New Frontiers

US Terrorist Lists: Who Decides, and Why It Matters

Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 15:09:16 -0400

How does the U.S. government determine who gets designated a terrorist and belongs on the official “terrorist list”? What consequences could arise as a result of being put on the terrorist list, and what procedures are followed to ensure this designation—and the penalties that come with it—are justified? Explore these topics with Mark Williams and counterterrorism expert Jason Blazakis. A former director of the State Department’s Counterterrorism Finance and Designations Office, and founding director of the Center for Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism, Blazakis explains how making the terrorist list can lead to a range of negative consequences: asset freezes, criminal penalties, immigration issues, etc., the slow, evidenced-based procedures traditionally followed to ensure any terrorist designation was legally justified, and his concerns that recent changes in those procedures by the Trump administration could lead to their abuse.

New Frontiers (from the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs at Middlebury College) is a higher education podcast series bringing scholarly research and expertise to bear on national, international, and global affairs.

Produced and edited by Margaret DeFoor and Mark Williams, director of the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs. Intro by Charlotte Tate, associate director of the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs. Edits by RCGA intern Mehr Sohal.

Music Credits
Forte by Kestra - Summer with Sound Album
Soul Zone by Kestra - Light Rising Album
Transitions by Mark Williams

High Seas Research: Decoding Earth's Climate Past

Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs — Sun, 08 Mar 2026 17:11:25 -0400

In this episode, Rohatyn Center director Mark Williams talks with climate scientist Allison Jacobel about how researchers reconstruct the Earth’s climate history without a “time machine,” why the oceans and seafloor hold richer continuous climate records than land, and what understanding the past can tell us about contemporary climate change and our climate future.

Listen as Professor Jacobel describes life on an international research team, and the high-stakes reality of oceanographic fieldwork — weeks or months at sea, working 12-hour shifts and navigating storms — while collecting water, plankton, and sediment samples to uncover chemical clues to Earth’s past. Jacobel also reflects on her recent 30-day North Atlantic research, describing shipboard life, collaboration with fellow scientists (including her Middlebury student research assistant), and how the data collected supports student learning back on campus.

Dr. Allison W. Jacobel is Assistant Professor of Earth and Climate Sciences at Middlebury College and a faculty fellow at the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs. Her work focuses on understanding the climate system through the application of geochemical, sedimentological, and micropaleontological techniques. Specifically, she is interested in the reconstruction of abrupt and orbital-scale climate change and the carbon storage mechanisms that amplify insolation forcing.

Music Credits
Forte by Kestra - Summer with Sound Album
Soul Zone by Kestra - Light Rising Album
Transitions by Mark Williams

Big Tech and Its Populist Critics

Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 14:43:45 -0500

Besides working in Washington, DC, what do American politicians like Elizabeth Warren, Donald Trump, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Josh Hawley, and Bernie Sanders all have in common? As political scientist Gary Winslett observes, at least one thing is their strong, populist critiques of “Big Tech”. Whether it’s Apple, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, or Google, American populist politicians from the Left and Right find much to criticize: Leftwing populists typically stress economic concerns and monopolistic practices, while their Rightwing counterparts focus on free speech issues. But how valid are these critiques? How useful (and accurate) are the historical analogies used to support them? And how might the populists’ view of Big Tech affect America’s capacity for technological advancement and innovation down the line? Based on the research conducted for his new book—“Big Tech and its Populist Critics”—Winslett explores these issues, questions the validity of populist critiques from both political sides, and advocates for a 'dynamist' approach to public policy that promotes risk-taking, innovation, and a positive outlook towards technological progress.

Gary Winslett is a Johnson Fellow in Modern Political Thought and associate professor of Political Science at Middlebury College.

Produced and edited by Margaret DeFoor and Mark Williams, director of the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs. Intro by Charlotte Tate, associate director of the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs.

Music Credits
Forte by Kestra - Summer with Sound Album
Soul Zone by Kestra - Light Rising Album

Are Madagascar’s Marine Biodiversity Programs Working?

Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 15:04:54 -0500

Are Madagascar’s marine biodiversity programs protecting the ocean—or leaving coastal communities behind? Mez Baker-Médard explores the promise and pitfalls of “feminist conservation.”

With 90% of its plants and 85% of its non-flying animals found nowhere else in the world, Madagascar—with its extensive coral reefs—is home to incredible biodiversity. It’s also the site of multiple international projects whose aim is to preserve its biodiversity treasure.

