Podcast appearances and mentions of rebecca cruise

Suzette Grillot and Rebecca Cruise discuss news about Spain's Basque separatist group and political protests in Armenia. Then Suzette Grillot talks with Amnesty International's Matt Wells about his work documenting violence against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.

Suzette Grillot and Rebecca Cruise discuss political uprisings in Nicaragua and French president Emmanuel Macron's visit to the United States. Then, Suzette Grillot speaks with linguist Marcia Haag about the extinction of the world's indigenous languages.

Suzette Grillot and Rebecca Cruise discuss new developments in North Korea and Cuba in light of a lack of U.S. diplomats. Then Rebecca Cruise talks with Dr. Peter Hotez about Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Suzette Grillot and Rebecca Cruise discuss the death of Winnie Mandela and an Indian Supreme court case involving “love jihad.” Then, Suzette Grillot speaks with American University professor Mark Langevin about the polarizing corruption scandal in Brazil ahead of the country’s 2018 presidential election.

Suzette Grillot and Rebecca Cruise discuss the implementation of a UK law concerning the gender pay gap and how Oklahoma teachers are making international news. Then, Rebecca Cruise will talk with German author Jenny Erpenbeck about how she tries to humanize tense political issues, like the 2015 European refugee crisis, through works of fiction.

Suzette Grillot and Rebecca Cruise discuss how the Chinese National People's Congress eliminated term limits, and what that decision might mean for this week's decision by the Trump administration to levy tariffs on Chinese imports. And they'll explore a new initiative in South Korea to reduce the number of hour that workers work each year. Then, Rebecca Cruise will talk about U.S.-China relations with Chinese politics expert Joseph Fewsmith.

Rebecca Cruise talks with Paul Richards and Esther Mokuwa about the Ebola crisis, and the lessons that the international community learned about fighting the epidemic. Richards is the author of the book "Ebola: How a People's Science Helped End An Epidemic."

Suzette Grillot and Rebecca Cruise discuss Sinn Fein's new leadership in Ireland and the push for women's rights among Kurds in Northern Syria. Then, Suzette talks with Trita Parsi about his new book, "Losing and Enemy: Obama, Iran and the Triumph of Diplomacy."

Suzette Grillot and Rebecca Cruise preview this year's Oscar nominees for Best Foreign Language Film . The 2018 nominees are A Fantastic Woman (Chile), The Insult (Lebanon), Loveless (Russia), On Body and Soul (Hungary) and The Square (Sweden).

Suzette Grillot and Rebecca Cruise discuss the Winter Olympics, Canada's Own the Podium program and sexual harassment allegations against U.S. snowboarder Shaun White. They also talk about the resignation of UNICEF deputy director Justin Forsyth over accusations of inappropriate behavior with female staff members when he was director of Save the Children. Then, Suzette will talk with Paul Chambers , director of research for the Institute of South East Asian Affairs, about Thailand's military junta and why the ruling military wants to call elections.

Rebecca Cruise and Suzette Grillot discuss tensions between Israel and the United States ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress next week, and European nations that are working to develop a more unified energy policy. Then, a conversation with art historian Maya Stanfield-Mazzi. She studies pre-Colombian art in the Andes, and says the work of South America’s Inca culture was abstract, without a clear narrative.

Syria Comment blogger Joshua Landis provides analysis of President Bashar Assad’s interview this week with the BBC, and Rebecca Cruise discusses German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s visit with President Obama, and what they’re trying to accomplish regarding Ukraine. Then Rebecca talks with Kathryn Bolkovac, who sued her employers for unfair dismissal after she lost her job for trying to expose sex trafficking in Bosnia. Her story was dramatized in the 2010 film The Whistleblower.

Rebecca Cruise explains this week’s court ruling that no genocide was proven in the 1990s Serbia-Croatia conflict, and Joshua Landis describes the complex relationship between Jordan and the self-proclaimed Islamic State in light of the brutal murder of a Jordanian fighter pilot. Then Suzette Grillot is joined by journalist Franz Bumeder. As a German radio correspondent in the 1990s, he reported on those wars in Kosovo, Bosnia, Croatia, and Macedonia.

