if he needs them. But before we get there, let me just say two other things, which is that depending on how, what is the final result, two additional things may or one of two or two or more things may happen, which will put into question more these ability to form a government. The first thing is that if the BJP is truly humiliated as it seems to be, it is going to be, it is very possible that there will be big opposition within the party, within the BJP knives will come out for him because he has basically ruled again in this very hubristic fashion disdain pretty well, all the second level leadership of the party, disdain, all the other organizations with which his party is affiliated and so on. So we will have to wait and see what will happen. The second thing that could happen, I'm not sure that it will, but it could happen, is that his coalition partners who he now needs may abandon him particularly sensing that this Mr. Modi is going nowhere. Good. Wilmer Leon (07:54): So it's that dramatic. Dr Rekha Desai (07:57): It could be is what I'm saying. We are not sure at the moment I'm looking at it and it's still showing me BJP at two 40 leading in two 40 seats, 63 seats short of its previous tally. That's pretty bad when you are claiming, and you asked me another question, and I just want to throw this one thing in there, contrary to what has been reported in most of the mainstream media in the West and certainly in India, because in India, the Modi government has the mainstream media in its back pocket. So contrary to what these sources have reported, the Indian economy is doing exceedingly badly. It is not doing well. And if you ask me the most fundamental reason for the bad performance of the BJP and Mr. Modi is that imposing the kind of economic pain that he has imposed on the country for the last decade, I would say, and we can discuss what happened in 2019, why did he get reelected? But he has imposed nothing but economic pain on the ordinary Indian for the last decade. This cannot be electorally, costless. And this time around the cost has caught up with him. Wilmer Leon (09:14): So when you talk about economic pain, the word that comes to my mind, well, two words that come to my mind are neoconservative and austerity. Are those, because I also, if I looked at some of the data, I want to say that youth unemployment is incredibly, incredibly high in India. And when your youth unemployment is that high, boy, you're the economist, not me, but you're setting a groundwork for discontent going forward amongst your youth. Those youth grow into adults and they carry that mindset forward. Speak to that please. Dr Rekha Desai (10:03): Okay, so I would say that there are a number of points I want to make. Number one, India's growth figures are highly exaggerated. That's the first thing is that they have changed the way in which they compile growth statistics, which depending on which economist you are talking to is exaggerating. India's growth rate anywhere between two to 4%. And if you factor that in, then India's growth rate, which is often touted as being the fastest of any major developing country faster than China's, et cetera, does not have any of those qualifications. India should be growing much faster, has in the past grown much faster and Mr. Modi's performance is actually very poor. The second point I have to make is that even the growth we have has been powered by unsustainable stimuli and it has created exceedingly high levels of inequality. So that is a problem. (11:02) So growth is low, inequality is high, inflation is high, unemployment is high including youth unemployment. So the unemployment crisis in India is very high, even though India's labor force participation rate, that is to say the number of people who are actively either employed or seeking employment out of the working age population is actually quite low. So even with this sort of social, shall we say, benefit that India has, granted, the BJP unemployment levels are very high. Youth unemployment is so high that for individual jobs, maybe the government advertises or some company advertises a dozen jobs and there will be literally hundreds of thousands of applications for a dozen jobs. I'm not kidding you. And there have been riots around issues of employment and so on. So we can again discuss that. So unemployment is that. Now, if this whole litany is not bad enough, Mr. (12:10) Modi has willfully in order to show what a strong man he's who can take decisive decisions and actions has imposed pain on the Indian economy on at least three separate occasions, which is completely, it's uncalled for unnecessary. But again, to do this, the first was if you remember the demonetization exercise when overnight the government declared that currency notes over the value of 500 rupees were considered invalid and gave everybody a short period of time to go and exchange them for lower denomination notes. Now, for an economy which runs on cash primarily, this was a disaster. Remember that India's economy, the formal employment in India's economy is only about 7%. So 93% of Indians work in an informal economy where cash is king. These people were suddenly thrown into a crisis. People who had squid away savings in high denomination notes had to go and exchange them. And many very often they had to stand in long lines and it created a huge mess. Secondly, Wilmer Leon (13:25): Well, wait a minute, what was the objective of doing that? Dr Rekha Desai (13:28): Well, he claimed that he was going to try to create a cashless economy and remove the black money from the economy, et cetera, but none of this was proved true. I believe that he was simply talking to certain, shall we say, big financial wizards who want to introduce cashless payment systems in India and want to benefit from the bonanza. And he basically doesn't talk to a lot of people. So one or two people who have his ear can actually get him to take these decisions. I mean the demonetization exercise. And a third thing was that he was trying very desperately to win an election in the giant state of UTA Prade elections were due. And he thought that somehow by doing this, he would prevent the opposition from essentially spending any money. So then he declared a covid lockdown at a time when there was no covid detectable in India. (14:26) And then a year later when you saw all those bodies floating down the Ganges and all those funeral pies, he was nowhere to be seen. He was missing in action. There was no