Podcast appearances and mentions of vanda felbab brown

Haiti is collapsing. Gangs now control most of Port-au-Prince, and the international response is failing. Can anything stop the takeover? In this gripping episode of The Stimpack Podcast, Jeff Frazier sits down with Dr. Vanda Felbab-Brown, a top expert in insurgency and organized crime from the Brookings Institution, to break down the current crisis in Haiti. Together, they explore how armed gangs like Viva Ensemble have outmaneuvered the Haitian government and the internationally funded MSSM force—and why so many conventional strategies, like high-value targeting, are likely to fail. They also discuss how Haiti's elite once puppeteered the gangs, and how that dynamic has now reversed, leading to bold attacks in upscale neighborhoods and fears of a full-scale collapse. This is a must-listen if you want to understand the power struggle, the humanitarian cost, and what could happen next if the world continues to look away.

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Amid President-elect Donald Trump's recent pledge to impose a 25% tariff on Mexican products, if Mexico does not curb the flow of fentanyl, this episode dives deep into the complexities of U.S.-Mexico relations and the fight against organized crime. Join host Nelly Hernandez Valdez and policy expert Dr. Vanda Felbab-Brown as they explore: Fentanyl and the Cartels: How Mexican criminal groups have become key players in the U.S. fentanyl epidemic and their strategies for controlling local economies and territories. China's Role: The connection between Chinese criminal groups and Mexico's illegal economies and its implications for global security. Bi-national Cooperation: Why has the Bicentennial Framework between the Biden and Lopez Obrador administrations seen limited progress, and what can we expect under President Claudia Sheinbaum and President-elect Donald Trump as they inherit this complex relationship. Weapons Trafficking: The U.S. gun industry's impact on cartel firepower and whether reforming firearm policies could disrupt organized crime. Policy Proposals: The effectiveness of proposed measures, such as designating cartels as foreign terrorist organizations or employing military force, and what policymakers can do to achieve real results. Vanda Felbab-Brown is a senior fellow in the Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings. She is the director of the Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors and of the Brookings series "The Fentanyl Crisis in North America and the Global Reach of Synthetic Opioids. She is also the co-director of the Africa Security Initiative. Previously, she was the co-director of the Brookings projects “The Opioid Crisis in America: Domestic and International Dimension," “Improving Global Drug Policy: Comparative Perspectives Beyond UNGASS 2016,” and “Reconstituting Local Orders.” Dr. Felbab-Brown is an expert on international and internal conflicts and nontraditional security threats, including insurgency, terrorism, organized crime, urban violence, and illicit economies. Her fieldwork and research have covered, among others, Afghanistan, South Asia, Burma, Indonesia, the Andean region, Mexico, Iraq and other parts of the Middle East, and various parts of Africa. She was a senior advisor to the congressionally-mandated Afghanistan Peace Process Study Group. A frequent commentator in international and U.S. media, Dr. Felbab-Brown regularly provides testimonies to the U.S. Congress. She also hosts the podcast show “The Killing Drugs: Synthetic Opioids Around the World. ”

On today's episode, Andy sits down with geopolitical expert and author, Vanda Felbab-Brown to discuss the on-going fight against the fentanyl crisis in the U.S. Vanda is an expert in international conflict and non-traditional security threats, with a focus on insurgency, organized crime, and illicit economies. She serves as a senior fellow in the Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology within the Foreign Policy program at Brookings. She is also the director of the Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors and co-director of the Africa Security Initiative, as well as the Brookings series on opioids, The Opioid Crisis in America: Domestic and International Dimensions. As an author, her books include The Extinction Market: Wildlife Trafficking and How to Counter It, Narco Noir: Mexico's Cartels, Cops, and Corruption, and Militants, Criminals, and Warlords: The Challenge of Local Governance in an Age of Disorder. In addition, she hosts The Killing Drugs Podcast. Change Agents is an IRONCLAD Original. Sponsors:  SPONSORS: Firecracker Farm Use code IRONCLAD to get 15% off your first order at https://firecracker.farm/ Allegiance Gold Go to https://ProtectWithAndy.com to get exclusive lowest pricing on the market for select gold bars or call (844) 790-9191 to talk to an account representative. MTNTOUGH Go to ⁠https://mtntough.com⁠ and enter code CHANGEAGENTS to receive 40% OFF - a savings of about $100 off your MTNTOUGH+ annual subscription. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Mariana speaks with Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow in the Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings. She is the director of the Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors. She is also the co-director of the Brookings series on opioids: “The Opioid Crisis in America: Domestic and International Dimensions.  They discuss the unprecedented epidemic caused by the synthetic drug revolution and the role that Mexican cartels have played in driving this crisis, bankrolled by Chinese money laundering organizations. They also discuss what concrete actions the Mexican government should take to reduce the flow of narcotics and migrants across the border, and dive into how the Mexican cartels, aided by misguided policies, corruption, and weak judicial institutions, now control large swaths of Mexico's territory. Finally, they speak about the importance of U.S. and Mexican cooperation to regain the Mexican territory from organized crime. 

