Shows
The Elucidators: Decoding Global NewsWill We Ever Get Rid Of Nuclear Weapons?This week on The Elucidators: Decoding Global News, we’re digging into one of our very favorite topics: the future of nuclear weapons! As of this past weekend, 50 countries have ratified the Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons, a UN-backed effort to relegate nukes to the dustbin of history. But stuffing the nuclear genie back into its bottle won’t be easy, especially with a potential arms race brewing between the US, Russia and China, and new entrants to the nuclear club like North Korea upping their warhead counts. Will we ever get to full disarmament? Should we even want to...
2020-10-301h 07
The Elucidators: Decoding Global NewsThailand's Royal MessThis week on The Elucidators: Decoding Global News, we journey to Thailand, which most Westerners associate with pristine beaches and a welcoming, peaceful culture. Little do most outsiders know that the “Land of Smiles,” despite its many charms, has long been one of the least politically stable countries in the world. This year, tens of thousands of protestors have been in the streets of Bangkok and other major Thai cities, calling for changes to a supposedly constitutional monarchy that has been cooperating with the military to consolidate absolute power. Now Thailand stands on a knife’s edge between reform and es...
2020-10-2346 min
The Elucidators: Decoding Global NewsWarnings from the Far RightThis week on The Elucidators: Decoding Global News, we take a brief detour to one of the nastier places in modern politics: the Far Right. Right-wing extremists ranging from anti-government militias to neo-Nazi parties have been increasingly vocal in the United States and Europe in recent years, and this year’s chaos seems to have kicked extremist activity up another notch. Who are these people? Where are they active? What do they believe? And most importantly, how dangerous are they? Stay tuned for some answers!Episode photo: Anthony Crider / Wikimedia CommonsFurther Reading:Inside th...
2020-10-161h 19
The Elucidators: Decoding Global NewsFishing For A Brexit DealThis week on The Elucidators: Decoding Global News, we’re checking in on Brexit! The seemingly endless wrangling between the United Kingdom and the European Union to decide their post-divorce economic relationship is nearing a hard stop at the end of this year. The next few weeks may be the last, best chance for the two sides to avoid an economically catastrophic no-deal outcome. Will UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s deliberately irrational negotiating style pay off, or is he trying to play chicken with a cliff? We’ve got answers!Episode photo credit: Max van den Oetela...
2020-10-0943 min
The Elucidators: Decoding Global NewsRumble In The CaucasusThis week on The Elucidators: Decoding Global News, we step into the Caucasus, a mountainous Eurasian region where an ongoing rivalry between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the contested region of Nagorno-Karabakh has erupted into open fighting. Could neighboring Great Powers Turkey and Russia be drawn into a larger war that neither really wants to fight? Boy... We sure hope not!Episode art credit: Achemish / Wikimedia CommonsFurther Reading:Nagorno-Karabakh clashes continue, prompting emergency UN talksUnfrozen Conflict in Nagorno-KarabakhArmenia and Azerbaijan fight over Nagorno-Karabakh againFollow and like us on the social medias, or...
2020-10-0242 min
The Elucidators: Decoding Global NewsTaiwan In China's CrosshairsThis week on the Elucidators: Decoding Global News, we journey to one of the most dangerous places on Earth, the Taiwan Strait, a narrow body of water that separates the island nation of Taiwan from the People’s Republic of China. This past weekend, China sent dozens of warplanes across the Strait’s median line, sending an unmistakably threatening message to the vibrant democracy it has always regarded as a renegade province. Does this mean war? Stay tuned and find out! Further Reading:China Raises Conflict Risk With Breach of Taiwan Buffer ZoneTo China’s alarm, America...
2020-09-251h 12
The Elucidators: Decoding Global NewsDecoding the COVID Economy With Prof. Ryan WeldziusThis week on The Elucidators: Decoding Global News, friend of the show Prof. Ryan Weldzius of Villanova University swings by to give us the 411 on the global economy in 2020 and beyond. The COVID pandemic has disrupted every major economy in the world, from the United States to the European Union to China, and kicked off what appears to be a new era of fragmentation in international economic relationships. What does all this mean for us in the short, medium, and long terms? We’ve got answers!Photo by Pat Whelen on UnsplashFollow and like us...