government policy. People just had to somehow make do with what they had. State governments did do a lot, but not, he did not. And then finally he imposed a goods and services tax, which again, given that India operates on so many small and tiny enterprises, it was simply another burden on people who are already too stretched to keep records in order to pay taxes. And moreover, it's a regressive tax. There is so much inequality that the need of the R is to tax the fabulously wealthy. So in India, we now have literally a two tier society where if you are one of the five or 10%, life's never been better. And if you are one of the 90 to 95%, it's really, really bad. Wilmer Leon (15:23): So please forgive my ignorance of Indian culture, but I understand that there's a cultural strata within India. So you add the economic strata to the cultural strata, and then I would think you have a big mess on your hands. Dr Rekha Desai (15:46): Well, it exacerbates the inequality. What you're referring to is the caste system, which is quite widely misunderstood. But let me just, I mean the caste system people think is a kind of a layered, like a many tiered wedding cake with a small number of, so-called twice born cast at the top and then everybody else. But in reality, caste works in the sense of having, there are various caste groups and each caste group is either higher or lower in the hierarchy and that, so a small number of caste groups are in the, so-called twice born casts that are essentially the high castes, and then there is a big fat middle of the middle casts. And then there are the, so-called untouchable cast, and then there is a group of tribals who are outside the caste structure. So the thing, I don't want to give a long disposition on that, but the thing to know about the class structure in India is that the upper cast are also generally the upper classes, the well to do. So, the cultural or social privilege and economic privilege largely coincide, not completely, but largely. So this creates an additional layer of resentment and so on. So that's the situation. Wilmer Leon (17:13): I want to get back to my austerity question because I know that Modi is very, very close to Joe Biden, and that's why when you mentioned early on about the economic issues, Neo Khan and austerity were the two words that came to my mind. So are there similarities between the objectives of Modi's economics and the economics of the West? Dr Rekha Desai (17:41): Yes. Essentially the Modi government, like the previous BJP government engages in a certain politics of neoliberalism or economic policy of neoliberalism where you privatize as much as you can, you reduce social expenditure, you reduce state capacity, you contract out, that sort of thing. And that has really penetrated very deep. Now the Indian economy, so for example, he has recently privatized Air India sold it off essentially, and many other state assets have been privatized. A lot of the way I look at it, I think that this would go for President Biden as well as Narin Modi, essentially they have a one point economic policy. The one point economic policy is to do what benefits the really big corporations. And India has a lot of big corporations, so that that's the economic policy Bohi has pursued. So essentially there is a handful of big titans who destroyed the Indian economy. (18:54) You must have heard of Gata Madani who is a particular favorite of the Prime Minister. There are the Bannis and a few others. And essentially what Mohi has done in terms of economic policy is initiate projects. For example, building roads or bridges or highways or ports or airports or what have you, which involve giving very lucrative contracts to a small number of big corporations. And that's, those are the ones who have benefited. Whereas he claimed that he had a make in India a policy or program which was going to expand the manufacturing sector. Well, if anything, the manufacturing sector has shrunk under Modi. So the kind of good jobs that manufacturing tends to create has actually shrunk under Modi rather than expanded. So this is the kind of economic policy you have. And of course that makes India all the more unequal, Wilmer Leon (19:52): As I have read, particularly in Western media, it's been portrayed over years that it was expected that India would rival China. That modi's objectives were to the one China policy, I'm sorry, the Belt and Road initiative and that China China's economy, one of the leading growth economies in the world, and that Modi was trying to rival China and in the West it was being portrayed as though he was actually successful in doing so. Speak to that, please. Dr Rekha Desai (20:33): Yeah, I mean the West would dearly love India to emerge as an economic giant and Wilmer Leon (20:40): Competitor to China. Dr Rekha Desai (20:41): Exactly, and a counterweights to China. And so India would be sort of in the Western camp and help count to China. Unfortunately, the West has had to swallow considerable amount of disillusionment because I noticed that even in some of the more mainstream western media, which would, as I say, which have been praising India until recently, there has been a certain amount of stepping back, realizing that Modi has been not as economically successful, and also realizing that Modi has been very authoritarian so that India's democracy is often has been rated by under, Modi has been rated by some international agencies as an electoral autocracy, the press freedom in India, India has been criticized on those grounds. And I think that if anything, the west has been forced to come to these conclusions and it has reluctantly come to these conclusions. And if anything, criticism of Modi is still much milder than it should be, but it is there because the facts are too difficult to look away from. (21:53) Having said that, as I said, the West's desire for India to be this counterweight to China has not gone away. And I should also add that particularly this party, the BJP to which Mr. Modi belongs, has historically pursued a policy of getting closer and closer to the United States. And I should also add in the process, getting closer to Israel, reversing a very longstanding Indian policy of anti-imperialist support for the Palestinian cause and so on. So these trends have certainly been exacerbated under Modi, and we'll have to see now what happens in the coming weeks and months and so on. Wilmer Leon (22:35): India shares, I want to say about a 2200 mile border with