How might we assess the efficacy of these international conservation efforts? In this episode of New Frontiers, environmental scientist Mez Baker-Médard discusses her new book Feminist Conservation: Politics and Power in Madagascar’s Marine Commons. Drawing on two decades of research, she explores how Madagascar’s internationally-funded marine conservation programs often marginalize local fishers—especially women—by excluding them from traditional fishing areas. Employing the concept of feminist conservation, which emphasizes local knowledge, traditions, and equity in environmental conservation decision-making, she critiques “top-down” conservation models and calls for a model that “trusts local knowledge, resists enclosure, and addresses the root causes of ecological and social harm.

Produced and edited by Margaret DeFoor and Mark Williams, director of the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs. Intro by Charlotte Tate, associate director of the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs.

Music Credits
Forte by Kestra - Summer with Sound Album
Soul Zone by Kestra - Light Rising Album

Unlikely Leaders: Lessons from “Today I Saw a Revolution”

Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs — Mon, 29 Sep 2025 14:50:16 -0400

For twenty years, Cathy Burke—author, leadership expert, changemaker—served as CEO of The Hunger Project Australia and later, Global Vice President. In this capacity, she worked to help end hunger by developing leadership at scale in communities across Africa, Latin America, and South Asia. Through her work with The Hunger Project, she met Dr. Badiul Majumdar, who—born into poverty—rose to become leader of a national movement that not only helped end hunger in his home country of Bangladesh, but transformed its political landscape too. Inspired by his commitment, energy, vision—and incredible results—Cathy wrote his biography, “Today I Saw a Revolution”. In this episode of “New Frontiers” Cathy sits down with host Mark Williams to discuss her book, the remarkable man it celebrates, and the lessons his life’s work can teach us about leadership, collective action, and political change.

Produced and edited by Margaret DeFoor and Mark Williams, director of the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs. Intro by Charlotte Tate, associate director of the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs.

Music Credits
Forte by Kestra - Summer with Sound Album
Soul Zone by Kestra - Light Rising Album

PART II - Nukes, Landmines, and Disarmament: A Conversation with Matthew Breay Bolton

Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs — Mon, 02 Jun 2025 09:51:15 -0400

This is the second part in our two-part series on global demining and disarmament efforts, and the Trump administration’s decision to suspend all US assistance and funding for these international campaigns. In this episode, Mark Williams speaks with political scientist and Nobel Laureate Matthew Breay Bolton regarding the US role in helping to address the problems posed by landmines and unexploded ordinance—problems that past US policy had sometimes helped create. Their conversation examines some of the ethical, political, and strategic implications of the US decision to cease supporting global demining efforts—such as the potential rise in civilian casualties, abdication of moral responsibility, and the broader strategic disadvantages this policy change (and a US withdrawal from global leadership more generally) seems likely to impose on the United States.

PART I Nukes, Landmines and Disarmament: A Conversation with Matthew Breay Bolton

Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs — Wed, 14 May 2025 09:49:27 -0400

How could activists, academics, NGOs and others lead the world to a Nuclear Weapons Ban treaty in 2017, despite resistance from the world’s major nuclear powers? Why do states, militaries, and militias still use landmines in war zones, despite their proven inability to deter an opposing military—or even delay its assault for an extended time? How effective have global efforts to clear landmines from post-conflict societies been? What role has the United States played in helping to create—and address—the problems posed by landmines and unexploded ordinance? And could the Trump administration’s decision to suspect aid for global demining campaigns affect those operations as well as America’s global influence and strategic interests? This is the first of a two-part series in which 2017 Nobel Laureate Matthew Breay Bolton joins host Mark Williams to discuss these and other topics.

Dr. Matthew Breay Bolton is professor of political science and co-director of the International Disarmament Institute at Pace University, New York City. He is also affiliated with the Environmental Science and Studies department. Along with his wife, Emily Welty, Bolton was part of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) team awarded the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize. He has worked for more than 20 years with UN and NGO efforts addressing the humanitarian impact of landmines, cluster munitions, military robotics and the arms trade.

For more information on the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs at Middlebury College and the New Frontiers podcast series, visit our website.
New Frontiers is a higher education podcast series bringing scholarly research and expertise to bear on national, international, and global affairs.