Rebecca Cruise and Suzette Grillot discuss President Obama’s recent trip to India, and this week’s legislative elections in Greece that saw huge left-wing parliamentary gains and a new coalition government. Then University of New Hampshire historian Nicoletta Gullace discusses her work tracing how changing turn-of-the-century gender roles led to women's increased participation in war activities.

Joshua Landis discusses Tuesday night’s State of the Union address and President Obama’s proposal to combat the self-proclaimed Islamic State, and Rebecca Cruise provides an update on anti-Islam protests in Leipzig, Germany. Then Joshua and Suzette Grillot talk with University of Oklahoma sociologist Loretta Bass about first- and second-generation immigrant populations in France, and revisit issues of race and identity.

Rebecca Cruise discusses Wednesday's attack on a satirical newspaper in Paris, and Joshua Landis explains Saudi Arabia’s role in the ongoing fall of global oil prices. Later, a conversation with Jan-Willem Rosenboom. He’s a senior program officer for water, sanitation and hygiene at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and he and Suzette Grillot talk about market solutions to the sanitation crisis in developing countries.

Suzette Grillot and Rebecca Cruise discuss day-after-Christmas traditions around the world, and Joshua Landis provides an update on how economies around the world have fared during 2014. Then, a conversation with photojournalist and activist Paula Allen. For a quarter century, she has chronicled the stories of these women during and after the search for their missing family members. She published her photos in the book Flowers in the Desert.

Rebecca Cruise and Suzette Grillot discuss the announcement this week by President Obama that the United States would work to normalize relations with Cuba, and North Korea's hacking of Sony in response to the film The Interview. Then Suzette talks with Charles Kimball, the director of the religious studies program at the University of Oklahoma. He's the author of the books "When Religion Becomes Evil" and "When Religion Becomes Lethal".

Joshua Landis, Rebecca Cruise, and Suzette Grillot discuss the release of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report on the CIA's detention and interrogation practices. Then Rebecca talks with photojournalist and filmmaker Mimi Chakarova, whose film The Price of Sex personalizes East European human trafficking.

Rebecca Cruise and Suzette Grillot discuss the surprising outcome of last week's presidential elections in Romania, and the future of presidential politics in Burkina Faso. Then, a conversation with activist and CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin. She argues the use of drone strikes actually increases the likelihood of war, because it reduces the barriers to entering conflict.

Joshua Landis compares what he calls the “Great Sorting Out” in the Middle East to historical conflicts in Eastern Europe that also stretched across ethnic and religious lines. Then Joshua and Rebecca Cruise talk with Matthew Barber. He was one of the first bloggers to write about the capture of thousands of Yazidi women and girls as the minority community of northern Iraq was wiped out this summer.

Rebecca Cruise talks with Joshua Landis about air strikes against the Islamic State, and how Syria’s neighbors are affected by millions of refugees. Later, Suzette Grillot's recent interview with the 2014 Neustadt Prize for International Literature winner Mia Couto. Shortly after the country’s independence from Portugal, the Mozambique Liberation Front asked him to suspend his medical studies and work as a journalist.

Rebecca Cruise explains how a proposed internet tax drew tens of thousands of Hungarians to the streets of Budapest in protest, and Joshua Landis provides an update on a victory by secularists in Tunisia’s elections. Later, a discussion with Oklahoma City imam Imad Enchassi. As a child in Lebanon’s refugee camps, he witnessed the massacre of thousands of his fellow Palestinians. Suzette Grillot talks about humanitarian work in the Middle East with Enchassi and Oklahoma City University political scientist Mohamed Daadoui.

Rebecca Cruise and Suzette Grillot talk about the dispute between Norway and the International Olympic Committee over hosting the 2022 winter games, and the release of an American prisoner in North Korea after Kim Jong-un’s weeks-long absence from the public spotlight. Later, a conversation with Jean Preston, who worked for the State Department shortly after Guatemala’s nearly four-decade civil war. She says the U.S. Embassy often served as the one place where indigenous leaders, private sector executives, and government officials could peacefully meet.