China. India is part of bricks, the Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and now a number of other countries have joined that economic block. So it seems as though Modi is trying to walk a very fine line in terms of being a member of Brix, which means good relationships with China working, I'll say working, working relationships with China, working relationships with Russia, while at the same time trying to be the friend of the United States. Is that a fair assessment of his effort? And that I would think that's a very, very difficult and fine line to walk. Dr Rekha Desai (23:26): I think it is. And at the same time, Mr. Modi has not had much choice because for several reasons. Number one, Modi would really love to distance himself distance India from Russia, which of course has had longstanding economic ties as well as defense cooperation ties. Wilmer Leon (23:51): But wait a minute, let me jump in. And just to that point, didn't India just sign a huge oil and gas deal with Russia and they are buying Russian gas in rubles? Dr Rekha Desai (24:08): Yes. So let me exactly. I was about to come to that. Wilmer Leon (24:14): I'm channeling my inner, not Dr Rekha Desai (24:16): Really like that. But what has happened in the interim, of course, is that with the Ukraine crisis, India and the rise in the price of oil, and remember India imports a lot of oil and the rise in prices of oil in India has ripple effects throughout the economy because the cost of everything goes up because transport is a central part of the cost of anything. So inflation is already bad enough in India. If India did not have this oil deal with the Russians, then it would be even worse and it would tell on Modi even greater way. Secondly, some of his best paths like Mr. Adani and Mr. Banani and so on are actually engaged in the lucrative and shady practice of buying Russian oil at a discounted price and then processing it to power, not for that matter, and then selling it forward to essentially Europeans who can say, well, we are not buying Russian oil, but we are buying these oil or oil products from the Indians. (25:18) And so this India has become a sort of conduit for this oil trade and so on and gas trade with the Europeans. So that's another important thing and why India needs Russia. Secondly, India also has these border disputes with China, which go a long way. And Mr. Modi, of course, loves to sort of rattle his saber every so often in order to Ghana support across the border with China. But in India has also become dependent on cheap Chinese imports, inexpensive Chinese imports, I should say. I don't want to suggest that they're low quality, but because Indian manufacturing has declined and India's has become ever more reliant on importing cheap Chinese products. So in all of these ways, India's room for manure is actually shrinking largely thanks to the sad state of its economy, which Mr. Modi is doing nothing to improve. So in that sense, what Mr. Modi would like and what he must do are increasingly further apart. Wilmer Leon (26:33): Here comes a very basic simplistic question. India, I believe is the largest population in the most populous country in the world. That says to me that there's a very large accessible labor force. The United States is moving or trying to move off of Chinese labor and fine labor elsewhere. Allah, Haiti, why isn't Modi, or why isn't the US trying to tap into that unemployed labor force, expand production in the country? Because when we think of India, a lot of people in West think of, for example, call centers. They think about engineers, but not necessarily with IIT, for example, the Indian Institute of Technology, which is supposed to arrival. MIT, supposed to be one of the best engineering school in the world, but people don't necessarily think of engineering coming out of India. So why isn't the world or why isn't the west tapping into this labor force? Is that a sensible question to ask? Dr Rekha Desai (27:58): No, it's a good question to ask. So let me take another step back. You are right. India is the most populous country. India has a very large young population, and people often have been talking about the demographic dividend that India has the opportunity to employ these people and to grow much at a very fast rate and benefit from this. However, in order to harness or in order to benefit from India's demographic dividend, you have to invest in your young people. You have to educate them, you have to give them the skills Wilmer Leon (28:34): You need like China has done, Dr Rekha Desai (28:36): And then you have to create the larger kind of ecology, which will stimulate growth. None of these things are being done in India. Primary education is basically, I mean, as opposed to China, where the state puts in a lot of effort into primary education in public schools, what you have is essentially a proliferation of private schools, which if your parents can afford it, you're lucky, and otherwise you go to a sadly and badly run state school, which often does not even have a sufficient number of teachers or teachers who show up, et cetera, et cetera. So there is this problem. Then on top of that, increasingly what used to be a rather good university system has also been allowed to essentially be privatized the proliferation of private universities and colleges which charge enormous fees for questionable forms of education, which is also why you see an enormous flood of Indians, Indian young people leaving the country to obtain education abroad. (29:44) I mean, I was educated abroad, but as a graduate student, what's happening now is lots of Indian young people are leaving as undergraduates and going abroad to various, usually other English speaking countries, but also places as you, I don't know if you remember, but when the Ukraine war occurred, there was a crisis of Indian students having to return, and I had no idea that there were Indian students in Ukraine, but are, and there are Indian students all over the place. So the government is not doing anything. And finally, there is another problem, which is that in general, the Make India program was supposed to be, which Mr. Modi advertised with great fanfare. It was supposed to attract foreign direct investment into India, but then the idea was that India would then become a platform for producing export products for the whole world market, et cetera. (30:37) But in reality, in general, foreign direct investment only comes in when or only comes