Journalist T.J. English spoke about the rise and fall of "Los Muchachos," one of the most successful cocaine empires in U.S. history. He was interviewed by author and Brookings Institution senior fellow Vanda Felbab-Brown.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Journalist T.J. English spoke about the rise and fall of "Los Muchachos," one of the most successful cocaine empires in U.S. history. He was interviewed by author and Brookings Institution senior fellow Vanda Felbab-Brown.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amid President-elect Donald Trump's recent pledge to impose a 25% tariff on Mexican products, if Mexico does not curb the flow of fentanyl, this episode dives deep into the complexities of U.S.-Mexico relations and the fight against organized crime. Join host Nelly Hernandez Valdez and policy expert Dr. Vanda Felbab-Brown as they explore: Fentanyl and the Cartels: How Mexican criminal groups have become key players in the U.S. fentanyl epidemic and their strategies for controlling local economies and territories. China's Role: The connection between Chinese criminal groups and Mexico's illegal economies and its implications for global security. Bi-national Cooperation: Why has the Bicentennial Framework between the Biden and Lopez Obrador administrations seen limited progress, and what can we expect under President Claudia Sheinbaum and President-elect Donald Trump as they inherit this complex relationship. Weapons Trafficking: The U.S. gun industry's impact on cartel firepower and whether reforming firearm policies could disrupt organized crime. Policy Proposals: The effectiveness of proposed measures, such as designating cartels as foreign terrorist organizations or employing military force, and what policymakers can do to achieve real results. Dr. Vanda Felbab-Brown is a senior fellow in the Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings. She is the director of the Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors and of the Brookings series "The Fentanyl Crisis in North America and the Global Reach of Synthetic Opioids. She is also the co-director of the Africa Security Initiative. Previously, she was the co-director of the Brookings projects “The Opioid Crisis in America: Domestic and International Dimension," “Improving Global Drug Policy: Comparative Perspectives Beyond UNGASS 2016,” and “Reconstituting Local Orders.” Dr. Felbab-Brown is an expert on international and internal conflicts and nontraditional security threats, including insurgency, terrorism, organized crime, urban violence, and illicit economies. Her fieldwork and research have covered, among others, Afghanistan, South Asia, Burma, Indonesia, the Andean region, Mexico, Iraq and other parts of the Middle East, and various parts of Africa. She was a senior advisor to the congressionally-mandated Afghanistan Peace Process Study Group. A frequent commentator in international and U.S. media, Dr. Felbab-Brown regularly provides testimonies to the U.S. Congress. She also hosts the podcast show “The Killing Drugs: Synthetic Opioids Around the World. ”

Producer's note: This episode was recorded prior to Presidential elections. On today's episode, Vince is joined by Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and expert on national security, organized crime, and illicit economies. She is the author of several books, including Narco Noir: Mexico's Cartels, Cops, and Corruption and Shooting Up: Counterinsurgency and the War on Drugs. In their conversation, Vince and Vanda discuss China's role in the production and export of fentanyl precursor chemicals, the complexities of its regulatory policies, and whether fentanyl could be used as a form of asymmetrical warfare against the United States. Interested in more of Vanda's Work: The Sinaloa cartel arrests: Stunning tactical success, strategic blunder? https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-sinaloa-cartel-arrests-stunning-tactical-success-strategic-blunder/ Mexico, López Obrador, and Sheinbaum's presidential victory https://www.brookings.edu/articles/mexico-lopez-obrador-and-sheinbaums-presidential-victory/ The limits of renewed US-China counternarcotics cooperation (testimony) https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-limits-of-renewed-us-china-counternarcotics-cooperation/   How Mexico's Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación rules https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-mexicos-cartel-jalisco-nueva-generacion-rules/ How the Sinaloa Cartel rules https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-the-sinaloa-cartel-rules/ Borderland is an IRONCLAD Original. Sentinel Foundation: To find out more about their efforts to help hurricane victims, and their anti-child exploitation efforts, and see how you can help, check out at foundationsentinel.org Sponsors: MTNTOUGH FITNESS Go to: https://mtntough.com/ and download the MTNTOUGH app today, and use code “BORDERLAND” To get a 14-day free trial and one month free! That's six weeks of MTNTOUGH at no cost Born Primitive: Shop Born Primitive Tactical at BornPrimitive.com: LINK: https://bornprimitivetactical.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's episode, Vanda Felbab-Brown, Director of the Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors, Co-Director of the Africa Security Initiative, and Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution joins Lawfare Managing Editor Tyler McBrien to help make sense of the recent skirmishes in northern Mali between the junta, separatist groups, Islamists, and Russian mercenaries. They discuss what the recent ambush in Mali portends for Russian and Russian-aligned mercenaries' activities in Africa and look back at how Moscow has restructured and reframed the Wagner Group in the year since the death of its former head, Yevgeny Prigozhin.To receive ad-free podcasts, become a Lawfare Material Supporter at www.patreon.com/lawfare. You can also support Lawfare by making a one-time donation at https://givebutter.com/c/trumptrials.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why does the militarily weaker side lose many battles but often win the war? In the 21st Century the David-vs-Goliath threat of asymmetric warfare – where small non-state militias and terror groups defeat vastly better armed nation states in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere – is back. Now armed groups including Yemen's Houthi, Hamas and Islamic State are growing and re-energised by a vast new funding sources: the global drugs trade, and even crypto. Gavin Esler speaks to Dr David Ucko – professor at the College of International Security Affairs, National Defense University – and counterinsurgency and organised crime expert Vanda Felbab-Brown to find out why asymmetric warfare has returned, who's funding it… and whether we can ever defeat it. • “We have put a lot of stock in fences and walls which may soon prove inadequate. What if you can fly a drone from North Africa with pinpoint accuracy into a civilian airport?” – Dr David Ucko • “A global revolution in synthetic drugs is sweeping the world… and everywhere it's associated with intensified violence.” – Vanda Felbab-Brown • “If we ignore this, then you get the Wagner Group and other players trying to do their thing, as we see in the Sahel and across Africa.” – Dr David Ucko Support This Is Not A Drill on Patreon to get early episodes, merchandise and more. Written and presented by Gavin Esler. Produced by Robin Leeburn. Original theme music by Paul Hartnoll – https://www.orbitalofficial.com. Executive Producer Martin Bojtos. Group Editor Andrew Harrison. This Is Not A Drill is a Podmasters production. *The views of Dr David Ucko belong to the contributor and do not represent the views of the Department of Defense or its components or the USF administration or its component. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Parts of Haiti are under a state of emergency following an escalation in violence. Gangs have taken control of most of the capital, and they want Prime Minister Ariel Henry out. So, what's behind this unrest? And what will it take to restore long-lasting stability to the country? In this episode: Francois Guillaume, Haitian Ambassador to Qatar. Erwan de Cherisey, Principal, Janes Defence Intelligence Company. Vanda Felbab-Brown, Director of Initiative on Non-state Armed Actors, Brookings Institution. Ralph Emmanuel Francois, Haitian Social Entrepreneur and Activist. Host: Jonah Hull Connect with us:@AJEPodcasts on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Threads and YouTube

China and the U.S. have agreed on a deal to crack down on the manufacture and export of fentanyl from China, in the hopes of curbing overdose deaths in North America. Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, explains what it might mean for the toxic drug crisis and U.S.-China relations. 

