World Affairs Councils Podcast

WACA'sCover to Cover [https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/4516345786077/WN_L6U19iHfSAm_aK00pKRfQQ]webinar on Thursday, October 28, at 2:00-3:00 PM ET, features Carla Power, journalist and author. In Home, Land, Security: Deradicalization and the Journey Back from Extremism, Carla Power wanted to chip away at the stereotypes by focusing not on what radicalized young people had done but why: What drew them into militancy? What visions of the world—of home, of land, of security for themselves and the people they loved—shifted their thinking toward radical beliefs? And what visions of the world might bring them back to society?  Power begins her journey by talking to the mothers of young men who’d joined ISIS in the UK and Canada; from there, she travels around the world in search of societies that are finding new and innovative ways to rehabilitate former extremists. We meet an American judge who has staked his career on finding new ways to handle terrorist suspects, a Pakistani woman running a game-changing school for former child soldiers, a radicalized Somali American who learns through literature to see beyond his Manichean beliefs, and a former neo-Nazi who now helps disarm white supremacists. Summary from Penguin Randomhouse. The discuss will be moderated by Patrick Ryan, President of the Tennessee World Affairs Council.

Listen now to WACA'sCover to Cover [https://www.worldaffairscouncils.org/Programs/index.cfm?PageID=35] from Wednesday, April 28, 2021, featuring co-authors Robin Broad, Professor of International Development at American University, and John Cavanagh, Executive Director of the Institute for Policy Studies. The Water Defenders: How Ordinary People Saved a Country from Corporate Greed [http://www.beacon.org/The-Water-Defenders-P1646.aspx] At a time when countless communities are resisting powerful corporations—from Flint, Michigan, to the Standing Rock Reservation, to Didipio in the Philippines, to the Gualcarque River in Honduras—The Water Defenderstells the inspirational story of a community that took on an international mining corporation at seemingly insurmountable odds and won not one but two historic victories. In the early 2000s, many people in El Salvador were at first excited by the prospect of jobs, progress, and prosperity that the Pacific Rim mining company promised. However, farmer Vidalina Morales, brothers Marcelo and Miguel Rivera, and others soon discovered that the river system supplying water to the majority of Salvadorans was in danger of catastrophic contamination. With a group of unlikely allies, local and global, they committed to stop the corporation and the destruction of their home. Based on over a decade of research and their own role as international allies of the community groups in El Salvador, Robin Broad and John Cavanagh unspool this untold story—a tale replete with corporate greed, a transnational lawsuit at a secretive World Bank tribunal in Washington, violent threats, murders, and—surprisingly—victory. The husband-and-wife duo immerses the reader in the lives of the Salvadoran villagers, the journeys of the local activists who sought the truth about the effects of gold mining on the environment, and the behind-the-scenes maneuverings of the corporate mining executives and their lawyers.The Water Defendersdemands that we examine our assumptions about progress and prosperity, while providing valuable lessons for those fighting against destructive corporations in the United States and across the world.

Listen now to WACA's Cover to Cover [https://www.worldaffairscouncils.org/Programs/index.cfm?PageID=35] from Wednesday, March 3, at 2:00-3:00 PM ET, featuring Charles Kupchan, Professor of International Affairs in the School of Foreign Service and Government Department at Georgetown University, and Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Isolationism: A History of America’s Efforts to Shield Itself From the World [https://www.cfr.org/book/isolationism] In his Farewell Address of 1796, President George Washington admonished the young nation “to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world.” Isolationism thereafter became one of the most influential political trends in American history. From the founding era until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States shunned strategic commitments abroad, making only brief detours during the Spanish-American War and World War I. Amid World War II and the Cold War, Americans abandoned isolationism; they tried to run the world rather than run away from it. But isolationism is making a comeback as Americans tire of foreign entanglement. In this definitive and magisterial analysis—the first book to tell the fascinating story of isolationism across the arc of American history—Charles Kupchan explores the enduring connection between the isolationist impulse and the American experience. He also refurbishes isolationism’s reputation, arguing that it constituted dangerous delusion during the 1930s, but afforded the nation clear strategic advantages during its ascent.

Listen now to WACA's Cover to Cover [https://www.worldaffairscouncils.org/Programs/index.cfm?PageID=35] on Thursday, February 18, at 2:00-3:00 PM ET, featuring Kathryn Stoner, Deputy Director at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and a Senior Fellow at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, and at the Center for International Security and Cooperation, all at Stanford University. Russia Resurrected: Its Power and Purpose in a New Global Order [https://global.oup.com/academic/product/russia-resurrected-9780190860714?q=Russia%20Resurrected&lang=en&cc=us] Stoner shows that Russia is neither as weak as we think, nor as strong as its leadership would like it to be viewed. This book directs a spotlight on the interac­tion between domestic politics and foreign policy to explain Russian power and purpose in the twenty-first century. From Russia's seizure of Crimea to its military support for the Assad regime in Syria, the country has reasserted itself as a major global power. Stoner offers an eye-opening reassessment of the country, identifying the actual sources of its power in international politics and why it has been able to redefine the post-Cold War global order.

WACA'sCover to Cover [https://www.worldaffairscouncils.org/Programs/index.cfm?PageID=35]webinar on Thursday, January 21, at 4:00-5:00 PM ET, featured Secretary Michael Chertoff, Former Secretary of Homeland Security (2005-2009). This webinar was moderated by Bryan Cunningham, Executive Director of the Cybersecurity Policy & Research Institute at UCI. Exploding Data: Reclaiming Our Cyber Security in the Digital Age [https://groveatlantic.com/book/exploding-data/] The most dangerous threat we—individually and as a society and country—face today is no longer military, but rather the increasingly pervasive exposure of our personal information; nothing undermines our freedom more than losing control of information about ourselves. And yet, as daily events underscore, we are ever more vulnerable to cyber-attack. In this bracing book, Michael Chertoff makes clear that our laws and policies surrounding the protection of personal information, written for an earlier time, need to be completely overhauled in the Internet era. This event was hosted byWAC Orange County [https://worldaffairscouncil.org/event/january-21st-2020-the-solarwinds-hack-cyber-security-in-a-digital-age/?event_date=2021-01-21]with promotional partners including: World Affairs Councils of America, Los Angeles WAC & TH, and WAC San Diego.