Suzette Grillot and Rebecca Cruise discuss the so-called "Umbrella Revolution" protests in Hong Kong , and the closing arguments in the Bosnian war crimes trial of Radovan Karadžić in The Hague. Later, a conversation with University of Waterloo political scientist Mariam Mufti. She studies electoral and party politics in South Asia, as well as democratization and regime change.

Rebecca Cruise reports on the Xi Jinping's tour of South Asia and its effects on the future of trade between China and those countries. She also outlines President Obama's strategy to help contain the Ebola outbreak devastating West Africa. Later in the program, Suzette Grillot interviews groundbreaking social entrepreneur Paul Polak about his strategies for pulling people out of poverty around the world.

Joshua Landis explains President Obama's strategy to confront ISIS without pursuing the kind of nation building projects that past administrations have attempted. Rebecca Cruise reports on the pros and cons of a possible Scottish independence including questions of currency, EU membership, industry and nationalism. Later in the program, an interview with Puerto Rican author Esmeralda Santiago exploring her ties to her native country and her relationship with art and activism.

Suzette Grillot and Joshua Landis discuss the turmoil in Iraq caused by ISIS. Rebecca Cruise reports on state of Ukraine and its possible cease fire with Russia. Later in the program, an interview with Boston College Near East Historian and political scientist Franck Salameh about the many dialects of Arabic and the future of teaching it.

Rebecca Cruise and Suzette Grillot talk about the first woman to win math’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize, and North Korea’s missile test this week as Pope Francis visits South Korea. Later, a conversation with classical Persian scholar Austin O’Malley. He says the language’s stability drew him to study centuries-old Near Eastern poetry.

It’s been a busy month for U.S. foreign policy, and Suzette Grillot and Rebecca Cruise talk about how the United States has responded to multiple crises - from the shooting down of the Malaysian airliner in Ukraine, to the situation in Gaza. Later, a conversation with Venezuelan poet Arturo Gutierrez-Plaza about the literature of Latin America. His work explores the small scenes of everyday life.

Rebecca Cruise and Suzette Grillot discuss the conflict in Ukraine that likely led to the surface-to-air missile attack on Malaysian Airlines Flight 17, and the increased flow of unaccompanied minors over the U.S.-Mexico border. Later, a conversation with Francis Rooney, the former U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See. President Bush appointed him to the post in 2005 shortly after the death of Pope John Paul II, and he's just written a book about his three-year tenure called The Global Vatican: An Inside Look at the Catholic Church, World Politics, and the Extraordinary Relationship between the United States and the Holy See.

Rebecca Cruise and Suzette Grillot discuss the escalating situation between Israel and Palestine, both the real and potential impact of host nation Brazil’s loss this week in the World Cup. Then a conversation with national security analyst Linda Robinson about her book "One Hundred Victories: Special Ops and the Future of American Warfare". She spent two years in Afghanistan joining U.S. Special Forces on combat missions, while still knowing when to stay out of the way.

Rebecca Cruise and Suzette Grillot discuss the French inquiry into former President Nicolas Sarkozy’s campaign fundraising, and Japan’s constitutional reinterpretation that allows it wage conflicts on foreign soil for the first time since World War II. Later, a conversation with Marmara University in Istanbul political scientist Barış Doster about Turkey, its neighbors, and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Suzette Grillot and Rebecca Cruise discuss the North Korean response to the Seth Rogen and James Franco film, "The Interview", and the report released this week reviewing the increased use of drones by the United States. And a conversation with University of Oklahoma Latin America historian Alan McPherson. His new book, "The Invaded", explores early 20th century conflicts in Nicaragua, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic.

Suzette Grillot talks with Italian citizen and lawyer Katia Girotto about the outcome of European parliamentary elections, and how Italians feel about the elections' impact on the future of EU politics and economics. Rebecca Cruise and Joshua Landis discuss television and social media in Lebanon with University of Balamand journalism department head Ramez Maluf. He says Beirut's position as a major entertainment production hub is controversial among conservatives and Arab intellectuals.

Suzette Grillot starts a month-long European trip in London, and talks about Turkey's coal mine disaster and how that relate's to the United Kingdom's energy industry with University of Oklahoma Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Clarke Stroud. Later, Rebecca Cruise discusses so-called 'dark networks' with University of Arizona political scientist H. Brinton Milward.