into countries like India because these countries, these investors are interested in selling to the Indian market. They don't particularly want to sell to the foreign market. And secondly, also, the contracting out where the kind of contracting out that happens with China, and increasingly now with Vietnam and so on, that also has not been particularly good because we basically don't have a layer of manufacturing firms that are able to deliver quality timeliness and all those sorts of things. So essentially we haven't had any kind of big flood of contracting out either. Wilmer Leon (31:27): I'm going to go back to the same question because as I was listening to you, this thought just popped in my head. When I look at again, the Belt and Road initiative from China, when I look at China meeting with African countries, India has, again, it's the largest most populous country in the world. That means markets, people are there to sell to and a labor force. So I'm wondering why, and I remember, I think when Modi came in in 2014, he met with President Xi. There was a, I think 20 billion of investment deals signed. I'm thinking about Russia wanting to come in. So there's an incredible growth opportunity there in terms of markets. So China can come in and build railroads. China can come in and build bridges, build electric infrastructure, build water infrastructure. Is that not happening? And if not, why not? Dr Rekha Desai (32:34): Well, because, well, okay, let me take Wilmer Leon (32:39): Again, is that a sensible question to ask? Dr Rekha Desai (32:42): Yeah, yeah. No, no, it is. So first of all, let me say that the Indian market, you talked about the Indian market markets are not just composed of people of people. Markets are composed of people who have money. And if you are running down your economy in the way that I've just described, ordinary people in India do not have the kind of money that makes India an attractive market. The market in India, as far as foreign capital is concerned, is basically a small sliver of the upper 10% or so of the Indian population. And that is not a very big market. I mean, India may have 1.4 billion people, but if only 140 million of them are capable of consuming at anything like the level of the rest of the world, and it's not, it may have a small one or two or 3% who are, Wilmer Leon (33:36): I should have used the word potential. Yes, I should have used the word potential. And what comes to my mind, and if I'm historically inaccurate, please correct me. Many economists and others will say, and this is maybe a stretch of an example, but one of the things that brought about the end of slavery or enslavement in the United States was an understanding we've got this newly formerly enslaved population. We need these people to be consumers, not a drag on the economy. So we're going to create an economic system that allows the manufacturing access to this labor force. So that's what was driving my question. Dr Rekha Desai (34:23): Well, exactly. And the thing is that unless you have adequate levels of employment, and not only adequate levels of employment, but adequately well compensated employment, that is to say with high wages, you're not going to create a market. You've got to create a sufficiently, you've got to create good jobs, essentially. And that is not something the government has done that, in fact, it has done everything to retard that process because as I said earlier, the government's policy is to favor a small number of big corporations. Now, the vast majority of the Indian economy is accounted for by what we call SMEs or small and medium enterprises. These are the guys who actually create the jobs. They may not be very high paying, but at the very least, they're paying jobs. And even that with the imposition of GST, for example, with demonetization, all for that matter, with covid policies in every possible way, the SME sector has been set back and it is not creating, it's not allowed to create the kind of employment that you do. And if you give a contract to Mr. Adani to build a port, that's not going to create a of employment because what Mr. Adani does is he has all the freedom in the world to import all the things that he needs. So he imports high technology products from the west and so on, and he creates a state-of-the-art port, but that is not going to create a lot of jobs for Indians. Wilmer Leon (35:54): Does he import labor as well, or does he access Indian labor, or does he import labor as well? Dr Rekha Desai (36:02): No, no. He accesses Indian labor, but it's a very small amount. It's a drop in the bucket compared to what Indians to actually absorb and to realize this demographic dividend, you need to create a lot more jobs, and they're not going to be created by Mr. Adani and his friends. And in fact, in the absence of such a strategy to really create a larger market, to create more employment, to create more opportunity in India, in the absence of a strategy to do those things, India is not going to enjoy a demographic dividend. India is at the moment sitting on a demographic time bomb because, and we have seen some of the results of that. Let me also give you an example. Not only does the government not create employment, it does the reverse. It creates, it removes good jobs and replaces them with bad jobs. (36:54) Consider the Indian army. Now, you think Indian army is one of the largest armies in the world. It's a large standing army, and that was one of the relatively secure forms of employment that people in many parts of India, young men in particular, but there are also women in the Indian Army would aspire to. What this government has done is replace the ordinary soldier's job, which could then you join the army as a soldier, and you move up the chain if you are good and so on, you get promotions to higher levels. This has kind of been the number of such jobs has been reduced, and they have been replaced by the so-called Agni vu scheme, which sounds very fancy. You are a fire hero or something. Anyway, this Agni Vu scheme essentially will hire soldiers for four years on a four year contract. So at the end of those four years, you could be let go. There is no guarantee of employment. Now, even if you are a right-wing, security obsessed nut, you will say this is the wrong way to have a good army. Wilmer Leon (38:00): But Dr Rekha Desai (38:01): That's Wilmer Leon (38:01): What you need career soldiers. Dr Rekha Desai (38:05): Exactly. Wilmer Leon (38:06): Exactly. And