Produced and edited by Margaret DeFoor and Mark Williams, director of the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs. Intro by Charlotte Tate, associate director of the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs.

Music Credits
Forte by Kestra - Summer with Sound Album
Soul Zone by Kestra - Light Rising Album

The Path to Autocracy: Venezuela and Beyond

Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs — Fri, 13 Dec 2024 14:44:26 -0500

In this episode of New Frontiers, Mark Williams sits down with political scientist Javier Corrales, to discuss his latest book—‘Autocracy Rising: How Venezuela Transitioned to Authoritarianism’. Known for decades as one of the developing world’s most stable democracies, Venezuela’s slide toward autocracy began with Hugo Chávez’s rise to the presidency. In 1998 public displeasure with various economic, political, and social issues swept Chávez to power. Thereafter, power itself increasingly accrued to the presidency—at the expense of civil society elements, pluralism, and institutional checks and balances—to the point that Freedom House now ranks the Venezuelan political system led by current president Nicolás Maduro as “not free.” How did Venezuela transition from democracy to autocracy? What factors played the largest causal roles? And what lessons might Venezuela’s experience teach about democracy’s fragility elsewhere? This episode offers a deep dive into these topics.

Javier Corrales is Dwight W. Morrow 1895 professor of Political Science at Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts. He obtained his Ph.D. in political science from Harvard University in 1996.

Corrales's research focuses on democratization, presidential powers, ruling parties, democratic backsliding, populism, political economy of development, oil and energy, the incumbent's advantage, foreign policies, and sexuality. He has published extensively on Latin America and the Caribbean.

Music Credits
Forte by Kestra - Summer with Sound Album
Soul Zone by Kestra - Light Rising Album

The East India Company: Commerce, Conquest, and Colonialism

Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 17:08:34 -0400

Established in 1600 to secure trade relations between India, East and Southeast Asia, and Britain, the East India Company did this and much, much more. For nearly 300 years it ran a global trading network that operated for profit, politics, and eventually empire. In the process it not only became the world’s first multinational corporation, but — thanks to its own army, navy, currency, and legal system—came to rule territories far more extensive than its home base of the British Isles. On this episode, Mark Williams speaks with historian Ian Barrow about this remarkable company, how it came to support British imperialism, what its history might tell us about the rise of capitalism and the nature of colonialism, and some of the legacies its operations left behind.

Ian Barrow is director of the Axxin Center for the Humanities and the A. Barton Hepburn Professor of History at Middlebury College. An historian of South Asia, he has written three books, most recently a history of the East India Company titled The East India Company, 1600–1858.

Music Credits
Forte by Kestra - Summer with Sound Album
Soul Zone by Kestra - Light Rising Album

Election 2024 and US Foreign Policy

Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs — Tue, 17 Sep 2024 13:57:54 -0400

How has US foreign policy changed since the end of the Cold War? When—and over what issues—did America’s largely bipartisan foreign policy collapse? What major foreign policy challenges await the next US president? Where will the next US administration take America, and how might it seek to advance and protect its notion of the national interest? In this episode of New Frontiers, Ambassador Michael McKinley joins Mark Williams to discuss the foreign policy implications of the 2024 US presidential election. Their conversation ranges from such historic milestones as the end of the Cold War and the Global War on Terror, to more contemporary policy issues like the Middle East, Ukraine, trade, and immigration.

Over the course of a 37-year career, Michael McKinley served as the US Ambassador to Peru, Colombia, Afghanistan, and Brazil, and as Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State. Earlier assignments included serving as Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’affaires at US embassies in Mozambique, Uganda, and the US Mission to the European Union. His articles on foreign policy and US politics have appeared in Foreign Affairs, the Atlantic, the Financial Times, and other publications. He has a Ph.D. from Oxford University in Latin American history.

Produced and edited by Margaret DeFoor and Mark Williams, director of the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs. Intro by Charlotte Tate, associate director of the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs.

Music Credits
Forte by Kestra - Summer with Sound Album
Soul Zone by Kestra - Light Rising Album

U.S. Militias: Guarding Tradition or Courting Chaos

Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs — Wed, 29 May 2024 17:14:09 -0400

America’s modern militia movement emerged in the 1990s, following armed stand-offs with government authorities at Ruby Ridge, Idaho and Waco, Texas. After rising to 370 groups nationwide by 1996, the number of these militias diminished to 68 by 1999—only to surge again when Barak Obama was elected president in 2008. After Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election, several militia groups figured prominently in the January 6 Insurrection which sought to prevent the peaceful transfer of power to Joe Biden. What drives US citizens to form militia groups? What role does racism, anti-government sentiments, nostalgia, and economic, social, and political changes play in their emergence? What do these groups want to achieve? How do their profiles, objectives, and activities differ? And can they help safeguard democracy, civil society, and democratic participation in the United States or threaten it?