Rebecca Cruise provides an update on the kidnapping of hundreds of girls in Nigeria, and Joshua Landis discusses this week’s Syrian rebel departure from Homs. Later, a conversation with longtime China scholar David Lampton. He argues the country’s leaders have to reconcile a fragmented bureaucracy with explosive economic growth and a rising middle class.

Suzette Grillot, Joshua Landis, and Rebecca Cruise discuss this week's national elections in Iraq, and the growing ethnic tensions and violence in Western China. Later, a conversation with historian and geographer Abigail Neely. Tuberculosis and HIV co-infection is one of Sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest health challenges, but she questions how closely they’re related, and how poverty affects the immune system.

Suzette Grillot and Rebecca Cruise discuss President Obama's trip to Asia this week, and whether or not we'll finally see the long-anticipated foreign policy "pivot" to the region. They also talk about the kidnapping of hundreds of young girls in Nigeria. Later, a conversation with activist, author and filmmaker Clifton Ross. He says solidarity among Latin American protesters and dedication to their cause can actually work against them.

A roundtable discussion; Rebecca Cruise explains why Russia's ouster from the Group of Eight industrialized nations is mostly symbolic with little consequence, and Joshua Landis discusses the implications of the murder convictions of more than 500 supporters of former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi. Later, a conversation with political scientist Fevzi Bilgin about allegations against Turkey’s prime minister, and political instability ahead of Sunday's local elections.

Rebecca Cruise and Suzette Grillot focus on the dozens of nations involved in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, and why it's difficult for countries to cooperate during international tragedies. Later, Cruise talks with Baylor University political scientist Serhiy Kudelia about the ouster of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, and what comes next in Ukraine.

A roundtable discussion with a brief update on the situation in Ukraine, and Suzette Grillot and Rebecca Cruise discuss some of the more under-the-radar protests in Thailand and Venezuela. Later, more in a series of conversations about identity in international literature with authors Andrew Lam, Krys Lee, and Ananda Devi.

Suzette Grillot wraps up a three week, two continent trip with a discussion from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with University of Oklahoma anthropologist and International Studies professor Erika Robb Larkins. Later, Suzette and Rebecca Cruise discuss the five Oscar nominees for Best Foreign Language Film ahead of Sunday evening's Academy Awards.

Joshua Landis provides an update on this week's Syrian peace talks in Switzerland, and Rebecca Cruise discusses the escalation of violence in Ukraine. Later, a conversation about mother tongue-based bilingual instruction in West Africa with Alice Iddi-Gubbels, the founder and executive director of PAMBE Ghana.

Hosts Suzette Grillot and Rebecca Cruise talk about their four-city tour of China and comment on their experiences, as well as talking with environmental scientist, Erle Ellis. Ellis spent four years studying China's rural agricultural villages.

Suzette Grillot hosts the program from Scotland, and Rebecca Cruise joins her by phone from Washington, D.C. to talk about the economic "baby bump" created by Prince George of Cambridge, and Pope Francis's visit to Brazil. Later, former World Views research fellow Jack Randolph returns to the KGOU studios to talk about his latest trip to Tel Aviv. He returned to Israel this week to work with Peace Players International, an organization that strives to use sports to bring divided communities together.

Over the past 11 months, the Zaatari refugee camp in Northern Jordan has hosted hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees fleeing that country’s civil war. Suzette Grillot and Rebecca Cruise visited the camp in early June, and witnessed some of the newest arrivals. Real-time updates on social media are revolutionizing traditional journalism. By following Twitter feeds and other forms of social media, journalists like NPR Senior Strategist Andy Carvin now identify breaking news faster and do a better job following international stories.

Rebecca Cruise returns and guest-hosts while Suzette Grillot joins the program from Italy to talk about protests sweeping Brazil's largest cities, and the implications of the newly-elected moderate president for the future of a nuclear Iran. University of California, Berkeley historian Daniel Sargent argues the 1970s were a pivotal decade on the global stage. He calls U.S. foreign policy immediately after the Cold War “uninspiring.”

