In The Arena

Episode HighlightsRep. Bass on Our Interconnected World“All of our lives changed dramatically last year, on the entire planet. Why? Because the planet earth is very small with communications and travel the way it is. And our health, our wellbeing, our prosperity, is completely linked to people around the world. And using COVID is the perfect example of how we’re all linked. This virus, we will not overcome this virus until we overcome it as a planet. So for example, there’s vaccines that are available now. I’m very excited about that. But we’re also learning about new strains. Until you stamp COVID out in the world, you can’t just stamp it out in the United States because the new strains will continue to mutate. So, using what we’re going through now is a perfect example to explain why we are completely connected and our health, wellbeing, and prosperity is connected and depends on the health, prosperity, and wellbeing of other countries as well.”Rep. Bass on the Responsibility of Living in a Democracy“It is

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTSOn James Baker’s Political Skillset“Fundamentally Baker applied a similar skillset, whether it was for working with the Soviets on arms control or it was working Republicans and Democrats on tax reform in 1986. As Treasury Secretary it wasn’t that he brought a big background on economics to the table, in fact he only had a single economics course at Princeton and probably didn’t do all too well at that. So really, Baker’s skillset I do think fundamentally was politics. Now that was a dirty word in his family as I’ve said so part of it was his allergy with that and I think he saw politics from his own experience as a grubby business.”Advice for Up and Coming Journalists “We’re so lucky because the world is constantly reinventing itself there’s no such thing as stupid questions. And in an age where it seems like we’re surfeited with ever amount of information, so much of it is bogus, or untrue, or partial, or misleading. I think that as much as people write and think about the crisis, which is

Episode HighlightsWhat Illiberalism Looks Like"I think all of us grew up on the idea, I don't know, from watching movies, you know, that there's such thing as democracy, and then there's a coup d'etat lead by, I don't know, a colonel and a tank and then, you know, they come over and they shoot up the Presidential Palace and then we have dictatorship. And that somehow, you know, you have one or you have the other and there's nothing in between. One of the things that's become really clear over the last decade is that there are some forms of politics that are in between. So, we have seen, for example, what it looks like in Hungary to have a Prime Minister, who once he took power, began to subtly, and sometimes unsubtly, alter the political system to make it very difficult for him to lose another election. And we saw the same thing in Poland, very similar, a little bit clumsier actually."Why Authoritarian States Have Elections"One of the effects of, I mean it's probably the long tail of 1989, one of the effects

After a robust display of American Democracy, we convened a panel of experts for Straight Talk Live Part 2, including Institute Board of Trustees Member and former Sen. McCain Presidential Campaign Manager Rick Davis, former campaign manager for President Obama David Plouffe and former FEC Chairman Trevor Potter, alongside standout journalists Maggie Haberman of the New York Times and host of Showtime's "The Circus" Alex Wagner to breakdown the results of the 2020 U.S. election.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTSImpact of Sen. McCain’s Father Had on McCain“I know when we talked… in prison about when he refused amnesty, he refused because one, he knew that his father’s position, the Vietnamese would use his father’s position as a way to demoralize the other POWs, you know, you’re stuck here… but the Admiral’s kid, we let him go of course. And America is a class conscious society and all that stuff but also he said that, ‘I didn’t take it because I thought my father would be disappointed in me.’ And when they beat him for three days after that and forced him to make a propaganda statement, he told me that the thing that worried him the most, you know, they recorded it, and he knew his father would hear it. And that’s was a shame.”McCain’s Normalization of Relations with Vietnam Work“The normalization was probably one of the memories I revered the most of working with him. Because it was such an honest, honorable, decent thing for him to do. He felt really sincerely that he had gotten over Vietnam as s

Episode HighlightsThe Education of a Future Speaker of the House“And then when I was in high school I read these novels, I read Ayn Rand novels which a lot of high school kids do. And what that did was it triggered my interest in economics. By no means do I subscribe to objectivism and all of those urban legends out there kind of accuse me of this, but you get that in politics. I went to Catholic school and I’m a devout Catholic, but Rand and those novels interested me in the study of economics and I went to college to study economics and political science and political philosophy. And I really got into studying the Austrians; Mises, Hayek, the Chicago school guys like Steigler and Friedman and all the rest. So I really became focused on economics and Rand got me interested in economics.”Paul Ryan's First Congressional Campaign “I got the young thing thrown at me. I was young, 28 by the time the campaign ended rolling around and I got the young thing thrown at me. And I call this political jiu jitsu you run a

Episode HighlightsOn "The Core of the Fight"“I think the core of the fight is that we have to compete effectively to ensure that our free and open societies remain secure, are prosperous, and can extend our influence effectively. I think we have to recognize that we have to compete and reenter a recent competition, Michael, that we vacated because of over optimism in the 1990s, and maybe too much pessimism and even resignation in the 2000s. And we are at a fundamental level, in a competition to create our free and open societies and closed authoritarian systems.”On the Western Alliance“It’s bad. But the situation and its prospects are not as bad as we think. I think there’s a growing realization, Michael, that we in the free world are all in this together. I mean when you look at the aggression of Chinas' communist party, this wolf warrior diplomacy. Theres nothing like the prospect of death to focus the mind. I think that in the west, within Europe and between Europe and the United States, the transatlantic

