June 25 – The New Realities of a Collapsing Iraq; The Combined Military, Diplomatic and Intelligence Strategies of Russia’s New Czar; The U.S. Media’s Muted Response to Jailing of Journalists

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with Iraq’s Prime Minister Maliki rejecting calls for an inclusive “national salvation” government in the face of an ISIS-led Sunni insurgency that is closing in on Baghdad. David Phillips, the Director of the Peace-Building and Rights Program at the Institute for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University and author of “Losing Iraq: Inside the Postwar Reconstruction Fiasco” joins us to discuss the possibility of a grand bargain between Turkey and the Kurds as the state of Iraq appears to be on the verge of collapse.

Part 2

Then we analyze Russian President Putin’s combined military, diplomatic and Intelligence strategies underway in Ukraine and the absence of any coherent U.S. or E.U. strategy to counter the good cop-bad cop machinations of Russia’s new czar who, while simultaneously arming separatist rebels in Ukraine, is magnanimously calling on the Russian parliament to rescind its permission for him to invade Ukraine. Matthew Rojansky, the Director of the Kennan Institute at the Wilson Center joins us to discuss how Putin is covertly destabilizing Ukraine while appearing to cooperate with Kiev to avoid further Western sanctions.

Part 3

Then finally we speak with Toby Miller, who is one of the world’s leading analysts of popular culture, media and their connections to the politics of everyday life. We discuss the muted response in the American media and among U.S. journalists over the flagrantly unjust jailing of three Al Jazeera journalists by Egypt’s military government, in contrast to the vociferous protest by journalists around the world and in the UK where news anchors taped their mouths in protest and networks went silent on air. We also discuss the end of Rupert Murdoch’s political king-making in British politics as Scotland Yard officially informed the media baron that detectives want to interview him “under caution” as a suspect in their inquiry into phone-hacking and other crimes by his newspapers.