Thousands of migrants are heading north through Mexico toward the U.S. border. The number of Border Patrol encounters with migrants and asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border continues to be high. And for two years in a row, the number of illegal crossings has exceeded 2 million. Meanwhile, border security remains a hot political issue as Republicans in Congress and on the campaign trail accuse President Biden of having an “open border policy.” Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow in  Foreign Policy at Brookings offers insight about what's happening on the border. Show notes and transcript. Follow The Current and all Brookings podcasts on Apple or Google podcasts, or on Spotify. Send feedback email to podcasts@brookings.edu.

The Biden administration has made recent moves against China-based firms and executives blamed for supplying chemicals used to make fentanyl, a synthetic opioid up to 50 times stronger than heroin. It's part of the U.S. government's effort to disrupt the global illegal drug trade and stem the opioid epidemic. Brookings Institution senior fellow Vanda Felbab-Brown joins Ali Rogin to discuss. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

The Biden administration has made recent moves against China-based firms and executives blamed for supplying chemicals used to make fentanyl, a synthetic opioid up to 50 times stronger than heroin. It's part of the U.S. government's effort to disrupt the global illegal drug trade and stem the opioid epidemic. Brookings Institution senior fellow Vanda Felbab-Brown joins Ali Rogin to discuss. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

The Biden administration has made recent moves against China-based firms and executives blamed for supplying chemicals used to make fentanyl, a synthetic opioid up to 50 times stronger than heroin. It's part of the U.S. government's effort to disrupt the global illegal drug trade and stem the opioid epidemic. Brookings Institution senior fellow Vanda Felbab-Brown joins Ali Rogin to discuss. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

With 110,000 drug overdose deaths last year, including 70 percent from synthetic opioids, we examine how international factors have played a crucial role in the US drug epidemic. Vanda Felbab-Brown of Brookings Institution and Regina LaBelle of Georgetown University offer insights on the government's response, effective policy solutions, and the path to recovery.     Reading List:  Why America is Struggling to Stop the Fentanyl Epidemic, Vanda Felbab-Brown, Foreign Affairs, May 15, 2023  3 Actionable Bipartisan Solutions to Address the Overdose Crisis, Regina LaBelle, The Hill, February 02, 2023 

The Republicans want to send the military to... Mexico? It was quite a prominent topic of the first presidential debate of the GOP candidates. So what is behind this rhetoric? Is Mexico a functioning state taking into account the strong presence of drug cartels that are shipping highly lethal fentanyl to the US? I talked to Vanda Felbab-Brown, a Director of the Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors and Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. She visited Mexico in June and July, so I also asked her how dangerous it is to conduct the field research there. Listen to our conversation. And if you enjoy what I do, please support me on Ko-fi! Thank you. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://ko-fi.com/amatisak --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/andrej-matisak/message

For many, the fiery demise of Yevgeny Prigozhin was foretold two months ago after his failed mutiny against Russian President Vladimir Putin. But Prigozhin and his mercenary Wagner Group were an important expeditionary force for the Kremlin in Africa. Nick Schifrin discussed what's next for Wagner operations there with Vanda Felbab-Brown of the Brookings Institution. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

For many, the fiery demise of Yevgeny Prigozhin was foretold two months ago after his failed mutiny against Russian President Vladimir Putin. But Prigozhin and his mercenary Wagner Group were an important expeditionary force for the Kremlin in Africa. Nick Schifrin discussed what's next for Wagner operations there with Vanda Felbab-Brown of the Brookings Institution. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

In this episode of the ChinaPower Podcast, we are joined by Dr. Vanda Felbab-Brown to discuss China's role in the fentanyl epidemic. Dr. Felbab-Brown explains that the fentanyl crisis is not just confined to the U.S. but has spread throughout North America as well as the rest of the globe. She unpacks the Chinese government's approach to this issue and the conflicts it faces with trafficking networks. Moving forward, Dr. Felbab-Brown underscores the opportunity for the United States to engage with other countries to tackle this problem collaboratively.  Dr. Vanda Felbab-Brown is a senior fellow in the Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution. She is the director of the Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors and acted as a senior advisor to the congressionally-mandated Afghanistan Peace Process Study Group. Dr. Felbab-Brown is an expert on international and internal conflicts and nontraditional security threats, including insurgency, organized crime, urban violence, and illicit economies.  

 Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow in the Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution, sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss why the United States is struggling to stop the flood of fentanyl entering the country.    Mentioned on the Podcast   Vanda Felbab-Brown, “Why America Is Struggling to Stop the Fentanyl Epidemic,” Foreign Affairs   For an episode transcript and show notes, visit us at: https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/fentanyl-epidemic-vanda-felbab-brown 

Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid which is up to 50 times more powerful than heroin, is now the main driver of drug overdose deaths in America. The US Drug Enforcement Administration says 67% of the 107,375 US deaths from drug overdoses or poisonings in 2021 were linked to fentanyl or similar opioids. US authorities blame Mexican drug gangs for supplying fentanyl to users across the US. Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador says his country has proof that illegal shipments of the powerful opioid drug fentanyl are arriving from China; while China's foreign ministry has denied that there is illegal trafficking of fentanyl between China and Mexico. The US government is deploying law enforcement to crack down on fentanyl dealers and also taking steps to prevent and treat substance use and the harms it produces. But why is it still struggling to contain the fentanyl epidemic? Would stronger US cooperation with Chinese and Mexican authorities make a difference? What should President Joe Biden's administration do going forward to tackle the fentanyl crisis? Shaun Ley is joined by: Regina LaBelle, who served as acting director in the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) in the White House when Joe Biden became president in 2021. She now directs the Addiction and Public Policy Initiative at the O'Neill Institute at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington DC. Vanda Felbab-Brown, Director of the Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors and a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington. Uttam Dhillon served during Donald Trump's presidency as acting head of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, the DEA, from 2018 to 2020. He now works for law firm Michael Best and Friedrich and its consultancy, which provides advice on drug policy to clients including healthcare companies. Uttam is on the board or advises several companies involved in tackling the opioid crisis. Also featuring: Dr Rahul Gupta, President Joe Biden's 'Drug Czar' as Director for the US Office of National Drug Control Policy Gustavo Mohar, head of Mexico´s national security intelligence agency from 2007 to 2011 Belgian Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne FILE PHOTO: Plastic bags of Fentanyl are displayed on a table at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection area at the International Mail Facility at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, U.S. November 29, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Lott/File Photo Produced by Ellen Otzen and Imogen Wallace