What you should know about the troubled Russian region of Chechnya and Rebecca Cruise discusses women in combat and the U.S. drone program with NPR's Rachel Martin. Before taking over the host's chair of Weekend Edition Sunday, she reported from both Iraq and Afghanistan, and served as the network's national security correspondent.

Suzette Grillot and Rebecca Cruise discuss the death and legacy of Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and the heightened tensions between North Korea, the U.S., and its allies as the reclusive country threatens to launch a medium-range ballistic missile. Retired State Department official and former U.S. Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson returns to World Views for a conversation about Iran, the energy industry, and nuclear security.

Rebecca Cruise and Suzette Grillot discuss the banking crisis in the Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus, and the decision to re-try American student Amanda Knox in Italy. University of Oklahoma Italian language and literature professor Jason Houston joins Grillot from Arezzo, Italy. He's been following the Catholic Church's transition of power in the Vatican, and speculates what the last voluntary papal resignation in 1294 could teach us about 2013.

Suzette Grillot, Joshua Landis, and Rebecca Cruise discuss the election of Pope Francis, the financial situation of the Vatican, and the influence of the New World on the Catholic Church. Deputy Director for Research at the Mohyla School of Journalism at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy Anastasiia Grynko joins Grillot and Cruise for a conversation about media ethics and transparency in Ukraine and other post-Soviet countries.

President Obama is finalizing his Cabinet choices for his second term this week, and Suzette Grillot and Rebecca Cruise talk about the lack of women nominees. Prostitutes in one of Brazil's biggest cities are beginning to sign up for free English classes ahead of this year's Confederations Cup and the 2014 World Cup. And cultural anthropologist Ben Penglase joins Grillot for a conversation about police violence and inequality in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas.

In the wake of the Congressional “fiscal cliff” vote, Suzette Grillot, Joshua Landis and Rebecca Cruise talk about tax policies in other countries, and how Syrian refugees are straining the resources of its neighbors. Turkish journalist and political commentator Mustafa Akyol joins Cruise and Landis for a conversation about how Turkey’s secular democracy was influenced by classical Western liberal ideas.

Former host Zach Messitte joins Suzette Grillot, Joshua Landis, and Rebecca Cruise to revisit their thoughts on what would make international news in 2012, and predict the next big global stories for 2013. The panel also looks ahead two decades, in light of a recent report forecasting global trends in 2030.

Suzette Grillot, Joshua Landis and Rebecca Cruise revisit violence across the globe after Sandy Hook. A report out Tuesday night details inadequate security at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya that led to the death of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens. Oklahoma City community leaders Mohammad and Jalal Farzaneh describe their experiences as Iranians arriving in America shortly before the 1979 revolution and hostage crisis.

Joshua Landis updates Suzette Grillot and Rebecca Cruise on the latest in Syria, after the U.S. acknowledged the Syrian Opposition Coalition as the legitimate representative of the country. And Syracuse University Social Geographer Farhana Sultana joins the program for a conversation on water rights, international governance, and social struggles in the developing world.

After a night of deadly violence between crowds of his supporters and opponents, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi is inviting the opposition to what he calls a "comprehensive" dialogue starting Saturday at his presidential palace. Morsi's speech came a night after thousands of his supporters and foes fought in the streets near his palace, leaving at least six dead and nearly 700 injured. Suzette Grillot, a global security expert and the dean of the University of Oklahoma's College of International Studies, said Morsi's opponents argue he is trying to eliminate any kind of oversight for the presidential position. "These protesters are not unified, they're actually serving different purposes," Grillot said. "But they're all targeting the president in terms of wanting him to go back to a legitimate kind of presidential power." Across the continent, Washington is backing a lead role for Algeria in promoting dialogue between the government of Mali and the rebels in Mali's north. West African nations announced plans to help Mali reconquer the area through a military operation, and comparative political scientist Rebecca Cruise said the Pentagon recently declared al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) is the strongest and most well-funded branch of the Islamist militant organization. "The United States supports intervention and the involvement of the West African states," Cruise said. "But they have yet to give any money as they're concerned about the actual implementation of the plan." In the interview segment of the program, Grillot talks with Ning Wang, a political scientist at Arizona State University. His latest book How China Became Capitalist traces China's 30 year-transformation from a closed agrarian, socialist economy to a powerful force on the world stage. "A richer, stronger China is going to be great for everyone," Wang said. "Just like a great, stronger America is great for everyone else." Much of Wang's work with 101-year-old Nobel Prize-winning economist Ronald Coase focuses on the importance of economic reforms in the 1980s led Deng Xiaoping. Wang argues a series of grassroots "marginal revolutions" were just as important. "The Chinese government quickly recognized the contribution, and they changed their views of socialism," Wang said. Wang also says China's economic growth could be impaired by the leadership's desire for stronger control over the political system.