2020-09-181h 07
The Elucidators: Decoding Global NewsHero of Hotel Rwanda ArrestedThis week on The Elucidators: Decoding Global News, we’re checking into the situation in Rwanda, where Paul Rusesabagina, the hotel manager whose heroism during the 1994 Genocide inspired the Oscar-nominated movie Hotel Rwanda, has been arrested and accused of terrorism. What does this surprising move on the part of authoritarian President Paul Kagame mean for this small country that is sometimes called “the Switzerland of Africa,” belying its tragic history? Stick with us and we will Elucidate! Episode Photo by Adam Jones on Wikimedia CommonsFurther Reading:Rwanda arrests the man who shielded people from ge...
2020-09-111h 11
The Elucidators: Decoding Global NewsSayonara Shinzo-San: Japan's Longest-Serving PM Steps DownThis week on The Elucidators: Decoding Global News, we go to Japan, where Shinzo Abe, the longest-serving Prime Minister in modern Japanese history, is stepping down after eight years in office. After Japan suffered through decades of economic stagnation and decline, Abe attempted to make major reforms in both the domestic and foreign policy arenas to get the country moving again. Has he succeeded in bringing America’s most important military ally, which is also still the world’s third-largest economy, into the 21st century? Let us elucidate!Episode Photo by Jezael Melgoza on UnsplashFurt...
2020-09-041h 14
The Elucidators: Decoding Global NewsEveryone (Doesn't) Love Erdogan!This week on The Elucidators: Decoding Global News, we dive into the deep blue waters of the Eastern Mediterranean, where Turkey’s strongman President Erdogan is in a dispute with historic enemy (and fellow NATO member) Greece, along many other neighboring countries, over access to newly discovered oil and gas resources on the sea floor. Is Erdogan still making Turkey great again, or has he bitten off more beef than he can chew this time? We’ll also get into Putin’s poisoned political nemesis Alexei Navalny, who is lying in a medically induced coma in a Berlin...
2020-08-2859 min
The Elucidators: Decoding Global NewsThe Abraham Accord Between Israel and UAEThis week on The Elucidators: Decoding Global News, we’re going to discuss a big, symbolic diplomatic move that occurred in the Middle East last week: the normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, two countries that have been in a formal state of hostilities for decades. In one of the few successes the Trump Administration can claim for its foreign policy, it looks like the Arabs and Israelis may be putting aside their longstanding enmity to confront the nascent Iranian threat. We’re also going to delve into the situation in Belaru...
2020-08-2138 min
The Elucidators: Decoding Global NewsThe Beirut BlastThis week on the Elucidators, we’re recording on Tuesday August 11th, a week after a massive blast hit Lebanon’s capital city of Beirut, one of the most culturally important metros in the Arab world, and a place that was once known as “The Paris of the Middle East.” Sadly, a lethal blend of incompetence, corruption, oligarchic politics and explosive industrial chemicals has left Beirut and Lebanon on the brink of collapse. Also this week, we’ll elucidate the next stage of the International Thermal Experimental Reactor, a fusion power project that has the potential to...
2020-08-1458 min
The Elucidators: Decoding Global NewsThe Russian COVID-19 Vaccine(?), Hong Kong's Crackdown Goes International, Trump's TikTok BanThis week on The Elucidators, we’re hitting three topics of note across the world of international relations. First off, the Russians claim to have won the race to a coronavirus vaccine... but they may have cut a few important corners on the way to first place. Second, in a predictable but still shockingly fast development, Hong Kong has used its new National Security Law to issue arrest warrants for 6 pro-democracy activists based in Western countries, including a lobbyist who has been a United States citizen for nearly 25 years. And finally, we’ll discuss President Trump’s threat to ban th...
