June 16 – The Impending Break-Up of Iraq; Putin Turns the Screw on Ukraine; A Democrat who Helped Unseat Eric Cantor

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the looming possibility of another sectarian war in Iraq and the end of the Sykes-Picot borders drawn up by the British and French colonists at the end of World War 1. Iraq expert and professor of Modern Middle Eastern and South Asian History at the University of Michigan, Juan Cole joins us to discuss the impending break-up of Iraq and what countries or states might be left after the next round of sectarian slaughtering is over.

Part 2

Then we speak with the former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Steven Pifer, about the likely response to Russia turning off the gas pipeline that supplies both Ukraine and other Western European countries. Ambassador Pifer is the director of the Brookings Institute’s Arms Control Initiative and a former special assistant to the president and senior director for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia on the National Security Council. We examine the latest pressure from Russia on the new government of Petro Poroshenko and assess whether Putin is engaged in a good cop/bad cop strategy or is making it up as he goes along while the U.S. is distracted by Iraq.

Part 3

Then finally we speak with Brian Umana, a former congressional campaign manager in Charlottesville, Virginia about his article in the Washington Post, “I’m a Democrat and I helped the Tea Party unseat Eric Cantor” and the possibility of a future for the left/right coalition he worked on with the insurgent Tea Party campaign of David Brat who beat Cantor by running an anti-Wall Street and crony capitalism campaign using immigration as a wedge issue to accuse Cantor of wanting to help corporate America import cheap labor.