March 7 – “The Real Romney”; Could Syria Become The Somalia Of The Mediterranean?; How Will The West Deal With Putin?

Full Program

Part 1

Now that we are told the Republican frontrunner has a solid if not insurmountable lead, we begin with a look into who Mitt Romney is. Scott Helman, a staff writer at The Boston Globe and co-author of a new book “The Real Romney”, joins us. We explore the candidate’s formative years and learn what makes the man, not the robot, tick.

Then we get an insightful briefing on what‘s holding Syria together and what is tearing it apart, as well as examining the role of the outside powers and the regional players now embroiled in a proxy war that could go on for a considerable time. Aram Nerguizian, a visiting fellow and the Arleigh Burke Chair in Strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies joins us. We discuss the Assad family clan and its Mafia-like domination of both Syria’s politics and its economy as the civil war intensifies to the point Syria could become the Somalia of the Mediterranean with arsenals of chemical and biological weapons on the loose.

Part 3

Then finally we assess how the West might deal with another presidency of Vladimir Putin who just won the Russian election amid charges of fraud and growing protests at home. Daniel Treisman, a professor of Political Science at UCLA and author of “The Return: Russia’s Journey From Gorbachev to Medvedev” joins us. We discuss why President Obama has yet to congratulate Putin on his victory while mentioning at yesterday’s White House press conference that he’s looked forward to meeting Putin at Camp David during the G-8 summit.