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The closure of the Strait of Hormuz is causing a surge in food prices around the world — particularly in places already in the midst of a humanitarian crisis. And it's about to get worse. This is the planting season for much of Africa and Asia, and fertilizer shortages mean that farmers are cutting back. Come this fall, crop yields will be reduced. One of the epicenters of this trend is Sudan, which, after three years of civil war, is the site of the world's largest humanitarian emergency. This is where I caught up with my interview guest, Kate Philipps-Barrasso, Vice President for Policy and Advocacy at Mercy Corps, a large international humanitarian relief organization. She spoke with me from Port Sudan, on the Red Sea, where she describes the immediate impact that the war in Iran has had on access to food and water. Mercy Corps recently released a report showing how fuel, fertilizer, and shipping disruptions have affected Somalia, Sudan, Pakistan, Ethiopia, and Myanmar, including the kinds of decisions farmers are making right now. The war in Iran's impact on global food prices has thus far been on the periphery of commentary about the conflict — but as this conversation shows, there is great urgency in understanding the cascading humanitarian consequences that are already unfolding.

Today's episode was recorded live at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, for the annual Lewis & Clark International Affairs Symposium. The theme of this year's symposium was Crumbling Pillars: The Age of Authoritarianism. For this live episode, I speak with Lewis & Clark professor Kyle Lascurettes about how democratic backsliding and authoritarian resilience are impacting the United Nations and other international institutions. Kyle Lascurettes and I speak for about 25 minutes before a really interesting question-and-answer session with students. A huge thank you to the students for both their great questions and for organizing the whole thing. This was the 64th annual Lewis & Clark International Affairs Symposium, which is entirely student-run. I had a great time meeting many of the students and spending the day on this gorgeous campus. 

As I am recording this on Friday, April 10, JD Vance is en route to Islamabad, Pakistan, for negotiations over a ceasefire announced on April 7. This ceasefire is shaky at best. It is clear that there was never a common understanding between Iran and the United States about what might be included in a ceasefire, but American and Iranian delegations are headed to Islamabad to discuss these details. My view is that this will likely be a long and drawn-out process with limited chances for meaningful progress in the near term. Still, the level of violence in the region is reduced from what it was before the ceasefire, and that is a good thing. There has been some reporting that China played a backroom role in helping convince Iran to come to the negotiating table, which I find interesting given the wide range of views among the Chinese foreign policy elite about how Beijing should approach this conflict. My guest today, Jacob Mardell, is Lead Analyst at Sinification, a Substack that tracks these very debates in Chinese foreign policy. He scours Chinese publications, blogs, and official statements to help the rest of us get a pulse on foreign policy debates in China. We have a long conversation about the contours of Chinese thinking about the war in Iran and the broader Middle East, including whether China might be willing or able to step in as a credible mediator, as well as the risks and opportunities China sees if the U.S. gets bogged down in another war in the Middle East.    

Pandemic Risk Assessment is an emerging scientific toolkit designed to assess how pandemic risk is evolving over time. Rather than predicting the next outbreak, it integrates evidence across scientific disciplines to identify the drivers and estimate the probabilities of pandemic outbreaks. And in so doing, it can help policymakers prioritize prevention and preparedness investments before crises emerge. Pandemic Risk Assessment is still an emerging field, but there is growing momentum to institutionalize it, with discussions exploring a range of possible models, including options inspired by bodies such as the IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which is the UN-backed scientific body that regularly updates policymakers on the latest findings on climate change. Joining me to discuss why pandemic risk assessment is needed, what a robust scientific process might look like, and how to make it a permanent feature of our global pandemic preparedness landscape are Serina Ng and Ben Oppenheim. Ben Oppenheim is a non-resident fellow at the Berkeley Risk and Security Lab and at the Center for Global Development. Serina Ng is a Director at the World Health Organization and Executive Head of the G20 Joint Finance Health Task Force Secretariat, which is hosted at the WHO. Today's episode is produced in partnership with the United Nations Foundation as a part of a series called Before the Outbreak, which examines the role of disease surveillance in stopping the next pandemic

The war in the Middle East has claimed its first UN casualties: three Indonesian peacekeepers in Lebanon were killed in under 24 hours. With Israel intent on occupying the same part of southern Lebanon that UN peacekeepers are meant to patrol, can the peacekeeping mission even continue? Meanwhile, in New York, a Secretary-General-led diplomatic effort to open the Strait of Hormuz for humanitarian and fertilizer shipments is taking shape, while the Security Council debates authorizing the use of force to escort food through the strait. Do either of these efforts have a meaningful chance of success? Anjali and Mark discuss all this, as well as the latest — unexplained — shakeup in the Secretary-General race.