In this episode of New Frontiers, sociologist Amy Cooter explores the rise, goals, and philosophies of American militia groups. She explains why their actions could mar the 2024 elections and highlights how a more thorough, accurate teaching of American history could address misconceptions and reduce societal tensions that fuel some of these groups’ strongest grievances.

Dr. Amy Cooter is the Director of Research, Academic Development, and Innovation (RADI) at CTEC who focuses on antigovernment extremism. She has studied a range of groups who use a nostalgic understanding of the past to justify their actions. Her primary expertise is on U.S. domestic militias, and groups of armed individuals who see it as their civic duty to uphold the Constitution the way they believe it should be interpreted.

Amy has testified before U.S. Congress about her research, and regularly consults with academics, journalists, and law enforcement around the globe. You may find her quoted in such outlets as NPR, Rolling Stone, FiveThirtyEight, and The Washington Post. Her latest book is “Nostalgia, Nationalism, and US Militia Movement” (Routledge Press).

For more information on the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs at Middlebury College and the New Frontiers podcast series, visit our website.
New Frontiers is a higher education podcast series bringing scholarly research and expertise to bear on national, international, and global affairs.

Show Notes:
Produced and edited by Margaret DeFoor and Mark Williams, director of the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs. Intro by Charlotte Tate, associate director of the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs.

Music Credits
Forte by Kestra - Summer with Sound Album
Soul Zone by Kestra - Light Rising Album

India Today: One Question, Three Perspectives

Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 17:16:14 -0400

“What’s the one thing about India, that isn’t getting enough attention?” That’s the question we put to three India experts; and not surprisingly, we got three different responses.

In August 2023, India celebrated its first successful moon landing. However, while this achievement made headlines around the world, other developments of equal or greater significance may be going unnoticed. One is India’s drift toward illiberal democracy—or perhaps even autocracy. Could this impede its budding strategic relationship with the United States? Another is the Modi government’s apparent efforts to erase important aspects of India’s multicultural past from the national consciousness, and the repercussions of these pursuits. And finally, how has India harnessed technology to realize remarkable success in combating poverty? In this episode of “New Frontiers”, host Mark Williams and co-host Arjun Kumar ‘25.5, explore these topics with guests Jeff Lunstead, Cynthia Packert, and Sunder Ramaswamy.

Jeffrey Lunstead is a Diplomat in Residence at Middlebury College, and former U.S. ambassador to Sri Lanka. He teaches courses on international diplomacy, conflict in South Asia, and the rise of Asia in U.S. policy.

Cynthia Packert is the Christian A. Johnson Professor in the History of Art and Architecture at Middlebury College. She teaches courses on all aspects of Asian and Islamic art, with a particular focus on India. Read more here.

Sunder Ramaswamy is the Distinguished College Professor of International Economics at Middlebury College. He teaches classes on economic development, international trade, and the political economy of India. Read more here.

For more information on the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs at Middlebury College and the New Frontiers podcast series, visit our website.
New Frontiers” is a higher education podcast series bringing scholarly research and expertise to bear on national, international, and global affairs.

Show Notes:
Produced and edited by Margaret DeFoor and Mark Williams. Intro by Charlotte Tate, associate director of the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs. Co-hosted by Mark Williams and Arjun Kumar 25.5. A special thanks to Mehr Sohal.

Music Credits
Forte by Kestra - Summer with Sound Album
Soul Zone by Kestra - Light Rising Album

Race, Empire, and Policing in Paris

Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs — Mon, 08 Jan 2024 10:37:35 -0500

In June 2023, French police killed 17-year-old Nahal Merzouk during a traffic stop outside of Paris. The killing led to days of street protests, widespread condemnation of racialized police practices, and over 1,300 arrests. This was particularly significant in a country like France, where discussions about race are often avoided or rejected. To gain a deeper understanding of French police practices, Mark Williams sits down with historian Amit Prakash, whose new book—Empire on the Seine—explores how France’s colonial history helped shape how French law enforcement policed North Africans living in Paris from 1925 to 1975. Prakash also details how discrimination and racialized policing persist in a country where officialdom avoids employing race as a demographic category.