In today's episode host Ruxandra Guidi looks at the conditions in the Upper Gulf of California that have allowed Mexican cartels to embed themselves into nearly all aspects of the fishing industry. She investigates the weak response from the Mexican government in rooting out the cartels, and tries to learn what, if anything, can be done about all this.  This episode features conversations with Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and Carlos Tirado, a local fishers leader who runs a large artisanal shrimp fishing operation and is an advocate for sustainable fishing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

En el episodio de hoy, la periodista Ruxandra Guidi analiza las condiciones que han permitido que los cárteles mexicanos se involucren en casi todos los aspectos de la industria pesquera en el Alto Golfo de California. Hablaremos sobre la débil respuesta del gobierno mexicano para erradicar los cárteles y escucharemos qué se puede hacer al respecto, si es que se puede hacer algo. Este episodio incluye conversaciones con Vanda Felbab-Brown de la Brookings Institution y Carlos Tirado, un líder pesquero que dirige una gran operación de pesca artesanal de camarones y es defensor de la pesca sostenible. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Mariana speaks with Vanda Felbab-Brown, a Brookings scholar of crime, conflict, and non-traditional security threats, and Guillermo Valdes, former head of Mexico's Center for Investigation and National Security, CISEN. They discuss the evolution of Mexico's cartels, the failure of the Mexican government to curtail their growth, and how they have diversified into other illegal and legal businesses. They also speak about how the lack of cooperation between the U.S. and Mexico—and the U.S. and China—is making it impossible to dismantle the Fentanyl supply chains and how Chinese and Mexican drug and wildlife trafficking activities are colliding, threatening various species and Mexico's biodiversity. 

In this episode of the Modern Mexico Podcast, host Nathaniel Parish Flannery speaks to Brookings Institution senior fellow Vanda Felbab-Brown about security issues in Mexico and why President Lopez Obrador is failing to meaningfully address the country's historically high murder rate. Mexico has soldiers in the streets but no meaningful law enforcement strategy for addressing violent crime. “There is no law enforcement strategy other than sending forces to stand in the streets and more or less do nothing. That's really disastrous, the violence has become brazen. The level of homicides is very intense, similar to what a country in an intense war experiences," Felbab-Brown explains.

The Taliban took over Kabul one year ago, on August 15th. It had a huge geopolitical significance but I have to admit there is another reason why it's so easy for me to remember it. The fact is that August 15th is my birthday. About what happened in Afghanistan in one year, I talked to Vanda Felbab-Brown. She is a Senior Fellow in the Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings Institution and also the Director of the Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors. We recorded our conversation one day after it was announced that the leader of Al-Qaeda Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed in Kabul by an American strike. So we started with al-Zawahiri, and we moved to the debate about the troops' withdrawal and about how the Taliban is running the country. Listen to our conversation. And if enjoy what I do, please support me on Ko-fi! Thank you. https://ko-fi.com/amatisak --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/andrej-matisak/message

Lo que nos faltaba. Un informe de Vanda Felbab-Brown, quien ha publicado su última investigación para el Instituto Brookings, nos habla del Tráfico ilegal de especies en México ligado a China.En ese informe se menciona de la influencia y el poder que han adquirido en la última década el Cártel de Sinaloa y el Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación en el tráfico de especies y de madera a traficantes chinos, a cambio de precursores químicos para fabricar fentanilo y otros opioides sintéticos.Y todo esto en las narices de las autoridades mexicanas.

In the national security world, including on Lawfare, a lot of attention gets paid to China's tech sector and other parts of its economy. Comparatively less attention is paid to China's illicit economies, illegal trade involving China and other countries around the world. But China has been involved in numerous acts of transnational criminal activity with occasionally lax enforcement, and there's a new series of Brookings papers and blog posts about this very subject. To talk it through. Jacob Schulz sat down with Vanda Felbab-Brown, the director of the Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors and a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings, and Madiha Afzal, a fellow in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings. They talked through the project and papers that each of them have written on the subject, including one on illegal wildlife trafficking, one on narcotic precursor trafficking and one on human trafficking.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Vanda Felbab-Brown, senior fellow in Foreign Policy and director of the Initiative on Nonstate Actors at Brookings, joins David Dollar to talk about her research on illicit economies—including drug trafficking (fentanyl, meth, precursors) and wildlife trafficking—in China, Mexico, and elsewhere. Show notes and transcript: https://brook.gs/3JE9PxF  Dollar & Sense is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Send feedback to podcasts@brookings.edu, and follow us on Twitter at @policypodcasts.    

Bryce Klehm sat down with Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Lawfare senior editor Scott R. Anderson, to discuss the current situation in Afghanistan. They covered a range of issues, including the Taliban government's formation since the U.S. withdrawal, the current humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and the international community's response.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this edition of Straight Talk Africa, host Haydé Adams discusses the possible shift in the terrorism hotspots on the African continent. Her guests include Vanda Felbab-Brown, co-director of the Africa Security Initiative at Brookings Institute, Mutaru Mumuni Muqthar, executive director at West Africa Centre for Counter-Extremism, Yetunde A. Odugbesan-Omede, professor of Global Affairs and Political Science at Farmingdale College and Anne Speckhard, professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University.

On this edition of Straight Talk Africa, host Haydé Adams discusses the possible shift in the terrorism hotspots on the African continent. Her guests include Vanda Felbab-Brown, co-director of the Africa Security Initiative at Brookings Institute, Mutaru Mumuni Muqthar, executive director at West Africa Centre for Counter-Extremism, Yetunde A. Odugbesan-Omede, professor of Global Affairs and Political Science at Farmingdale College and Anne Speckhard, professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University.