you don't form careers on four year contracts. Dr Rekha Desai (38:09): And in this election, I have noticed that in all the areas which have, traditionally in every country, there are some parts of the country that are recruitment from which the army recruits disproportionately, and there are such parts of India as well. And in all those parts of India, the BJP vote has gone down because people are so sore about this scheme. In fact, the other thing, because in India what happens is that when the counting takes place, they count the postal ballots first. And very often the postal ballots have a disproportionate number of army veterans or army people in them, because army people tend to get posted around and they use the postal ballot to vote in their place of registration. And so these postal ballots also showed a significant decline in the vote of the BJP. So that was quite interesting as well. So you see, Mr. (39:03) Modi thought that he could visit this kind of economic punishment on Indian people, but somehow then still win them over by showing them what a strong leader he is. And through spewing hate, because you see in the, as I told you, this is a seven phase election at the end of the first phase, which occurred on the 19th of April. That was the first day of voting within a couple of days, I'm sure the BJP, which is backed by the way, absolutely generously by the corporate elite of India. So they have plenty of money. They must have conducted exit polls for themselves. You're not allowed to publish them, but you can conduct exit polls how you're doing. And it became very clear to the BJP and to Mr. Modi that their party was doing badly. And so within two days of that, the entire campaign rhetoric changed. (40:00) It went from how we are going to create a developed India with a 5 trillion economy and the whatever, the third largest economy in the world, and all this completely castles in the economic castles in the air. But we've seen that to essentially demonizing Muslims, which is what the BJ does. Whenever they realize that they're in trouble, they shift to this anti-Muslim rhetoric. So this, and the kind of rhetoric that has issued from the mouth of Mr. Modi has been absolutely horrific. I mean, it has plumbed depth of, how can you say, of coarseness that has never been witnessed, ever. And people have criticized him, but it is very clear that they were already panicking, and now the results are out and they're panicking because as I say, this kind of economic pain that you are visiting on Indians cannot be electorally costless. And you see, in 2014, Mr. (41:04) Modi won. It was a novelty. He was fully backed by the corporate capitalist class. The propaganda machine was in full motion, and the opposition was divided. It was not united. In 2019, they would've lost, actually, many people were saying that they were going to lose. Many seasoned psychologists were saying that. But at the very last minute, Mr. Modi pulled a defense and security rabbit out of his hat. There was an incident in which he claimed to be striking, making strikes across the border on Pakistan, on a place called Bako. And that these strikes were going to show that India was ruled by a tough leader and who was not going to give into Pakistans dastardly infiltration, et cetera, et cetera, and terrorist activities and blah, blah and so on, all of which is heavily you should take with barrels of salt. But nevertheless, this apparently transformed the election campaign, and there was the pre court assessments and the post bar court assessments, and he won. And even then he won, but he added a mere 20 something seats to his tally. So it was not such a great thing. Even with the Bala coat effect this time around, he wanted to add fully 70 seats to his tally. It's not going to be that. It's not that easy, as you can see. So there were exceptional circumstances, and this many people are saying is a more normal election. And in this normal election, Mr. Modi, it looks is headed for a humiliating setback, if not defeat. We'll have to see. Wilmer Leon (42:43): And I don't think we can talk about India without talking about nuclear weapons. India is a nuclear power. How does that play out on the world stage, in spite of all the things that you've just articulated and very clearly, thank you very much. That's always in the background. India is a nuclear power. How does that play on the world stage as related? Go ahead. Dr Rekha Desai (43:15): Yeah, I mean, in India, so the India's nuclear weapons are really not very substantial or not very many. I think it matters most in the confrontation between India and Pakistan. Pakistan, but also to some extent this border of dispute that India has with China, which we can discuss. But historically, if you think about it, India went in for a nuclear weapons development program in the sixties after being defeated in the 1962 war with China, in which China did not take any territory. China inflicted defeat on India and then withdrew to the original position just to say, look, we don't wish to solve this problem militarily. We wish to solve it through negotiation. And the Chinese have more or less stuck to that. But China has always been a very big factor in India's nuclear program. And so as you know, in 1972, India had conducted its first nuclear test. (44:19) India has never joined the nuclear non-proliferation treatment. And then in 1998, when Mr. The Prime Minister who headed the previous JP government, BJP LED government, I should say, that was a coalition government, but the BJP was the leading element of that coalition. Mr. Wapa, within days of coming to office, conducted a second nuclear test and then wrote a letter, this was back in 1998, wrote a letter to President Clinton, more or less explicitly saying that India having conducted its next nuclear test, was available to the Americans as a counterweight to China. So that is the larger configuration. I don't think India imagines that it is going to win a war with China, but I hope they don't anyway, because it was certainly not going to. But the weapons are supposed to be some sort of a final defense. So the nuclear weapons matter to India vis-a-vis Pakistan, and to some extent vis-a-vis China. Wilmer Leon (45:25): And quickly you've made reference to the India China relationship. Elaborate on that before we get into the discussion about American domestic politics. Dr Rekha Desai (45:36): Well, very briefly, I would say that India is increasingly