Amit Prakash, Visiting Professor of International and Global Studies at Middlebury College, teaches classes on policing, borders and identification, and anti-colonialism. He is a historian specializing in the history of policing, modern imperialism, and decolonization. He has most recently published Empire on the Seine (Oxford University Press, 2022) which is the first history of the Parisian police and North Africans that covers the period from the 1920s to the 1970s. Beyond Middlebury, Prakash has been featured in the documentary The Price of Safety and is the cohost of the history and current events podcast No Politics at the Dinner Table. He holds a B.A. in English from Oberlin College and an M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in History from Columbia University.

For more information on the New Frontiers academic podcast series visit the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs website.

SHOW NOTES:
Produced and edited by Margaret DeFoor and Mark Williams. Intro by Charlotte Tate, associate director of the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs.
Outro by Chris Martucci ‘25.

Music Credits
Forte by Kestra - Summer with Sound Album
Soul Zone by Kestra - Light Rising Album

After the Insurrection: Assessing American Democracy

Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs — Mon, 30 Oct 2023 17:12:56 -0400

On January 6, 2021, supporters of US President Donald Trump—spurred on and energized by the defeated president himself—launched a violent attack on the US capital to stop the peaceful transfer of power to president-elect Joe Biden. What are we to make of the January 6 insurrection? What does it tell us about ourselves as Americans and the state of our democracy? And with another presidential election approaching—and an indicted Donald Trump the likely Republican candidate—how might our parties, courts, and Justice Department act in ways that could safeguard democracy, or threaten it even more?

In this episode, political scientist Bert Johnson reflects on the state of American democracy, the dangers it faces, and some of the ways Americans might preserve their democratic political system.

Bert Johnson (B.A. Carleton College, 1994; Ph.D. Harvard University, 2003), professor of political science, has taught American politics at Middlebury College since 2004. His research and teaching interests include campaign finance, federalism, and state and local politics. Johnson is author of Political Giving: Making Sense of Individual Campaign Contributions (Boulder: FirstForum Press, 2013), and coauthor (with Morris Fiorina, Paul E. Peterson, and William Mayer) of The New American Democracy (Longman, 2011). His articles have appeared in Social Science History, Urban Affairs Review, and American Politics Research. He is owner and author of Basicsplainer.com.

For more information on the New Frontiers podcast visit the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs website.

SHOW NOTES:

Music Credits

Forte by Kestra - Summer with Sound Album
Soul Zone by Kestra - Light Rising Album

This episode was produced by Margaret DeFoor and Mark Williams.

Intro by Charlotte Tate, associate director of the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs.

Outro by Srivats Ramaswamy ‘25.5

INTL' NGOs: What You Need to Know

Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs — Tue, 12 Sep 2023 10:25:51 -0400

International nongovernmental organizations (INGO’s) like Amnesty International, Care, Oxfam, or World Vision operate independently of governments around the world. But what do we really know about these organizations and their operations, behavior, effectiveness or limitations? What might they be doing or be unable to do, in a country like Ukraine, where many people are suffering and there are dire needs, and yet the war that Russia unleashed impedes their work?

In this episode, political scientist and INGO specialist Sarah Stroup lifts the curtain on international nongovernmental organizations to illuminate their function, efficacy, and constraints.

SHOW NOTES:

Music Credits

Forte by Kestra - Summer with Sound Album
Soul Zone by Kestra - Light Rising Album

Outro by Arjun Kumar '25

For information on Sarah Stroup's book , Borders Among Activists: International NGOs in the United States, Britain, and France (Borders Among Activists: International NGOs in the United States, Britain, and France (Cornell University Press, 2012), visit here.

For more information on Middlebury College and the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs, visit here.

Why We Need Environmental Justice Part 2 of 2

Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs — Thu, 23 Mar 2023 18:17:37 -0400

Part 2 of 2
What is meant by such terms as environmental injustice or environmental racism? What is the environmental justice movement and how is it manifest—in the United States and beyond? In this episode of New Frontiers, political scientist Kemi Fuentes-George discusses these topics and what achieving environmental justice for marginalized populations might actually entail.