Many of our best surveillance tools today that were originally built to target specific diseases like polio and malaria have become critical infrastructure for outbreak response and early warning across a wide range of pathogens. This includes laboratory networks, diagnostic tools, and community health workers—all of which play vital roles in broader outbreak preparedness. In today's episode, two experts who have helped create platforms to monitor and respond to specific diseases explain how those systems have been leveraged to detect and respond to outbreaks of all kinds. Hamid Jafari served as Director of Polio Eradication for the World Health Organization's Eastern Mediterranean Region, and Krystal Burungi Mwesiga is an entomologist at the Uganda Virus Research Institute, where she works as a research and outreach associate with the Target Malaria, a not-for-profit research consortium. We kick off by discussing how these disease-specific surveillance platforms work, then broaden the conversation to how they've been adapted to respond to other outbreaks—and what can be done to make these tools even stronger. This episode is produced in partnership with the United Nations Foundation as part of a series called "Before the Outbreak" that examines the role of disease surveillance in stopping the next pandemic.

Robust disease surveillance systems are the foundation of strong public health systems and are essential to preventing, detecting, and responding to health threats before they escalate. Commitments to and investments in quality disease surveillance systems are key to smart, cost-effective public health decision-making, which is needed more than ever. Before the Outbreak is a three-part podcast series produced in partnership between Global Dispatches and the United Nations Foundation, in which we explore how the world sees, anticipates, and prepares for current and emerging health threats. Through stories and science, this series highlights the critical functions that protect us – before the outbreak begins. Our debut episode features the expertise of Dr. Ciro Ugarte, Director of Health Emergencies at the Pan American Health Organization, and Dr. Pardis Sabeti, a professor at Harvard University's School of Public Health. We begin by defining our terms—that is, what do we mean by disease surveillance? We then discuss how disease surveillance works in practice and what can be done to strengthen our global defenses against the next pandemic.

Today's episode is produced in partnership with the Global Challenges Foundation. The foundation is dedicated to raising awareness of global catastrophic risks and strengthening global governance to address them. The Global Challenges Foundation's 2026 Global Catastrophic Risks report outlines five of the biggest risks facing humanity today, including weapons of mass destruction, the topic of this episode. You can find the report at globalchallenges.org/gcr-2026. Wilfred Wan is director of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Programme at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Michael Wernstedt is acting head of Common Security at the Global Challenges Foundation. We kick off by discussing how geopolitical and military trends are increasing the risks surrounding weapons of mass destruction, before turning to a longer conversation about how to strengthen international cooperation and global governance to prevent the use of WMDs—and the catastrophe that would entail.

One year ago, in 2025, former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was extradited to The Hague to face charges of crimes against humanity and murder for orchestrating a campaign of extrajudicial killings against people he deemed to be involved in the drug trade. Over the course of several years while he was president, thousands of people were killed by police and hit squads. Now, he faces justice at the International Criminal Court. Nearly one year to the day after his extradition, Duterte faced his first major court proceeding: the confirmation of charges against him. This is a major moment for the Philippines and the International Criminal Court. Joining me to discuss the case against Rodrigo Duterte is Diane Desierto, Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law School and Professor of Global Affairs at the Keough School of Global Affairs at Notre Dame. We begin by discussing the specific charges against Duterte before having a broader conversation about the significance of this case for both the Philippines and the future of the ICC.  

For the first time in nearly 70 years, it looks like there may be major political changes afoot in Cuba — driven by the United States. The Trump administration has been ratcheting up pressure on the island, including by imposing an oil embargo that is strangling the country's energy supplies. On Monday, March 16, Cuba experienced a complete collapse of its electric grid, triggering a nationwide blackout. Meanwhile, Cuba's erstwhile major patron was Venezuela, which, since the ouster of Maduro, no longer provides the support on which Havana once relied. Recent reporting also indicates that Washington and Havana are now engaged in direct talks, even as the Trump administration is explicitly seeking the ouster of President Miguel Díaz-Canel. Trump has also publicly suggested he could "take" Cuba. So will Cuba go the way of Venezuela? What role does the U.S. war in Iran play in Washington's policy toward Cuba? And might the Cuban regime survive after all? My interview guest today, James Bosworth, answers these questions and more. He writes the Latin America Risk Report on Substack, and we kick off with a brief overview of seven decades of U.S.-Cuba relations before having a longer conversation about where things stand today — and where they may be headed. https://www.globaldispatches.org/40PercentOff