On Thursday, the United Nations voted overwhelmingly to recognize a Palestinian state. The resolution upgrading the Palestinians' status to a nonmember observer state at the United Nations was approved by a more than two-thirds majority of the 193-member world body. The vote was 138-9, with 41 abstaining. Both the United States and Israel voted against the recognition. Comparative politics expert Rebecca Cruise said previous attempts by the Palestinians to receive official statehood status a member of the U.N. were blocked by the Security Council, specifically the United States. "The state word is incredibly important here," Cruise said. "So, having the word 'state' in that definition of an ‘observer state’ is symbolic. No, they're not a member of the U.N. No, they're not a state, per se, but it is significant." Suzette Grillot, the interim dean of the University of Oklahoma's College of International Studies, says some analysts believe this move by the Palestinians to come into statehood through a so-called "back door" method. "Israel's argument has been there's no such thing as a Palestinian nation, or a Palestinian," said Joshua Landis, the Director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma. "That's the argument the Palestinians are trying to overturn. And that's where getting this written into international law gives them purchase then, to engage [in] what Israelis have called 'lawfare' - a legal form of warfare to try to get a hunk of Palestine for their national home." Anger against Egypt's Islamist president was once again on display in the streets of Cairo this week, where huge crowds have been denouncing a draft constitution approved overnight by allies of President Mohammed Morsi. Fatema Shokr is a visiting lecture in OU’s Arabic Flagship Program, and participated in Egypt’s Arab Spring revolution in 2011 from her home in Alexandria. “I believe we can reach democracy,” Shokr said. “But if we feel disappointed and start to decide no, it's not going to work. We're not going to see democracy there; I think we will lose our revolution.” In addition to protesting on the streets, Shokr’s role in the revolution involved sharing information through various social media sites. “Facebook in Egypt, I believe, is very different than Facebook here, or any other place,” Shokr said. “Facebook has been, and still is, a main way of communication, and describing or giving your opinion about politics, and religion, and what's happening. “ Although she spent this semester in Norman, Shokr remains engaged and informed about events taking place in her home country.

As hostilities between Israelis and Palestinians appear to be winding down in Gaza, Suzette Grillot and Rebecca Cruise talk about missile defense. Grillot, a global security expert, says the so-called "Iron Dome" missile defense system has about a 90 percent effectiveness rate shooting down incoming rockets from Gaza.