SHOW NOTES

For more information on this and other podcasts go to the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs at Middlebury College website https://www.middlebury.edu/office/rohatyn

Between Preservation and Exploitation by Kemi Fuentes-George (MIT Press)

Music Credits

Forte by Ketsa - Summer with Sound Album
Soul Zone by Ketsa - Light Rising Album

Produced and recorded by Mark Williams and Margaret DeFoor. Edited by Jonah Roberts (Middlebury ’23).

Why We Need Environmental Justice Part 1 of 2

Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs — Thu, 23 Mar 2023 18:06:48 -0400

Part 1 of 2
What is meant by such terms as environmental injustice or environmental racism? What is the environmental justice movement and how is it manifest—in the United States and beyond? In this episode of New Frontiers, political scientist Kemi Fuentes-George discusses these topics and what achieving environmental justice for marginalized populations might actually entail.

SHOW NOTES

For more information on this and other podcasts go to the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs at Middlebury College website https://www.middlebury.edu/office/rohatyn

Between Preservation and Exploitation by Kemi Fuentes-George (MIT Press)

Music Credits

Forte by Ketsa - Summer with Sound Album
Soul Zone by Ketsa - Light Rising Album

Produced and recorded by Mark Williams and Margaret DeFoor. Edited by Jonah Roberts (Middlebury ’23).

Whatever Happened To "Essential" Workers

Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 10:59:41 -0500

How did the COVID pandemic affect America’s workers—especially those deemed “essential” who often were poorly paid, nonunionized, lacked meaningful benefits, and were required to continue working while most other workers stayed home? How did these workers respond to the health risks they encountered on the job, and how did their struggle for labor justice transform—at least for a while—political discourse and consciousness in America? Jamie McCallum and Mark Williams explore these and other issues in this episode of New Frontiers.

SHOW NOTES:

For more information on this and other podcasts go to the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs at Middlebury College website https://www.middlebury.edu/office/rohatyn

Essential by Jamie K. McCallum (Basic Books Nov 2022)

Music Credits

Forte by Ketsa - Summer with Sound Album
Soul Zone by Ketsa - Light Rising Album

Produced by Mark Williams and Margaret DeFoor. Edited by Jonah Roberts (Middlebury ’23) and Margaret DeFoor.

Understanding Slavery in Medieval China

Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs — Tue, 29 Nov 2022 10:24:51 -0500

Slavery lasted for centuries in China, and yet its particulars are not well known. In this episode of New Frontiers, historian Don Wyatt takes us back to help us understand how the institution thrived during imperial times and the roles it played in Chinese culture.

Despite its long pedigree, Chinese slavery during medieval times has failed to attract wide scholarly attention. Hence, questions about it abound. What was slavery like in medieval China? How was it similar to—or different from—the institution of slavery found in other societies and at other times? Who were the enslaved in the Chinese context, why were they enslaved, and what function did slavery serve in Chinese society? In this episode of New Frontiers, historian Don Wyatt sits down with Mark Williams to discuss these and other issues.

SHOW NOTES:
For more information: Cambridge Element Slavery in East Asia

Music Credits

Forte by Kestra - Summer with Sound Album
Soul Zone by Kestra - Light Rising Album

Produced by Margaret DeFoor and Mark Williams.

Why Did Turkish Democracy Collapse

Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs — Wed, 02 Nov 2022 10:48:30 -0400

After six decades of multiparty politics, Turkish democracy has collapsed. Yes, the trappings of democracy are still visible. Elections are held, parliament sits in session, the courts rule, and the elected executive leads. Yet, the substance of democracy moves ever further into the past. How did this happen? Why? And what implications does the unraveling of democracy in Turkey hold for political systems in other countries? In this episode, Mark Williams explores these topics with political scientist Sebnem Gumuscu, whose recent scholarship highlights the reality of democratic backsliding.

Sebnem Gumuscu is an associate professor of political science and a faculty fellow at the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs here at Middlebury College. In her capacity as a faculty fellow, Professor Gumuscu co-directs the Rohatyn Center’s program on Global Trends in Autocracy and Democracy which is supported by the Cangiano Family, in memory of Leon M. Cangiano Jr. Class of 1963. Much of her research has focused on political Islam, middle Eastern and north African politics, democratization, and democratic backsliding. Her first book, Democracy, Identity and Foreign Policy in Turkey, was published in 2014. Her second book, which is forthcoming from Cambridge University Press is titled Democracy or Authoritarianism: Islamist Governments in Turkey, Egypt, and Tunisia. Her recent article which appeared in the journal Party Politics—“Why Did Turkish Democracy Collapse? A Political Economy Account of AKP’s Authoritarianism”— was co-authored with Berk Esen.

