Departures With Robert Amsterdam

For many years, Africa's natural resource wealth, young population, and vibrant societies have raised many hopes for a rapid emergence on the world's stage - but the development of these opportunities has often slow and uneven. So what is holding the region back? John Campbell, a former US Ambassador to Nigeria, Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and author of multiple books on the region, joins Departures this week to discuss a wide range of trends he sees taking precedence, from Nigeria to Kenya to South Africa. Looking at the relatively disappointing results of President Muhummudu Buhari in Nigeria, Ambassador Campbell points to the country's unfortunate history. "Nigerians like to say that the present government is a colonial government. The only difference is that instead of being run by the British, it is run by a homegrown elite," Ambassador Campbell says. Speaking about how the African public views the recent protest movements over racial inequality in the United States, Ambassador Cam

So much of the peace and prosperity achieved following the end of World War II and past the end of the Cold War was rooted in a common civilizational grammar driving foreign policy, an imagined community of nations referred to as "The West" based on a set of Enlightenment ideas. But then we lost confidence in that cultural narrative, and gradually many in the United States abandoned the Jeffersonian West of liberty, multilateralism and rule of law in favor of an ethno-religious-nationalist line of thinking. That's the argument that we discuss with Prof. Michael Kimmage, PhD, a former diplomat and professor of history at Catholic University who has written a fascinating new book, The Abandonment of the West. During the interview, Amsterdam and Kimmage discuss why Donald Trump may be the first non-Western president of the United States, how a lack of diversity and participation in foreign affairs leadership by African Americans has weakened the notion of the West, and how we can reconfigure the conception of th

There are few other countries in the world that have wielded money and influence as well as the modern Russian state, to the point of purchasing impunity and acquiescence to their status quo. And this is not all simply because of a "master strategy" by Vladimir Putin, but instead a vast and complex system of illicit enrichment and state capture by his network of siloviki and willing oligarch businessmen. It is this network and its operative methods that is the focus of a fascinating new book by former Financial Times journalist Catherine Belton. Belton joins with Robert Amsterdam on the Departures to talk about the conclusions and findings of her book, while also reminiscing about what's changed since the two of them shared many long days on the court benches of Moscow's Meshchansky Court during the first trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

For experts who spend their careers studying modern authoritarianism, it has only recently become prudent to apply their analytical skillset to talking about political developments in the United States. Journalist and author Sarah Kendzior, who stood out in 2015 as one of the lone voices warning that Donald Trump was going to win the presidency, speaks with Robert Amsterdam about her latest book, "Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America." "It's always encouraging when you see masses of people rise up, especially when they're doing so on behalf of another," said Kenzior of the recent protests for black lives. In her view, the pandemic and the allyship on display are intimately connected: the Trump administration's failure to respond to the coronavirus "told white America once and for all: you, too, are disposable." But she also sees a strong case for a call to action: "When I talk to my children, I try to teach it to them in terms of history, both so that they know the r

Earlier this month marked the 31st anniversary of Tiannanmen Square, while during this same period, the same Chinese Communist Party solidified its grip on Hong Kong with the passage of a new national security law that would subject Hong Kongers to extradition and Chinese legal jurisdiction. These events are just examples of the extreme lengths Beijing will go to demonstrate its commitment to avoiding a collapse similar to that of the Soviet Union, argues Jean-Pierre Cabestan during his interview on Departures with Robert Amsterdam. Cabestan is the author of the book "China Tomorrow: Democracy or Dictatorship," and discusses with Amsterdam his theory that although the one-party authoritarian state has a long life line left, eventually as prosperity grows the pressures will increase for more representative forms of government that may ultimately become unsustainable for the regime. But this is unlikely to happen for decades, says Cabestan, as we are observing a highly adaptive regime absorb crisis, pivot, and

There is really no shared political ideology, there is no general set of policies, that are common among populists like Vladimir Putin to Donald Trump, or Viktor Orban, or Jair Bolsonaro and so on. What unites them is that they are all nostalgists, that they have mobilized an imagined version of each country's historical past greatness and put that at the core of their political messaging, argues author Peter Pomerantsev in a discussion with Robert Amsterdam. According to Pomerantsev, none of these leaders have any coherent vision of the future that they present to voters, and this absence of any conception of future is a problem deeply rooted in the information wars which have moved from the obscurity of the post-Soviet space into the mainstream of U.S. politics. Pomerantsev's excellent new book, "This Is Not Propaganda," explores these theories and looks at how the manipulation of media, memory, and reality is having a direct personal and social impact on the lives of everyone living in these countries.