2020-08-0737 min
The Elucidators: Decoding Global NewsChina And Ethiopia Do The Dam ThingModern hydroelectric dams are among the most economically consequential structures countries build. When they work well, they can protect downstream areas from devastating floods, while also providing steady water flow for agriculture and vast amounts of electricity for economic development. On the other hand, their construction is often politically controversial, both within states and between them — and should one of these massive structures ever collapse, it can lead to truly catastrophic outcomes. This week, we’re taking a look at two important dams that have come under different kinds of pressure: the Three Gorges Dam in Chi...
2020-07-3158 min
The Elucidators: Decoding Global NewsWill The European Union Throw Away Its Shot?Most Americans’ direct experience with the European Union is probably limited to the colorful Euro bills--featuring pictures of Roman arches and statues and such--that we use to buy stuff when touring Athens, or Paris, or Berlin, saving us from having to change money into a new national currency every time we switch cities. But the European Union is so much more than the Euro: it’s a supranational institution of 27 different countries, and within that huge group it has a major say in everything from agricultural subsidies to data privacy to national debt. And if the EU...
2020-07-2453 min
The Elucidators: Decoding Global NewsNot-So-Little Fires Everywhere in IranIran's not in great shape. A deeply unpopular government run by aging Islamic theocrats... a bad economy crippled by American sanctions... and a runaway COVID-19 pandemic have already combined to push this big, important Middle Eastern power towards the edge. And now, on top of everything else, some of Iran's most sensitive military sites -- including the research center where the regime builds advanced centrifuges for potential use in a nuclear weapons program -- are blowing up and burning down.Some of these incidents probably aren't accidents. Who's behind them (cough cough ISRAEL cough...
2020-07-1751 min
The Elucidators: Decoding Global NewsChina Squashes Hong Kong With National Security LawWe've been keeping an eye on the situation in Hong Kong since last year, when hundreds of thousands of mostly youthful Hong Kongers hit the streets to demonstrate for increased autonomy and democracy. About a week ago, China's response arrived in the form of a very powerful new National Security Law, the import of which can be boiled down to one word: NOPE. In terms of basic freedoms like speaking one's mind, access to a jury trial, and warrants being required for searches, Hong Kongers literally went to sleep in the West on June 30 and woke up in Xi...
2020-07-1048 min
The Elucidators: Decoding Global NewsEpisode 16: Hong Kong (Still) Going WrongBack in August, we checked in on #Hong Kong eleven weeks into the city's millions-strong pro-democracy protests. Fourteen weeks later, those protests are still rolling, with even greater intensity -- and they are now generating electoral consequences too!Local district counsel elections this past week registered MASSIVE victories for the pro-democracy movement... while the U.S. Congress has passed legislation to have Hong Kong’s back. All of which is to say Xi Jinping and the People’s Republic of China can’t be happy with the way things are headed in the increasingly restive city-state of Hong K...
2019-11-2740 min
The Elucidators: Decoding Global NewsEpisode 03: Hot Times Down SouthDon't look now, but the Amazon Rainforest -- which is the size of the entire continental United States -- is on fire in an unusually big and dangerous way. Is the Brazilian government under right-wing populist Jair Bolsonaro to blame, or is the story much more complicated than that? Probably the latter because we're talking about it! In this episode, Steve and Soumi discuss national sovereignty vs. globalism, developing vs. developed countries, the international security implications of widespread climate change, twitter diplomacy, trade sanctions, and oh so much more!As always, we value all questions and feedback...
2019-08-3132 min
The Elucidators: Decoding Global NewsEpisode 02: Hong Kong Gone WrongEleven straight weeks of massive protests have paralyzed Hong Kong, one of the wealthiest and most politically important cities in the world. In this episode we discuss: "One Country, Two Systems," Shenzhen, Xi Jinping, income inequality, the Umbrella Movement, Opium Wars, and so very much more! Bonus: Russia's turned off its (voluntary) international radiation monitoring equipment after last episode's nuclear disaster. Hmm....If you like what you're hearing, please like, share, subscribe, and rate us 5 stars on your podcast store! And if you have thoughts or questions, write us at theelucidators@gmail.com.
2019-08-2238 min