Global Dispatches -- World News That Matters

Kelsey Norman is a Fellow for the Middle East and Director of the Women's Rights, Human Rights, and Refugees Program at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. Her new book,

Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett is a Guyanese diplomat and candidate for Secretary-General of the United Nations. If selected, she would become both the first woman and the first person of Indigenous descent to lead the world body. She joins Mark for a substantive conversation about her vision for the UN at a moment of profound strain on the multilateral system. Drawing on her expe...

Vali Nasr is everywhere in the news these days. The Iranian American scholar has written scores of books and articles about Iran and the Middle East, and even before the U.S.-Israel-Iran war, he was someone policymakers and journalists regularly turned to for insight into Iran.

On a personal note, I have followed his work for years, and since the outbreak of the war, I...

For decades, Cuba has deployed doctors on medical missions around the world, often to places where skilled health workers are badly needed. These missions have a genuine humanitarian component—but they also generate billions of dollars for the Cuban government, making medical services Havana's most lucrative export.

The United States is now pressuring countries to end ...

The world promised to be better prepared for the next pandemic. But has it followed through?

Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, who co-chairs the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, joins me for a wide-ranging conversation about the intersection of global cooperation, diplomacy, and pandemic preparedness.

We begin by discussing ...