After Tuesday's election, President Obama still faces significant foreign policy challenges in his second term. Iran continues to enrich uranium, Afghanistan could unravel as the 2014 withdrawal deadline draws near, and Syria's civil war shows no sign of letting up. Joshua Landis, the Director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, says many people in the Middle East are disappointed President Obama has not taken a stronger show of leadership. But he says just as many are relieved that he is withdrawing from the Middle East. "In many ways, what he's done is he's gotten us out of the business of occupation," Landis said. "Obama has stressed policing. And that means drone warfare from a distance, and getting the troops out, minimizing the cost." Rebecca Cruise, a global security and comparative politics expert who's spent time in the Balkans and Eastern Europe, says while many Europeans are enthusiastic about President Obama's second term, the response is more muted than 2008. "The Central European Bank just came out and said they're going to be facing economic woes well into the future," Cruise said. "Unemployment rates are going to be low, and they don't necessarily see Obama as being helpful in that regard." Host Suzette Grillot said global markets remained flat in the immediate aftermath of the effect, so there's no real economic hope here attached to a second Obama term. Cruise said this isn't unusual. "Those investors that participate in the stock market suggested they were more in line, or looking for a Romney victory, so this is a reaction to that," Cruise said. "This news about the European future also came out the same day, so that's playing into that as well." Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta have both indicated they plan to step down before the president's second term begins, and the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee could be a logical pick to replace Clinton. "John Kerry campaigned very hard for Obama, so Obama owes him," Landis said. "He's been into foreign policy, and the other is the U.S. Ambassador to U.N." Grillot argued that Susan Rice may be a controversial choice, given the administration's handling of the Sept. 11 attack on a U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Rebecca Cruise said several names have been floated to succeed Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, including Michele Flournoy, a top Pentagon policy official, and the Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter. "But what we know about Obama, Hillary [Clinton] was kind of an odd choice, out of left field, so all this speculation," Cruise said. "He could pick someone else entirely." Earlier this month, Grillot spoke with Former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Kurt Volker. He’s now the Executive Director of the McCain Institute for International Leadership at Arizona State University. He described the evolving role of NATO in the two decades since the end of the Cold War. Volker said that even though NATO agreed on a new strategic concept in 2010, the document was too broad, outlining crisis management and collective defense, as well as dealing with old and new security threats. “It didn’t really make any choices,” Volker said. “Meanwhile, no one’s funding it, or putting the troops in, and putting the commitment in, and I think NATO is again at a stage where it’s really going to think through where [it goes].” Volker also said NATO should shift its 21st century focus to China, calling the country a “potential threat,” but not necessarily a threat at the present. “They’ve got resources and they’re putting it into the military, and they have a sense of national strength, and they have territorial claims in the neighborhood that are against other countries,” Volker said. “At the same time, when I look at Russia, and I look at China, I see a huge difference. I have a lot of hope for

As the East Coast of the United States recovers from Hurricane Sandy, Suzette Grillot and Rebecca Cruise talk about the international effects of the storm.

Rebecca Cruise hosts this week while Suzette Grillot joins the roundtable from France to talk about Monday's final presidential debate that focused on foreign policy.

Doctors in London say a teenage Pakistani girl who was shot in the head by the Taliban is “doing very well.” In photos released today by the British hospital where she’s being treated, Malala Yousufzai appears with her eyes open and alert. The shooting was an effort by the Taliban to silence the girl, who has spoken out for the right of girls to be educated. Joshua Landis, the Director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, said the education of women in the Middle East represents a larger struggle between Westernization, and what Taliban commander Maulana Fazlullah calls authentic Islamic patriarchal values. “Pakistanis are trying to say, ‘This is a human value, this has nothing to do with America,’” Landis said. “But of course, the Taliban is trying to say, ‘This is America, and this value of liberating women is a Western intrusion into our traditional society.’” In January, Oprah Winfrey’s Leadership Academy in Johannesburg, South Africa graduated its first class of underprivileged girls since opening in 2007, and global security and comparative politics expert Rebecca Cruise said beyond liberation and human rights, education represents a development issue. “So if we educate girls, that gives them the ability to earn more money,” Cruise said. “They then invest that money in their families and their communities.” Author Alex Strick van Linschoten first traveled to Afghanistan as a tourist in 2004, and since then, he’s co-founded an online research and media-monitoring group to give a more prominent voice to local Afghan media, and worked as a freelance journalist in Kandahar, Syria, Lebanon and Somalia. His most recent book, Poetry of the Taliban, collects more than 200 works by poets who are part of the Islamic fundamentalist movement. “Well, it is their voice, and it happens to be a voice which I think is important that we listen to in many ways,” Strick van Linschoten said. Strick van Linschoten said the attention was drawn to only those poems that were anti-Western, and not the entire publication. He also described his research that focused on the differences between al-Qaeda and the Taliban. “In many ways, we’ve been poorly-served by both our media organizations, and politicians,” Strick van Linschoten said. “Both of whom have been happy to lazily perpetuate this notion that all of these groups are the same, and they’re all Islamists fighting against us in different ways."