outclassed by China. China is economic dynamism, puts India to shame. I would say that the previous government, the UPA government that ruled India from 2004 to 2014 began to embark on a strategy of creating greater employment and putting more money into the pockets of ordinary Indians and taking care of basic needs and so on, which if continued, would have put India on a much better track. Certainly not as good as China, but certainly on a much better track. But of course, Mr. Modi interrupted that, and we've had 10 years of exceedingly harmful economic policies under Mr. Modi. So economically, India is outclassed by China, and I would say that India, whereas up until now 2014, when Mr. Modi was elected, India was making small progress in resolving some of the border disputes with China, which can easily be resolved. (46:46) Some progress was being made. Mr. Modi has largely reversed that progress. Now, very briefly, let me just say that really I think that if India were to give up its insistence on lines on the map, which were drawn by the colonial powers, and try to seek an amicable, try negotiate with China amicably in a way that takes the interest of the people in these border regions, places them foremost, rather than claim to this or that piece of territory, I think that India and China can easily resolve their border disputes. Think of it this way, China has many borders with many countries, and it has resolved all its border disputes with all its neighbors except the one with India. India by contrast also has many neighbors. It has many border disputes, and it has resolved none of them. So that's the one very simple way of looking at it. So India's position has been unreasonable that Unreason was beginning to be unraveled to considerable extent, I think under the previous Congress led government. But under Mr. Modi, all that progress has been reversed Wilmer Leon (48:04): In your explaining India's inability to resolve those conflicts is part of that, because in the minds of many leaders, conflict brings about coalition that Israel is an example of that. One of the tenets of Zionism is, and Netanyahu says this all the time, you all need me to protect you because the wolves are at the door, and if I'm not here, they'll devour us all. Joe Biden, many believe right now is in deep trouble and is trying to create himself to be a wartime president. Is that in any of the thinking or logic of why these border disputes are not being resolved? Dr Rekha Desai (48:52): Well, okay. So first of all, let me just say that I think conflict brings consolidation, consolidation of your social base, not necessarily coalition, because you have to remember one very important respect in which the Israeli electoral system is completely different from the Indian election. Wilmer Leon (49:08): Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I was speaking on a very broad level. Dr Rekha Desai (49:13): Well, because Israel has an exceedingly permissive form of proportional representation, so that parties with even a tiny number of votes can have representation in parliament. And this allows the more extreme parties, extreme right parties to also get representation in the Israeli parliament. India does not have a PR system at all. It has a first pass the post electoral system. And that of course, can translate a small, for example, in this election, a relatively small change in the percentage of the vote can translate into a very big change in the number of seats won by a given party. So India has this first pass, the post electoral system, and that has been very important in giving Mr. Modi his majorities. And yes, rattling the Sabre and raising the issues of defense and terrorism can certainly help. Mr. Modi has helped Mr. Modi in the past, in 2019 in particular, to essentially win a majority, again, even a slightly increased majority. So that certainly helps. And historically, yes, defense issues have been to consolidate a social base, but on the whole, I would say that the Congress has been much less willing to sort of weaponize defense issues. And the BJP has been much more willing to do. So Wilmer Leon (50:43): Switching to, well, is there anything else you want to be sure that we cover on this election issue before we move on? Dr Rekha Desai (50:50): No, I think it's good. Okay. Wilmer Leon (50:54): Okay. Alright. Well then with that, quickly, your thoughts on the current state of the Biden administration. His numbers are horrible. According to real clear politics, he has a 55.8, or we could say 56% disapproval rating. He has a 65.8 or 66% of those believe the country's on the wrong track. In the wake of Trump's guilty verdict in the New York Business Documents trial, Trump is still up by nine percentage points. And also when you look at the Battleground states eight, by many calculations, Joe Biden isn't winning one of them. It's becoming harder and harder to see how Joe Biden gets to the 270 electoral votes that he needs. Your thoughts? Dr Rekha Desai (51:58): Well, I think that what you're looking at in the United States is really the sort of cumulative result of following neoliberal policies basically, so that essentially neither Mr. Trump nor Mr. Biden are anything other than neoliberal. Mr. Biden will pepper his neoliberalism with a certain amount of socially progressive politics, but that's the only difference between them. And so what you are seeing is on the one hand, a very large protest vote against these sorts of policies going to Mr. Trump because Mr. Trump is essentially saying to people, I know you guys are suffering and I know how to solve your problems. You're suffering because of China. So instead of saying that you're suffering because of neoliberalism, which he's not going to give up on, he's offering a false solution to the problems of the people. But nevertheless, this seems to work better than what Mr. Biden is saying, which is offering more of the same. (53:02) And Mr. Biden's. So-called omics is actually not working either. So that, because again, it is not that different by the way, from the policy pursued by Mr. Modi. Mr. Biden also pursues a policy whose overriding priority is to look after the interests of the big corporations of the United States, not to solve the employment crisis or solve the housing crisis or to solve the health and indebtedness crisis or anything like that. And in the United States, the only people who seem to be talking a different type of economic policy are the non duopoly