SHOW NOTES:
Presented by the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs at Middlebury College.

Music Credits

Forte by Ketsa - Summer with Sound Album
Soul Zone by Ketsa - Light Rising Album

Produced by Margaret A. DeFoor and Mark Williams.

What to do about Cosmic Garbage.

Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs — Mon, 02 May 2022 11:43:21 -0400

According to the US Space Force, only 2,000 of the 22,000 objects that have been tracked circling the Earth are fully operational, functioning satellites. Put differently, roughly 90 percent of the objects that can be tracked circling the globe is junk—space junk, or cosmic garbage. How did it get there, why does it keep accumulating, and how best might we address this global problem are all topics that Akhil Rao, Assistant Professor of Economics at Middlebury College, writes about in a co-authored article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In this episode of New Frontiers, Professor Rao speaks with Mark Williams about these issues and explains why adopting “orbital use fees” could be the best way to address the problem of cosmic garbage.

Show Notes:
Presented by the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs at Middlebury College.

Music Credits

Forte by Ketsa - Summer with Sound Album
Soul Zone by Ketsa - Light Rising Album

Produced by Margaret A. DeFoor and Mark Williams.

What Made Russians Skeptics About Democratic Capitalism?

Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs — Sat, 12 Mar 2022 19:03:42 -0500

In this episode, Mark Williams talks with Will Pyle, the Frederick C. Dirks Professor of International Economics at Middlebury College, about recent findings he published in the journal Post-Soviet Affairs. Their discussion explores why Russians of a certain cohort—although liberated from the economic and political constraints of Soviet Communism—are not the strong enthusiasts of democracy and capitalism which many westerners believed they would become after the USSR collapsed.

Show Notes:
Presented by the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs at Middlebury College.

Music Credits

Forte by Ketsa - Summer with Sound Album
Soul Zone by Ketsa - Light Rising Album

Produced by Margaret A. DeFoor and Mark Williams.

China and the American Right

Middlebury College Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs — Mon, 14 Feb 2022 09:29:06 -0500

“Asia First was an insistence that Pacific affairs receive as much, if not more attention than European Atlantic relations in the cold war. Its proponents, its supporters, many of whom were very powerful, conservative voices in the Senate and in Congress felt like U.S. foreign policy after World War II was neglecting mainland Asia and therefore imperiling the whole cold war.” — Joyce Mao

In this episode (2), Mark Williams, director of the Rohatyn Center, talks with Joyce Mao, Middlebury College associate professor of history, about the Asia First initiative and, in particular, the effects that US-China-Taiwan relations had on American domestic politics. Why were American conservatives so interested in Asia after WWII and in China particularly? In what ways, if any, did conservative concerns over China influence US foreign policy, and how did conservatives’ interest in China help shape the development of the political right in the United States? These are some of the issues examined in this New Frontiers episode "China and the American Right."

Joyce Mao’s book, Asia First: China and the Making of Modern American Conservatism, was published in 2015 by the University of Chicago Press.

Show Notes:
Presented by the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs at Middlebury College.

Music Credits

Forte by Ketsa - Summer with Sound Album
Soul Zone by Ketsa - Light Rising Album

Produced by Margaret A. DeFoor and Mark Williams.

Should Corporations Govern Global Food Systems?

Middlebury College Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs — Thu, 10 Feb 2022 16:26:24 -0500

In this episode, Molly Anderson, William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Food Studies at Middlebury College, joins Mark Williams, director of the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs, to discuss her recent article titled “UN Food Systems Summit 2021: Dismantling Democracy and Resetting Corporate Control of Food Systems”. At issue is whether multinational corporations (MNC's) should have more influence and say in controlling/governing food systems than does civil society and its constituent parts most plagued by problems of food insecurity. Anderson believes MNC's should not enjoy such a privileged position over so vital a basic necessity, and offers a forceful critique of 2021 United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS), which in her view helped ensure such corporate control.

SHOW NOTES

Presented by the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs at Middlebury College.

Music Credits

Forte by Ketsa - Summer with Sound Album
Soul Zone by Ketsa - Light Rising Album

Produced by Margaret A. DeFoor and Mark Williams.