Get the show--> https://www.globaldispatches.org/40PercentOff One of the fundamental precepts of the United Nations Charter is that waging war against another UN member state is simply not permitted. It’s illegal. There are, however, some narrow exceptions — and here the United States is playing a game of legal legerdemain. In the first segment this week’s episode of To Save Us From Hell, we break down the formal legal justification the Trump administration invoked at the United Nations to defend its bombing campaign against Iran. Does it hold up? And more importantly, how do other countries view this retroactive justification for America and Israel’s war of choice? We also discuss a potential UN diplomatic intervention in the Strait of Hormuz that is gaining some traction, modeled on one of the UN’s successes during the Russia-Ukraine war. Later in the show, we examine why the United States is standing alone at the Commission on the Status of Women, casting lone “no” votes on a host of measures intended to promote gender equality. Finally, we discuss the newest entrant in the race to replace António Guterres as secretary-general, Virginia Gamba, and how her nomination may shake up the race. The full episode is available immediately below the fold for our paying subscribers. You can support our work at full price or get a discount subscription using the button below.

Earlier last last week, he United Nations reported that around 300,000 Lebanese had been displaced since Israel opened a new front in southern Lebanon amid this widening regional conflict. Yesterday, that figure surged to more than 800,000 people forced from their homes in just a matter of days. Lebanon is where the humanitarian crisis stemming from the Iran war is most urgent at the moment—but the fallout is rapidly spreading across the region. In Gaza, humanitarian aid has dropped dramatically following Israel's decision to close a major crossing. Pakistan is bracing for refugees even as it is in the midst of its own war with the Taliban, and in Iran itself, more than 3 million people are reportedly displaced. But according to my guest today, the impact of this conflict on some of the world's most vulnerable people will be felt far beyond the region. Scott Paul is the Director of Peace and Security at Oxfam America. We begin by discussing the various crises this war has sparked across the region before turning to a broader conversation about the impact this conflict will have on humanitarian operations worldwide. In short, the ability of local and international humanitarian organizations to meet the basic needs of millions of people around the world has just become substantially more difficult because of this war. https://www.globaldispatches.org/40PercentOff

Today's episode is produced in partnership with the Global Challenges Foundation. The Foundation is dedicated to raising awareness of global catastrophic risks and strengthening global governance to address them. Global Challenges Foundation's 2026 Global Catastrophic Risks report outlines five of the biggest risks facing humanity today, including catastrophic climate change, the topic of this episode. You can find this report at globalchallenges.org/gcr-2026.  Two of the authors of the chapter on catastrophic climate change are my guests today. Manjana Milkoreit is a researcher of earth systems governance at the University of Oslo. Eva Mineur is head of climate and sustainability at Global Challenges Foundation.  We kick off by discussing what we mean by catastrophic climate change and examining examples of this phenomenon already underway around the world, before turning to a longer conversation about how to strengthen international cooperation and global governance to prevent catastrophic climate change—and the catastrophe it would entail.  

We cover a lot of ground in this week's episode of To Save Us From Hell! There are two new entrants to the race to succeed António Guterres as the next UN Secretary-General; Cindy McCain announced she is stepping down as head of the World Food Programme, meaning there will soon be a vacancy at the top of one of the largest UN agencies—one typically led by an American; and we dissect a bizarre Security Council meeting earlier this week chaired by…Melania Trump. But we begin with an extended discussion of how the new war in Iran is impacting diplomacy at the United Nations—and what role the UN may play as this conflict evolves. The full episode is immediately available after the fold for our paying subscribers. You can use the discount link to get 40% off a subscription, or, if you'd prefer, support Global Dispatches and To Save Us From Hell at full price. https://www.globaldispatches.org/40PercentOff

We cover a lot of ground in this week’s episode of To Save Us From Hell! There are two new entrants to the race to succeed António Guterres as the next UN Secretary-General; Cindy McCain announced she is stepping down as head of the World Food Programme, meaning there will soon be a vacancy at the top of one of the largest UN agencies—one typically led by an American; and we dissect a bizarre Security Council meeting earlier this week chaired by…Melania Trump. But we begin with an extended discussion of how the new war in Iran is impacting diplomacy at the United Nations—and what role the UN may play as this conflict evolves.