candidates, chiefly Jill Stein, and of course to Dr. West. These are the people who are talking about progressive economic policies. The existing duopoly has nothing to offer the American people. And let me say that by contrast, one of the heartening things about this election and the last few years in India has been that Congress, which was, I would've faulted it in the past 10 years ago, for still being too neoliberal Congress, having suffered a drum in 2014. (54:15) And in 2019 has improved its game on two fronts very, very well. Number one, it has engaged in some major exercises of reconnecting with the people, particularly essentially this walking journey that that Rahul Gandhi did across the country from south to north, stopping in everywhere and literally walking thousands of miles. That was a very good way of reconnecting and re-energizing the Congress organization. And very importantly, they seem to have understood that if you are to win in India in the present circumstances, you need to proclaim and pursue a far more progressive set of economic policies that look at issues of employment. And I haven't even mentioned, you asked me whether there was something else I should mention. I haven't yet mentioned agrarian distress being squeezed on both sides on the one side, by rising prices of inputs, which are increasingly produced by big corporations, and on the other side by diminishing prices of outputs, which again, which are typically bought by big corporations. So you can see these poor farmers being squeezed. The spate of farmers suicides in India are very high. So Congress has learned from all this that you need progressive policies for farmers, for the urban sector, for creating employment, for dealing with debt issues, providing education, all of these things. And they have actually come out with a pretty decent manifesto. And I would say that if they were to get a chance to implement it, I'm sure that they will only go further in a progressive or left-wing direction rather than pull their punches. Wilmer Leon (56:07): Interesting. You mentioned that the suicide rate of farmers is up in India because the suicide rate is up dramatically, particularly among white males in the United States. You mentioned the omics, Joe Biden doesn't mention omics that much on the campaign trail, and we hear the American economy is doing so well. But to your point about Joe Biden as looking out for the elite, that's the financialized side of the American economy that is doing well. The banks are doing well, corporations are doing well, but the regular part of this economy, debt is up dramatically. Prices are up, inflation is up, and unemployment, if you really look at the numbers in terms of the number of people working compared to people here have a, I think, try to make a false equivalency that every job means one person working. What we're dealing with here is one person working multiple low wage jobs just to remain poor. Hence we see the unhoused, the rate of the unhoused in the United States is up. So when you look at the real numbers and speak to this, please, as an economist, when you look at the real numbers, things aren't going nearly as well as Joe Biden and the Biden administration would want people to believe. Dr Rekha Desai (57:55): Absolutely. I mean, the whole employment issue has long been a boondoggle in the United States. The United States loves to advertise itself as this job generating machine of an economy, but what is the quality of the jobs generated by them? If you have to have two or more jobs in order to keep body and soul together in order to feed your children, then what kind of a job is that? Wilmer Leon (58:18): And many of those jobs don't come with health benefits don't come with vacation. They're low wage. In Dr Rekha Desai (58:25): Fact, I don't know if you remember, but this is not a new problem. This goes back to the election of George Bush Jr. When he was running for reelection. Apparently some poor lady said to him that, oh, she was working three jobs and so on. And she said, look, she's such a great hero. She's working three jobs, completely missing the point that why should anyone have to juggle three jobs in order to make a living? And that too, as you rightly say, not really a living in order just to be poor. And this is the situation. And by the way, in India, as I say, a lot of people are also claiming that they are going to look at so many, there's so much entrepreneurship in India. There's so much self-employment, a lot of what is called self-employment in India isn't self-employment. It's desperation. If you have no job, of course you will do anything. You'll buy bottle brushes and go sell them on or buy peanuts and go sell them on the train for the few rupees you will make. And the difference between your buying costs and your selling costs. And that may still not give you anything more than a meal or maybe half a meal or two square meals a day if that. But what about clothing? What about food? What about what? I mean housing, what about education? All these things are not there for people. Wilmer Leon (59:43): It's the difference between living and existing. Dr Rekha Desai (59:46): Exactly. Exactly. So this is the situation in India, and I think that these election results are showing that. And as I say, I think by the way, there was another parallel between the American situation and the Indian situation. A lot of people felt essentially unenthused by this election. So they may not have those people who Modi was trying to enthus to support him, may have simply sat at home and said, we are not going out. And as you know, the election campaign was very long drawn out because it would give Mr. Moy a chance to campaign in each phase. You see, because he regards himself as the only board deliverer of his party, which means there is no second level leadership in the party, which Wilmer Leon (01:00:39): Is in fact, isn't he on record as saying, I don't have a successor. The people are my successor. Isn't he on record as saying something ridiculous like that? He's Dr Rekha Desai (01:00:50): Been saying some pretty peculiar things recently. In fact, one of the most outlandish things he said recently, he said some, he gave a spate of interviews just before the election, and in fact during the election, and the purpose of this was that some phoning media person who is not a tall critical, who throws them all sorts of soft balls in order to make him look good. So one particularly phoning interviewer