On this edition of Straight Talk Africa, host Haydé Adams discusses the possible shift in the terrorism hotspots on the African continent. Her guests include Vanda Felbab-Brown, co-director of the Africa Security Initiative at Brookings Institute, Mutaru Mumuni Muqthar, executive director at West Africa Centre for Counter-Extremism, Yetunde A. Odugbesan-Omede, professor of Global Affairs and Political Science at Farmingdale College and Anne Speckhard, professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University.

On this edition of Straight Talk Africa, host Haydé Adams discusses the possible shift in the terrorism hotspots on the African continent. Her guests include Vanda Felbab-Brown, co-director of the Africa Security Initiative at Brookings Institute, Mutaru Mumuni Muqthar, executive director at West Africa Centre for Counter-Extremism, Yetunde A. Odugbesan-Omede, professor of Global Affairs and Political Science at Farmingdale College and Anne Speckhard, professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University.

With the fall of President Ashraf Ghani's government and the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces, most of Afghanistan is now under the control of the Taliban. In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, we are joined by Dr. Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and the director of the Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors at Brookings, and by Scott R. Anderson, a visiting fellow in governance studies at Brookings, a senior editor and counsel for Lawfare, and a senior fellow with the National Security Law Program at Columbia Law School. Felbab-Brown and Anderson discuss the outlook for the Taliban as they seek to shift from insurgency to governance.  The discussion covers questions of formal legal recognition, as well as questions of legitimacy and capacity for governance. Our guests explain why exercising power as the government of Afghanistan is likely to be more challenging for the Taliban than defeating the previous government was. As Dr. Felbab-Brown observed, "it's much easier to be an insurgent than a governor."

To get an overview of the economic challenge now facing the one of the world's poorest countries and how the Taliban are going to tackle it, we speak to Vanda Felbab Brown, an expert on Afghanistan from the Brookings Institute. The BBC's Rahul Tandon explores an increase in underaged girls in India being married off, which is linked to the pandemic and school closures. And Kanye West's new album finally came out on Sunday after a number of delays - but the artist isn't happy about it. The BBC's Steve Holden tells us why.

The economy of Afghanistan is collapsing as remittances and foreign aid dry up. As the militant Taliban consolidate their control over the country, it's unclear whether they will be capable, or even interested, in propping up the economy to prevent further humanitarian crises. Today on Business Daily, we're looking at how the economics of life under the Taliban. Professor Jonathan Goodhand of SOAS University of London, explains how the Taliban managed to generate revenues over the years since the US invasion, from local taxation on commodities, as well as support from sympathetic parties outside the country. Ian Hannan, a British mining engineer, says the Taliban has also benefitted enormously from mining in recent years. Now, the big question is whether they will be able to manage the country's entire economy, and Vanda Felbab-Brown of the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C. thinks Afghanistan cannot survive without the aid it has relied on for decades. (Image: Taliban militants in Kabul on August 16th, 2021. Image credit: AFP via Getty Images)

Dr. Vanda Felbab-Brown is a senior fellow in the Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institute, and unlike most Americans, Dr. Vanda Felbab-Brown has been to Afghanistan. In this episode of Passing Judgment, Dr. Felbab-Brown talks with Jessica about the future of the war-torn country of Afghanistan. Can the Taliban govern a unified country ruled by warlords and tribalism? What will happen to the class of educated women that have flourished in the last twenty years? Where do the people of Afghanistan go from here?

We talk with Dr. Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow in the Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings. We talk about how the Taliban of today is different from the Taliban of the 1990s and what the resurrection of the Taliban means for people living in Afghanistan. This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

On this episode, in the wake of the Taliban's rapid takeover of Afghanistan, a discussion of the forces and issues that have shaped Afghanistan over the last two decades and will continue to do so with Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow in Foreign Policy and the Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology at Brookings,. Her insights on what has happened in Afghanistan help make sense of an incredibly complex situation and offer some ideas of what to expect moving forward. This conversation took place on Monday, August 16, just the day after Taliban forces entered Kabul. Also, Governance Studies Senior Fellow Molly Reynolds explains what's happening in Congress in the context of the dramatic and dynamic situation in Afghanistan, including attention to an increased effort to resettle refugees from there. Show notes and transcript:   Follow Brookings podcasts on Apple or Google podcasts, or on Spotify. Send feedback email to , and follow us and tweet us at  on Twitter. The Brookings Cafeteria is part of the .

How did it all go wrong? Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili, a leading scholar of Afghanistan, joins Damir and Shadi to dissect the Taliban's victory and discuss what it tells us about the failures of America's nation-building effort. Why did the Afghan government collapse so quickly? Have the technocrats and NGOs in the democracy promotion industry been completely discredited? And for the sake of the Afghan people, should we now help the Taliban succeed in governing the country? Things get heated. Murtazashvili is director of the Center for Governance and Markets and associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh and the author of Informal Order and the State in Afghanistan. She lived in Afghanistan for 3 years, conducting fieldwork in rural villages across the country, and previously worked at the US Agency for International Development and the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit.   Recommended reading: Jen Murtazashvili in the Washington Post "Afghanistan is not the Balkans," by Thomas Barfield (ResearchGate) Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History, by Thomas Barfield (Amazon) Nassim Taleb on the Taliban's refusal to deadlift "When Terrorists and Criminals Govern Better Than Governments," by Shadi Hamid, Vanda Felbab-Brown, and Harold Trinkunas (The Atlantic)