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTSON HER ROLE AS CHAIR OF THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTE“I do think that democracy is difficult, there’s no question. We are proving that, and other countries are, but it doesn’t in any way devalue the fact that people do want to be able to live in a country where they have something to say. And I do love doing the National Democratic Institute work, which is always in demand in many ways, and more complicated. One of the things I’ve been saying more and more is: ‘democracy has to deliver’. And there’s always the question about how political and economic powers play together. I know in graduate school you argue that all the time and ultimately I say they have to go together because people want to vote and eat.”ON HER INSPIRATIONS“I’m often asked who are the people I admire the most. I used to have three of them, I only have two at this point, and you’ll understand in a minute, who is: people who forgave their jailers and were able to move on. Aung San Suu Kyi used to be one of them but her

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTSON BEING PERSONALLY SANCTIONED BY CHINA“Well you know it doesn’t really, right now it hasn’t affected me personally the way the people in Hong Kong have been affected because it was related to the crackdown it was related to the US sanctioning various officials in China over a number of things that China is doing. It obviously did highlight the fact that of what’s happened to the relationship. We could worry that they may be hacking us at some point or trying to crack into our internet but overall you know it doesn’t affect us, I wasn’t going to China anyway.” ON THE STATE OF GLOBAL DEMOCRACY“There’s no doubt that democracy is in crisis, and we’ve talked about that for a long time. Larry Diamond has used the word recession to describe what’s happened. And to be perfectly frank it shouldn’t be surprising to us.” ON SENATOR MCCAIN’S SUPPORT FOR THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR DEMOCRACY“Well you know McCain along with some Republicans when he joined the Congress was not convinced that this was a gre

In the first edition of the McCain Institute’s Authors & Insights event series, former World Bank President Robert Zoellick joined Ambassador Mark Green to discuss his newest book, “America in the World: A History of U.S. Diplomacy and Foreign Policy.” Having served as deputy secretary of state and U.S. trade representative throughout his career, Zoellick […] The post A Diagnosis of America’s Foreign Policy appeared first on McCain Institute.

ABOUT THE EPISODE In this two-part episode, two ambassadors weigh in on the how and “so what” of the U.S. and Vietnam putting aside their post-war differences to normalize diplomatic relations 25 years ago on July 11. In Part One, Ted Osius, United States ambassador to Vietnam from 2014 to 2017, shares what it was […] The post Part II: Partnership ventured, what’s been gained? 25 years of US-Vietnam normalized relations appeared first on McCain Institute.

ABOUT THE EPISODE In this two-part episode, two ambassadors weigh in on the how and “so what” of the U.S. and Vietnam putting aside their post-war differences to normalize diplomatic relations 25 years ago on July 11. In Part One, Ted Osius, United States ambassador to Vietnam from 2014 to 2017, shares what it was […] The post Partnership ventured, what’s been gained? 25 years of US-Vietnam normalized relations appeared first on McCain Institute.

ABOUT THE EPISODE Senator John McCain suffered much of what the UN Convention Against Torture (CAT) and Other Cruel or Degrading Treatment or Punishment – adopted June 26, 1987 – bans as a prisoner of war and victim of torture. Ten years later, this date was established as the annual International Day in Support of Victims […] The post Is Torture Ever Justified? appeared first on McCain Institute.

About the episode Mike Gallagher is a 2nd term U.S. Congressman representing the Green Bay area of Wisconsin.  He’s a former Marine Officer and decorated Iraq War veteran who has become a leading voice in foreign policy, on China in particular.  He’s a Princeton graduate with a doctorate in international relations from Georgetown. He joins […] The post A new proposal to stand with Hong Kong’s democracy activists: A conversation with Rep. Mike Gallagher appeared first on McCain Institute.

A Bond special, not with James but Bruce, hear how this top tech exec turned non-profit CEO advances mitigating incivility & polarization as the solution to fighting the coronavirus and seeking common ground to heal our democracy. For more candid conversations on the “In The Arena” podcast, please subscribe on iTunes or Soundcloud. The post Is Common Ground even shakier in the Age of the Coronavirus? appeared first on McCain Institute.

Successfully Fighting COVID-19: Health Minister of Latvia and McCain Institute Next Generation Leader Ilze Vinkele shares her leadership approach to stemming the pandemic in this eastern European country with a population the size of Nebraska, but suffering far fewer cases and fatalities. Note: This episode was recorded on April 24. Ilze is also a McCain […] The post This Country Is Getting Their COVID Response Right appeared first on McCain Institute.

In The Arena teamed up with three other leading podcasts from the Democracy Group Network for this special episode tracing the coronavirus’ effect on civic engagement, human rights and global response. For more candid conversations on the “In The Arena” podcast, please subscribe on iTunes or Soundcloud. The post In The Arena – Special Episode: The Democracy Group appeared first on McCain Institute.

Peter Copeland, heralded former Washington bureau chief and global correspondent, opens up about what it takes to produce quality journalism.  [recorded prior to the Coronavirus pandemic] For more candid conversations on the “In The Arena” podcast, please subscribe on iTunes or Soundcloud. The post Freedom pressed as a Global Correspondent and Bureau Chief appeared first on McCain Institute.

Colonel Chris Karns, Director of Public Affairs for U.S. Africa Command, provides a mission update and explains how more engagement (not less) is key for U.S. national security and the progress of our African partners. For more candid conversations on the “In The Arena” podcast, please subscribe on iTunes, Soundcloud or YouTube. The post What Are The U.S. Military’s Goals and Capabilities in Africa? appeared first on McCain Institute.

Ambassador Bill Taylor joined In The Arena to discuss his recent posting to Ukraine and his career as a top conflict resolution expert. For more candid conversations on the “In The Arena” podcast, please subscribe on iTunes, Soundcloud or YouTube. The post Defending Freedom in Ukraine and Eurasia: an interview with former ambassador to Ukraine, Bill Taylor appeared first on McCain Institute.