For the past 50 years, the US foreign policy establishment has relied on methods both overt and covert to express its interests abroad, often involving the destabilization and removal of democratically elected governments, frequently resulting in outcomes that end up worse than their precedents. Stephen Kinzer, a veteran foreign correspondent, author, and academic, joins Robert Amsterdam on the Departures podcast to discuss this fascinating history of US misadventures abroad, the exploits of the CIA obsession with "mind control" and human experimentation under Sidney Gottlieb, and how this history of coups and regime change has almost always ended up harming the countries involved and weakening overall US interests in the world.

Two weeks after the callous murder of George Floyd by four Minneapolis police officers, the United States is beset by a level of nationwide unrest and protests the likes of which hasn't been seen in decades. Will this be a moment of reflection in which our society and institutions are finally reformed to purge the deeply embedded structures of racial inequality? Or will different segments of the country continue living in separate realities, unable to acknowledge the existence of the problem? Robert Amsterdam is joined by Prof. Robert Patterson, PhD, the inaugural chair of Georgetown University's Department of African American Studies and the author of "Destructive Desires: Rhythm and Blues Culture and the Politics of Racial Equality."

We usually don't use the titles of books as podcast titles, but in this case, during this week in Washington DC, it is sadly quite apt. Before introducing this week's author, Bob shares his thoughts on the tragic events following the killing of George Floyd followed by the ensuing protests, riots, and crackdowns. As the United States experiences a challenge to its stability not felt in generations, we're very fortunate to have Barry Gewen, an author and New York Times journalist who has spent the past eight years writing the authoritative biography on Henry Kissinger. Gewen brings invaluable insights about Kissinger's life and sensibility as a thinker, explores questions of power and morality, and how abstract notions of democracy and justice were seen as relatively meaningless in the absence of power as Kissinger reshaped the world in his role as Secretary of State from 1973-1977. "Kissinger always refused to wear a little flag pin in his lapel," Gewen says in the interview. "What I take from that is that it

The United States spends trillions on its military, but is it really achieving stronger national security? Not really, says Sean McFate, the author of the book "The New Rules of War." In his conversation with Bob, McFate argues that the US has been obsessed with outdated conventional warfare, has fetishized technology and tactical battlefield victory, and has failed to understand that war has transitioned away for billion-dollar fighter jets to the strategic level, the political level, and the information level. How can the US be successful in this new environment in which warfare is getting sneakier, in which victory goes to the cunning, and not just the strong?

There are a lot of pundits out there declaring democracy promotion to be dead on arrival in the Trump era. But there's still an important community of activists fighting for the cause against the odds.   "Democracy matters and democratic leadership matters, even in the face of a fast-moving crisis like the coronavirus," says Jeffrey Smith, the founder and president of Vanguard Africa, a nonprofit which has worked closely with a number of successful, visionary leaders.   In this latest episode of Departures, host Robert Amsterdam speaks with Smith about the trend of global democratic backsliding in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as their work together to support opposition figures such as Bobi Wine in Uganda and Tundu Lissu in Tanzania in their respective struggles against authoritarian regimes.   For Smith, promoting democracy is critical because holding dictators to account within the international community has become increasingly difficult. "To be very blunt, modern authoritarians have learn

The default mode of thinking in U.S. foreign policy circles is that more countries should be like us, and that with the right support, new democracies can bloom and flourish all across the world. Except history shows us again and again that it doesn't work like that. Stephen Krasner, a professor at Stanford University and a former official in the George W. Bush administration, joins Robert Amsterdam on this episode of Departures to discuss his latest book, "How to Make Love to a Despot: An Alternative Foreign Policy for the Twenty-First Century." Truly consolidated democracies are very difficult to build - they occur under specific structural conditions, when elites agree to have them in place, and more often than not, take hold due to luck more than assistance or planning. Dr. Krasner provides a refreshing - and possibly not entirely politically correct - skepticism of the enduring belief in democracy promotion as a primary arm of US foreign policy, and instead argues that instead we should be focusing on go

Kim Dotcom is no stranger to lockdowns. For more than 8 years, the Megaupload founder and tech entrepreneur has been fighting an extradition request to New Zealand from the United States following an over-the-top FBI raid on his home in 2012 ... bizarrely over accusations of third-party copyright infringement. Robert Amsterdam, whose firm has provided counsel to Dotcom's defense team, speaks with Kim about the current status of the case, asks his opinions on the most important emerging technologies such as 5G and artificial intelligence, and debates what role technology will play in the post-pandemic world as much of us shift toward the work-from-home model.