Taliban fighters in Afghanistan who strode into Kabul's presidential palace last weekend were not some ragtag militia.The insurgents are backed by huge profits from many sources, from drugs to wealthy foreign donors. Money helps.But can the Taliban make the ledgers work to govern?Related: Ryan Crocker calls Biden's comments on Afghan forces appallingBrookings scholar Vanda Felbab-Brown has spent years studying the Taliban's finances. She joined The World's host Marco Werman to discuss the Taliban's current financial status and challenges. Related: Women are worried about what Taliban control means for them In this Monday, Jan. 12, 2015 file photo, An Afghan money changer, right, counts a pile of currency at the Money and Exchange Market in Kabul.  Credit: Massoud Hossaini/AP/File  Marco Werman: What sort of financial resources does the Taliban come to government with? How much are they worth?Vanda Felbab-Brown: Well, the Taliban has been taxing any kind of legal and illegal economy in Afghanistan in areas where they had influence. So, drugs were a very important source of money. They would tax NATO trucks supplying NATO troops at the peak of the US and NATO military presence. Those profits probably surpassed even the profits from drugs, tens of millions, maybe hundreds of millions of dollars, but it would tax anything — like sheep. Obviously, you get much more money from drugs than sheep. And they also taxed international and Afghan government aid programs to communities. But the international element of assistance on which the Afghan government is so dependent is going to shrink dramatically. And there is simply no way that the Taliban can offset those losses very easily, even if it manages to persuade countries like China to continue economically engaging with Afghanistan.Related: Former warlord discusses his militia against the Taliban And what about Russia and Pakistan? Are they also a source of cash for the Taliban?Those flows are minor. They might make a difference to some extent for running insurgencies. They are nowhere adequate to be running a country. Pakistan's own financial resources are constantly in trouble, with the Pakistani economy struggling. Russia has never been very generous with terms of large international aid in Afghanistan. In other parts of the world, Iran, which also has significantly improved its relations with the Taliban, is bankrupt. So, outside of the Western donors, the principal sources of economic aid for a Taliban government would be the Gulf, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, potentially Qatar and potentially China. And Western aid is likely going to diminish rapidly, which will have massive, multifaceted repercussions for stability of the country, of the government and social and economic conditions in the country.Although the Taliban are in charge in Kabul right now, they don't really hold the purse strings to Afghan's central bank. Its president has fled the country. So, if the Taliban really wants to jump-start the country, whatever that means, in their eyes, it looks like they can't spend as they might want. What are their options?Well, there are stories emerging that Taliban officials have been looking for the money in the central bank, but it's quite revealing of the stories, in fact, accurate, of the limited financial-economic sophistication that they have. A lot of the central bank's money are not piles of cash held in a place. They are financial accounts that exist in electronic form, and they might be reserves that are parked abroad. For years now, Afghanistan would every so often receive a plane full of hard cash as part of the delivery of a portion of its central bank's reserve. Last week, the plane didn't arrive because of the instability. So, there is limited liquidity, limited spending capacity in terms of cash in Afghanistan, currently, and of course, operating international banking accounts, understanding international finance, understanding how to convert assets such as bonds into any kind of liquidity is not something that the Taliban has any kind of experience with. It would have to be able to persuade technocrats, allow Afghan technocrats to continue working for its Ministry of Finance. Without financing, you can't really run a government. So, what political scenarios could this potentially long period of government inaction portend, do you think? We're very likely going to see significant economic decline. That's obviously going to have grave repercussions for Afghan people. The Taliban is effective in delivering order. It can be a brutal order, but it has knowledge and capacity to stop crime. But, for delivering school, it will need to rely on teachers who will need to be able to be paid by someone. And much of this financial capability will go radically down. Most significantly, the United States is likely not going to be paying for $2 billion for the Afghan security forces, as it has been before the Taliban takeover. So, that means that some number of soldiers, say 100,000 soldiers will now be unemployed and unpaid. The Taliban will need to be paying its own fighters. So, clearly, how the Taliban negotiates with international actors will be critical, whether it can sustain the economy as it existed or whether the economy will rapidly go bankrupt and banditry, frustration, protests will start emerging.It'll be interesting to see what happens then. Again, more challenges for the Taliban on accessing money. Afghanistan's previous government, we have to say it was never flush, but it did regularly receive planeloads of cash from the US government and it was used to pay salaries of officials and keep the wheels of government just turning. There were bulk shipments of dollars expected as late as last Sunday, but it never arrived. How important is hard currency? Will the end of that infusion of cash be a big shock for Afghanistan's economy?At the end of the day, liquid cash is crucial. And if that money is not delivered, if it stops coming, one of the quite rapid economic effects will be that poor people will find it hard to buy food, even just basic survival on a day-to-day basis. It's important to mention, though, that the Taliban leadership has very minimal understanding of how to interact with donors, they're, in many ways, enormously naive. They have little technical capacity. They are not people with financial degrees, but they also are politically naive in terms of constraints and conditionality issues. And so, that will be really a hard learning curve for them with an impact on the lives of Afghan people.This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. 

Hello and welcome to another episode of my podcast The Global Agora. My name is Andrej Matišák, and I work as the deputy head of foreign desk in Slovak daily Pravda. This new episode is a bit longer than usual but I had a very interesting conversation about what might be next for Afghanistan and Taliban after the withdrawal of foreign troops. President Joe Biden's decision is criticized by many, including Afghans. It's easy to understand those concerns. So I talked to Vanda Felbab-Brown. She is a senior fellow in the Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings Institution, and she is the director of the Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors. Let's find out what she thinks about the future of Afghanistan, about the future of the country she visited many times. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/andrej-matisak/message

The National Committee held a virtual program on February 24, 2021 with Dr. Vanda Felbab-Brown and Mr. Ben Westhoff, moderated by Ms. Emily Feng, who discussed the current status of the opioid epidemic, bilateral efforts to curb the supply of fentanyl in the United States, and the prospects for progress moving forward.

On this episode of The Global Exchange, Colin Robertson speak to CGAI Fellows Emily Gilfillan and Jeffrey Phillips about Canadian assistance in sub-saharan Africa during COVID-19. Participants Bio: Emily Gilfillan is an international development consultant with a decade of experience working in women and youth programming across Africa. She currently serves as Scholars Program Consultant at the Mastercard Foundation supporting its goal of empowering 30 million young people in Africa to gain dignified employment. Jeffrey Phillips is Managing Director of Dawson Strategic, Ottawa-based consulting firm specializing in evidence-based research on international trade, clean transportation, and digital policy issues. Jeff helps a wide range of public, private, and not-for-profit sector clients understand and leverage the Canadian policy landscape. (https://www.cgai.ca/jeffrey_phillips) Read the Policy Paper by Emily Gilfillan and Jeffrey Phillips: “Covid-19 and Canada's Development Assistance in Sub-Saharan Africa,” https://www.cgai.ca/covid_19_and_canadas_development_assitance_in_sub_saharan_africa What Jeffrey Phillips and Emily Gilfillan are reading: Vanda Felbab-Brown, The Extinction Market: Wildlife Trafficking and How to Counter It, https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/the-extinction-market/ Caroline Criado-Perez, Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, https://www.penguin.com.au/books/invisible-women-9781784706289 The Global Exchange is part of the CGAI Podcast Network. Subscribe to the CGAI Podcast Network on SoundCloud, iTunes, or wherever else you can find Podcasts! If you like our content and would like to support our podcasts, please check out our donation page www.cgai.ca/support. Recording Date: 21 December 2020. Give 'The Global Exchange' a review on iTunes! Follow the Canadian Global Affairs Institute on Facebook, Twitter (@CAGlobalAffairs), or on Linkedin. Head over to our website www.cgai.ca for more commentary. Produced by Charlotte Duval-Lantoine. Music credits to Drew Phillips.