On Sunday, voters in Venezuela reelected Hugo Chavez to a fourth term as the president of the oil-rich South American country. Joshua Landis, the Director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, said there's a lot of questions about voter intimidation. "There's new mechanics [to the polling process]. It's a touch screen." Landis said. "The worry is, if you vote against the president, there could be repercussions. So I think people were intimidated. We have a lot of anecdotal evidence that people said, 'I'm not going to vote against the guy. I want my job.'" Political scientist and global security expert Rebecca Cruise said Chavez's 2011 colon cancer diagnosis raises questions about whether or not Chavez would even live to the end of his six-year term in 2019. "It's pretty amazing to me that we have an election with a man that has cancer," Cruise said. "It's hard to think about in this country, a presidential candidate, let alone a president, having an illness and that no being an issue in the election." The United Nations estimates thousands of innocent people die each year due to land mines - some that have been in the ground for decades. A new photography exhibit at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center artistically represents the suffereing, and the hope of the diplomatic and humanitarian efforts to end the epidemic. Kevin Cahill donated to the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art the fifty photographs that make up Silent Witnesses. Cahill is the Senior Medical Consultant to the UN Health Service, and also serves as a Clinical Professor of Tropical Medicine at New York University. "I started taking care of photographers, and I have an inordinate number of photographers as patients," Cahill said. "I set up a project where I said we would give each photographer two prostheses, five days, and that they would be asked, "What do you as artists see when I tell you there 100 million mines in the earth, and mostly women and children blowing up?" And that's how the exhibit began." Cahill has spent more than 50 years working in refugee camps in roughly 65 countries. "I found myself as the only physician in this vast area," Cahill said. "At first, I tried to act like a physician, and you realized you couldn't act like a physician. There were certain things that necessitated you working with the local, what you'd call a witch doctor, or an indigenous healer, because he had a lock on the community." The exhibit Silent Witnesses is on display on the second floor of the Robert M. Bird Health Sciences Library in Oklahoma City through January 2, 2013.

On Wednesday, a cross-border shelling by Syria's military killed five women and children in Turkey, who retaliated with artillery strikes that went deep into Syria. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday that his country does not want war with Syria but that it is determined to protect its borders and people. Erdogan was speaking at a news conference held hours after Turkey's Parliament approved a bill authorizing military operations against Syria. "Turkey has been very measured in their response," said panelist Joshua Landis, the Director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma. "Turkey does not want to get into a war in Syria. Turkey has been organizing the opposition, and allowing the Syrian insurgency to be based out of Turkey." Iranian riot police have been deployed at key intersections in Tehran after tensions flared over the nation's plunging currency in the most widespread display of anger linked to the country's sanctions-hit economy. "In some ways, I think this is the result of the sanctions," said Rebecca Cruise, an expert on international politics and global security. "That, and the fact that there's been a real drawback on the sale of foreign oil. Unfortunately, sanctions do not look that pretty. This is turning into what could potentially be a violent situation." Still, the show of force by police reflects the authorities' concerns in the wake of sporadic protests from the plummeting currency, which has sharply driven up prices. Joseph Kony received a surge of attention in March when a film spread virally across social media that documents the charity Invisible Children's efforts to stop the leader of a Northern Uganda guerrilla group. Sister Rosemary Nyirumbe started a school in 2002 to help poor young girls and women who were affected by the decades-long Ugandan civil war. "For the last 20 years or more, women and children have suffered greatly from the rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army," said Sister Rosemary. "We’re trying to rehabilitate them, giving them different activities which can help then to be integrated again in society one day, and be accepted as useful members of the society in Uganda." Many of these women became mothers after they were abudcted and raped by rebels in Kony's LRA. "Sometimes their own family members don’t accept them, and I found out that these girls are just normal women," said Sister Rosemary. "But yet, culture takes them and puts them aside, because in our culture, a girl who gets pregnant or has children out of the normal marriage system, is always considered put aside, and cannot marry again. For these girls, they are doubly disadvantaged because they got these children from rebel commanders, and they got these children from someone they might not know, or someone who’s been killed."

In the wake of last week's violence in the Middle East, Suzette Grillot talks with Joshua Landis and Rebecca Cruise about perceptions of Islam at home and abroad.