Slouching Towards Texas (If Not Bethlehem)
New Thinking for a New World - a Tallberg Foundation Podcast
04/06/23
•38m
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Human history is a long and continuing story of migration. People have always moved out of fear or out of opportunity—and other people have always resisted them. That story continues today: as more people try to flee war, climate extremes and poverty, more walls get built, boats sunk, caravans disrupted, and refugees pushed back.
Aren't we supposed to be better than that in the 21st century? After all, we have the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UN 1951 Refugee Convention, asylum rights enshrined in national laws in the United States, Europe and elsewhere, and endless media coverage of suffering, scared refugees and migrants calculated to evoke sympathy and empathy.
But the long lines are still there; few make it to the safety they seek. Why?
Amelia Frank-Vitale is an anthropologist with years of experience studying migration in Honduras and Mexico. She's also an activist who's interested in the migrants as people, not as plaintiffs or pawns in a political drama. Listen as she discusses what it takes to walk from Honduras to Texas, and the tragedies along the way.
Do you think your country should allow more migrants and whether you would welcome them to your neighborhood?
Previous Episode
Is This Any Way to Run a War?
March 30, 2023
•34m
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has settled into a grueling, vicious war of attrition with no end in sight. However, there is a growing consensus in NATO capitals that a long war not only favors Russia but has the potential for nasty, unintended consequences. What does not seem to exist is a strategy to do something about it.
Lots of rhetoric: “Ukraine will win” and “we will do what it takes” as well as tactics galore. Send more weapons; impose more sanctions; threaten the Chinese; cheer Zelensky's Churchillian speeches. But define an endgame or a strategy to get there? Missing in action. Which leaves Russia—and, perhaps, its Chinese sponsor—in the driver's seat.
Anna Wieslander has had the temerity to point out that the emperor has no clothes or more to the point, that the West has no strategy. She is a Swedish defense and security expert, Director for Northern Europe at the Atlantic Council, and Chairman of the board of the Stockholm-based Institute for Security and Development Policy. Listen as host Alan Stoga discusses with her what it might take to end this war, one way or the other.
Next Episode
Reflections on the Guillotine
April 20, 2023
•33m
French President, Emmanuel Macron, has had a complicated few weeks.
On the one hand, China's President Xi gave him red-carpet treatment in Beijing, where Macron, again, made his case for European strategic sovereignty—code for independence from the United States—and said that Europe should not follow America’s lead on Taiwan. Both were music to Chinese ears. On the other, his Taiwan comments stirred widespread anger across Europe and, of course, in Washington. He was burned in effigy in Paris during massive protests against pension reform, shouted down by hecklers in Amsterdam who challenged his democratic credentials, and lectured by even the Iranian government to respect the rights of protesters in the streets. His approval rating is below 30%, and the most recent polls suggest that if the election were held today instead of two years ago, Marine Le Pen would beat him in a landslide. Protesters have taken to reminding him that King Louis XVI ended his reign on the guillotine.
What's going on?
There seem to be only two possibilities. Either Macron has lost his way, which is dangerous for a president of an important country with four years left on his mandate, or he's playing a long game that only he understands.
Our guest on New Thinking for a New World, has strong views on those alternatives. Pierre Lellouche is a former French parliamentarian, government minister, diplomat, and widely-published commentator in France. He is deeply worried about what he sees as Macron’s strategic and political mistakes and the consequences for his country.
What do you think?
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