Right-wing terrorism, like the recent plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and overthrow the state government, has been the deadliest form of terrorism in the United States in recent years—and is likely to continue, says Vanda Felbab-Brown. She draws on the history of antigovernment movements in the U.S. and explains how these extremist groups have capitalized on public discontentment with the COVID recession. Full show notes: https://brook.gs/34DvvHD  Subscribe to Brookings podcasts on Apple or Google podcasts, or on Spotify. Send feedback email to BCP@Brookings.edu, and follow us and tweet us at @policypodcasts on Twitter. The Current is part of the Brookings Podcast Network.

On July 22, the Foreign Policy program at Brookings hosted the second of two webinars, which explored findings on vulnerable groups, domestic law enforcement of the opioid crisis, and international supply control measures. Brookings President John R. Allen introduced the project and event. Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio) provided keynote remarks and joined Brookings Senior Fellow Vanda Felbab-Brown in a conversation. Subsequently, Associated Press reporter Claire Galofaro moderated a panel of authors from the Brookings Opioid series: John Hudak, Peter Reuter, and Vanda Felbab-Brown. The panel will then took questions from the audience. Subscribe to Brookings Events on iTunes, send feedback email to events@brookings.edu, and follow us and tweet us at @policypodcasts on Twitter. To learn more about upcoming events, visit our website. Brookings Events is part of the Brookings Podcast Network.

In this third episode, Adam Day speaks to Vanda Felbab-Brown, who regularly does fieldwork in Somalia, going to places where very few people from outside the region go, meeting with dozens of armed groups and militias around the country. One of the groups she's most interested in is Al-Shabaab, a group that emerged as a radical youth wing of the Islamic Courts that controlled Mogadishu in 2006. It's listed as a terrorist group and may have links to other terrorist groups like Boko Haram in Nigeria. In 2009, Al-Shabaab took over a lot of southern Somalia, taking over huge territories and ruling them with brutality and repression. How are the Somali militias, particularly the darwish, battling against Al-Shabbab and what is the group's role in the country?

In this second episode, we are going to be talking about Nigeria and the battle against the terrorist insurgency Boko Haram. We're going to look at one of the untold stories in this fight: the community-based militias that emerged to defend themselves against Boko Haram, militias that began when the Nigerian army couldn't do the job on its own. Today, these paramilitary forces have become more than just fighters against Boko Haram, they are likely now permanent features on the Nigerian landscape.  Adam Day speaks to Vanda Felbab-Brown, one of the foremost experts on Nigerian counterinsurgencies. She has gone to Nigeria dozens of times, often into highly insecure parts of the north, interviewing fighters on the front lines of the battle against Boko Haram. She said that in order to understand the paramilitary groups fighting Boko Haram, you first need to understand how the group emerged nearly twenty years ago.

For over three decades Afghanistan has been the most dominant and largest producer of opium poppy and the production of heroin. From Afghanistan, heroin travels North and South – the northern route takes the heroin through Central Asia and into Russia. The Southern route takes the heroin into Pakistan – From there, like a spider, it spreads in all directions. But how is COVID-19 impacting it? https://globalinitiative.net/heroin-east-southern-africa/ (A Shallow Flood: the Diffusion of Heroin in Eastern and Southern Africa) Guests: https://globalinitiative.net/experts/vanda-felbab-brown/ (Vanda Felbab-Brown), the https://www.brookings.edu/experts/vanda-felbab-brown/ (Brookings Institution) and GI Network https://globalinitiative.net/experts/tariq-khosa/ (Tariq Khosa), the https://nioc.pk/ (National Initiative Against Organized Crime Pakistan) https://globalinitiative.net/experts/ben-crabtree/ (Ben Crabtree) https://globalinitiative.net/experts/jason-leigh/ (Jason Eligh, Senior Analyst at the Global Initiative Against Organized Crime) Simone Haysom – https://globalinitiative.net/experts/simone-haysom/ (Senior Analyst at the Global Initiative Against Organized Crime) This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy

Responding to coronavirus as individuals, society, and governments is challenging enough in the United States and other developed countries with modern infrastructure and stable systems, but what happens when a pandemic strikes resource-poor and fragile countries that have few hospitals, lack reliable electricity, water, and food supplies, don’t have refrigeration, and suffer from social and political violence?   To explore these scenarios and talk about policy solutions during the coronavirus pandemic, Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow in Foreign Policy at Brookings, talks with Paul Wise, a medical doctor and a senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University, where he is also a professor of pediatrics at Stanford Hospital. Subscribe to Brookings podcasts on iTunes, send feedback email to BCP@Brookings.edu, and follow us and tweet us at @policypodcasts on Twitter. The Brookings Cafeteria is part of the Brookings Podcast Network.  