Is it better to fight an authoritarian government and lose, or work with that government and survive to fight another day? Bob interviews Joshua Yaffa, Moscow Correspondent for the New Yorker and author of Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition, and Compromise in Putin's Russia, about the mentalities of the people who brought Vladimir Putin to power, the internal moral compromises they make to keep him there, and what those compromises mean during a global pandemic.   Yaffa describes a pervasive wiliness among the people he met through his reporting in Russia, from TV producers to zookeepers to human rights activists: people who engage in "quiet games of soft rebellion, acknowledging power and being outwardly loyal to it, while at the same time trying to undermine it and eke out personal benefit from it." 

On the latest episode of Departures, Robert Amsterdam speaks with Professor Angela Stent, director of the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies and a professor at Georgetown University about her book, "Putin's World: Russia Against the West and with the Rest." In her book, Stent examines Russia's long-troubled relationship with the West, while also dissecting Russian relations with the rest of the world, including China, Japan, and the Middle East. She writes that "Putin's world" is one in which its relationship with The US and the EU is "adversarial," and its relations with the rest of the world have returned with a vengeance. Importantly, Stent employs a deeply historical perspective to inform her analysis of Putin's Russia on the world stage. The discussion touches on Russia's relationship with key global players such as China - which she views as one of unequals - as well as the extent to which Russia helped Donald Trump in the 2016 election. In Stent's view, President Donald Trump h

Across the world, borders have been closed, flights grounded, and hotels shuttered. When we eventually begin the great re-opening, the travel industry is going to look radically different and may remain that way for the foreseeable future. This week's guest arguably knows the travel sector better than anyone. Peter Greenberg, the Emmy award-winning producer and journalist for CBS News, speaks with Robert Amsterdam about what we should be watching, precautions we should take when traveling, and why we should indeed be very concerned about the absence of leadership to chart a path out of this crisis.

Brian Greenspan is highly regarded as one of Canada's foremost criminal law practitioners, having represented a wide variety of celebrities to some of the country's top business groups. In this conversation with Departures host Robert Amsterdam, Greenspan shares his views on a diverse range of issues, including how he sees rule of law and criminal justice holding up under the immense pressures of the coronavirus pandemic, the contrasting political cultures between the US and Canada and what it means for mass incarceration, and what are some of key rulings that didn't go his way over the years that still keep him up at night.

The debate over whether or not the United States is losing its global influence and moving away from its role of leadership in the international system has moved more to a discussion of just how far and how fast it is falling, and what that means for how the rest of the world structures its relationships and disputes. This process, which was well underway before the 2016 election of President Donald Trump, has recently been accelerated in light of the global COVID-19 pandemic, according to a number of observers. In this episode of Departures, Robert Amsterdam invites authors Alexander Cooley and Daniel Nexon to respond to these events and share the insights featured in their new book, "Exit from Hegemony: The Unraveling of the American Global Order." 

Why have the people who have made the biggest foreign policy mistakes of all time never had to face the music? Robert Amsterdam discusses the changing role of diplomacy and the US grand strategy in a post-pandemic world with Stephen Walt, Robert and Renée Belfer professor of international relations at Harvard University, author of The Hell of Good Intentions: America’s Foreign Policy Elite and the Decline of US Primacy.    For Professor Walt, sustainable US foreign policy successes are win-win, not the result of overwhelming pressure campaigns: for diplomacy to work, “even if you’re getting most of what you want on most of the issues, you shouldn’t expect to get 100% of what you want.” He further predicts a further retreat from globalization in response to COVID-19: “At least in the short to medium term, the end result is going to be a world that is less open, less free, and less prosperous.”

Over the past 25 years, the power and influence of the United States has been challenged in new ways from a variety of state and non-state actors, yet our responses to these challenges often seems mired in the past. In this latest episode of Departures, Robert Amsterdam has a wide-ranging discussion regarding emerging geopolitical trends with David Kilcullen, author of the book "The Dragons and the Snakes: How the Rest Learned to Fight the West."