asked him, Mr. Modi, where do you get your amazing energy from? You've been campaigning, blah, blah, et cetera. So he said, he says, well, as long as my mother was alive, I didn't quite credit this, but I have always felt that I'm not biological, essentially, that I have not been born of my mother, that the Almighty has created me and sent me here to fulfill a certain purpose. Now, I mean, just imagine the guys, I mean, it's, it's madness. If you told me this and you were a politician, I would say Wilma. Okay, it's all right. You told me this. But don't tell anyone else. Just keep quiet about it, even if you think so. Wilmer Leon (01:01:58): In fact, you'd say, I have a friend I'd like for you to talk to who is trained to talk to people like you. Dr Rekha Desai (01:02:10): So anyway, so he's been saying some completely nonsensical things recently because as I say, he has been in a panic mode and he'll say anything basically and trying to, so anyway, he's been trying to garner votes. And the other really interesting thing is that you will remember that in January, the Mr. Modi elaborately conducted this elaborately stage managed consecration of the temple to Lord Ram, which is being built on this moss that was destroyed back in 1992. It's a big vo. We can't discuss all of this. But let me just say that this consecration exercise, which was, as I say, carefully choreographed to highlight Mr. Modi and his role, and he was, in fact, it was not the priests who were consecrating it as though it was he who was consecrating it. And it was a practically fascistic exercise I'll have. And he thought that this was going to be his baah court, that in the now 2019, there were those strikes and that this would deliver him the votes. There was next to zero temple effect in the electorate. You asked people, most of them didn't bring it up. They said, where are the jobs? Look at the inflation. How are we supposed to eat well enough? Et cetera, et cetera. So this did not work. Wilmer Leon (01:03:34): And as we get out, you mentioned anticipated low voter turnout in India. I have been saying for a very long time that a huge problem that is on the horizon for President Biden is not going to be people changing parties, is going to be and voting for Donald Trump or voting for Joe Stein or Dr. West. It's going to be people staying home raking leaves. That's going to be his huge problem. Your Dr Rekha Desai (01:04:07): Thoughts. I think that certainly this year in India, the voter turnout is only marginally lower than the previous time. But given that it is in roughly two thirds of the people have voted in the last election and this one. But I suspect that it's a question of who votes, right? So maybe his supporters stay at home and the supporters of the India block, which is the Congress led coalition, came out and voted. It's very possible that that's kind of what's happening. Wilmer Leon (01:04:38): Well, let me say as always to you, Dr. Ika Desai, thank you so much. Thank you so much for joining me today. Dr Rekha Desai (01:04:48): It's always a great pleasure, Wilma. Wilmer Leon (01:04:50): Folks, thank you all so much for listening to the Connecting the Dots podcast with me, Dr. Wilmer Leon. Stay tuned for new episodes every week. And by the way, if there are issues, if there are topics that you need me to connect the dots on for you, then please provide your suggestions in the comments below. Also, please follow and subscribe. Leave a review, share the show, go to the Patreon account and please make a contribution. This is where analysis, culture, politics, and history converge. Talk without analysis is just chatter. And as you can see with brilliant guests like Dr. Desai, we do not chatter on connecting the dots. See you again next time. Until then, I'm Dr. Wilmer Leon. Have a great one. Peace. We're out Announcer (01:05:50): Connecting the dots with Dr. Wilmer Leon, where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge.
Dr Motloung is lecturer of Political Studies at North-West University. Analysis of the recent South African elections, examining voter turnout, election results, and the performance of major and emerging political parties. The discussion will also delve into the implications of the results as they continue to emerge, including potential coalition scenarios and their impact on governance. MK party and their influence on the political landscape. Stay tuned for updates on this developing story. Thanks for watching and don't forget to subscribe to our channel for more news and updates. #jacobzuma #mkparty More news, visit www.mdntvlive.com and #Mdntv on all Social Media platforms. #mdntv #SouthAfrica --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mdntv/message
GUEST 1 OVERVIEW: Alex runs the account Thinking Slow and his quest is by using facts and real science to expose and defeat the oligarchy's dystopian Great Reset agenda. http://www.thinkingcoalition.org/ GUEST 2 OVERVIEW: Ivan Katchanovski teaches at the School of Political Studies & Conflict Studies and Human Rights Program at the University of Ottawa. He was Visiting Scholar at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University, Visiting Assistant Professor at the Department of Politics at the State University of New York at Potsdam, Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto, and Kluge Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress. He received his Ph.D. from the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University.
In Kyiv, the war against Russia's invasion plays out not only through airstrikes and drones, but also through culture. Well before his full-scale invasion, President Putin was clear in his ahistorical belief that Ukraine is a made-up country, rightfully part of greater Russia. Our first guest, Victoria Nuland, was in Kyiv during the Maidan protests in 2013-14, meeting with pro-democracy protesters as well as then-President Yanukovych. This was the first of many such visits since then. It was just last month that the current Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs was in Kyiv for talks and she joins Christiane from Washington to discuss U.S. support for Ukraine. Also on today's show: Sergey Markov, Director, Institute of Political Studies in Moscow / Former MP, United Russia; Oleksiy Goncharenko, Member of the Ukrainian Parliament; Gita Gopinath, First Deputy Managing Director, IMF Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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