A Pacific Council teleconference on the state of the Afghanistan War and how the conflict will evolve in the years ahead. There are soldiers in Afghanistan today who were not even alive at the time of the 9/11 attacks. The war in Afghanistan has lasted longer than World War I, World War II, the Vietnam War, and the Korean War combined. Recently, the Trump administration forged a peace deal with the Taliban and Afghan government. However, defensive airstrikes in the first few days of March threaten to dismantle the resolutions. Conflict in the Middle East is known for surges of violence and failed reconciliation attempts, but the United States is still hoping to break this pattern. As the Washington Post reported in its Afghanistan Papers last fall, the war has been plagued by problems since the beginning and many officials painted an inaccurately rosy picture of how the war was going. Why has getting out of Afghanistan been more difficult than leaving Vietnam or Korea? How can we expect to see this conflict evolve in the coming years? What is the most probable outcome of ending U.S. engagement in Afghanistan? Featuring: Scott Smith, Senior Expert for Afghanistan Peace Processes, U.S. Institute of Peace Scott Smith is a senior technical advisor on Afghanistan at the U.S. Institute of Peace. He was previously the director of USIP's Afghanistan and Central Asia Programs between 2012 and 2016. From 2017 to 2019, he was the director for political affairs at the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. Vanda Felbab-Brown, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy, Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence, Brookings Institution Dr. Felbab-Brown is an expert on international and internal conflicts and nontraditional security threats, including insurgency, organized crime, urban violence, and illicit economies. Felbab-Brown is the author of “Aspiration and Ambivalence: Strategies and Realities of Counterinsurgency and State-Building in Afghanistan” (Brookings Institution Press, 2013). Moderator: Thomas Zimmerman, Director of Programs, Pacific Council on International Policy Thomas Zimmerman started his career working in Kabul, Afghanistan, with American Councils for International Education. After working on Barack Obama’s 2008 Presidential campaign, Thomas joined the Pakistan Desk at the Department of Defense before moving to the White House to serve as Special Assistant to the National Security Advisor.

Vanda Felbab-Brown, investigadora del Centro de Seguridad e Inteligencia del Siglo XXI en el programa de Política Exterior de la Institución Brooking en Washington D. C. Estados Unidos, analiza el contraste de las posturas y acciones de los presidentes Andrés Manuel López Obrador y el ex mandatario Felipe Calderon durante sus respectivas emergencias sanitarias.

Vanda Felbab-Brown, Michael Kugelman, and Marvin Weinbaum join host Alistair Taylor to discuss the recent US-Taliban agreement in Afghanistan, the political power struggle over the presidency, the challenges facing the intra-Afghan dialogue, and the effects of coronavirus.

In June 2016, the government of Colombia signed a historic peace agreement with the armed rebel group known as FARC-EP to end a conflict that over five decades had taken the lives of at least 260,000 Colombians and displaced over 7 million. Three years later, the peace accord—a complex effort to not only stop the fighting but also address the underlying causes of the conflict, and to seek truth, justice, and reconciliation for victims—remains not fully implemented as new political disputes and leaders have hampered its progress. On this episode, experts Ted Piccone and Vanda Felbab-Brown explain the situation and how to move forward.  Subscribe to Brookings podcasts  or , send feedback email to , and follow us and tweet us at  on Twitter.  The Brookings Cafeteria is part of the .

Vanda Felbab‐​Brown is a senior fellow in the Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution. She is also the director of the Brookings project “Improving Global Drug Policy: Comparative Perspectives and UNGASS 2016” and co‐​director of “Reconstituting Local Orders.” She is an expert on international and internal conflicts and nontraditional security threats, including insurgency, organized crime, urban violence, and illicit economies.Vanda Felbab‐​Brown bioThe Extinction Market: Wildlife Trafficking and How to Counter ItWorld Wildlife Fund, “Illegal Wildlife Trade”U.S. Agency for International Development, “Combating Wildlife Trafficking”Jody Rosen, “Animal Traffic,” New York Times Style MagazineCharlote Epstein, “The Power of Words in International Relations: Birth of an Anti‐​Whaling Discourse See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Dany Bahar, fellow in Global Economy and Development, and Vanda Felbab-Brown, senior fellow in the Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence, discuss how U.S.-Mexico relations have been affected by the Trump administration, misconceptions about NAFTA, immigration, and crime, and why taking an “America first” approach won’t help U.S. consumers. Full show notes available here: http://brook.gs/2o74PMa Subscribe to Brookings podcasts here or on iTunes, send feedback email to intersections@brookings.edu, and follow us and tweet us at @policypodcasts on Twitter. Intersections is part of the Brookings Podcast Network.

Darrell West, vice president and director of Governance Studies and author of “Megachange: Economic Disruption, Political Upheaval, and Social Strife in the 21st Century,” analyzes how recent dramatic disruptions in trends, such as the rise of Donald Trump and Brexit, are challenging institutions and societies. Also in this episode, David Wessel, senior fellow and director of the Hutchins Center on Fiscal on Monetary Policy, talks about the types of economic policies that we can expect from a Trump presidency. Finally, Vanda Felbab-Brown, senior fellow in Foreign Policy and the Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence, answers a listener’s question on what President Trump can do about NAFTA in our regular “Ask an Expert” segment. Thanks to audio producer Gaston Reboredo and producer Vanessa Sauter, and also thanks for additional support from Eric Abalahin, Jessica Pavone, Nawal Atallah, Basseem Maleki, and Rebecca Viser. Subscribe to the Brookings Cafeteria on iTunes, listen in all the usual places, send feedback email to , and follow us and tweet us at  on Twitter. BCP is part of the .

On The Gist, one question with Frank Deford.  Then, are the core issues of traditional social conservatism on the wane? Slate’s Reihan Salam explains why some Republicans may change their focus from gay marriage to the economy, and some won’t. Plus, is there any good mechanism for fighting drug cartels? We ask Vanda Felbab-Brown from the Brookings Institution what the escape of El Chapo tells us about U.S./Mexico relations. For the Spiel, Mike’s reaction to the uproar over Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman. Today’s sponsor: Stamps.com, where you can buy and print official U.S. postage right from your desk using your own computer and printer. Use the promo code THEGIST to get a no-risk trial and a $110 bonus offer. Join Slate Plus! Members get bonus segments, exclusive member-only podcasts, and more. Sign up for a free trial today at slate.com/gistplus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Open Society Foundations hosted the New York premiere of the documentary, Raw Opium: Pain, Pleasure, Profits. Amy Goodman moderated a panel discussion of the film. Speakers: Peter Findlay, Scott Calbeck, Neill Franklin, Vanda Felbab-Brown, Russ Maynard, Amy Goodman. (Recorded: March 22, 2012)