Join host Carol Castiel each week as she and two advocates from the world of politics, public policy, or academia discuss and debate a critical issue in the news, bringing depth, perspective, and insight to the world around us.
Listen to a Recent Program
|  | | US-India Civilian Nuclear Cooperation Deal |  As Congress debates the merits of a landmark civilian nuclear deal for India, critics say it undermines the nuclear nonproliferation treaty. But advocates say it bolsters the strategic partnership between the United States and India, the world's largest democracy and an increasingly important ally. On this edition of Encounter, Walter Andersen, Associate Director of the South Asia Studies Program at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, and Paul Leventhal, Founding President of the Nuclear Control Institute, spar over the deal’s risks and benefits with host Carol Castiel.
(Airdate: 9 April 2006) |
| | Israel’s Historic Elections |  In a historic election that may determine the future of Israel's borders, voters brought to power the new centrist party, Kadima. This, at a time when the militant Islamist group Hamas has taken the reins of the Palestinian Authority. David Makovsky, senior fellow and Director of the Project on the Middle East Peace Process at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and M.J. Rosenberg, Director of Policy Analysis at the non-partisan Israel Policy Forum, discuss the election's impact on Israeli society and on Israeli-Palestinian relations with Carol Castiel.
(Airdate: 2 April 2006) |
| Implications of the Belarus Election |  European observers declared that the recent presidential election in Belarus, which returned Alexander Lukashenko to power, was marred by fraud and intimidation. Michael McFaul, Director of the Center for Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Charles Kupchan, Director of European Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, talk with host Carol Castiel about the implications of the election which has drawn widespread criticism and sparked protests from a small but defiant, local grassroots democracy movement.
(Airdate: 26 March 2006) |
| | | Iraq: Third Anniversary of US-led Invasion |  On the 3rd anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq and the fall of Saddam Hussein, President Bush re-affirmed Washington's commitment to a free, democratic and unified Iraq. Clifford May, President of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, and A. Heather Coyne, Senior Program Officer at the U.S. Institute of Peace, debate U.S. military and political strategy in Iraq in the face of mounting sectarian violence as well as the prospects for the formation of a long-awaited national unity government.
(Airdate: 19 March 2006) |
| | UN Security Council Discusses Iran's Nuclear Program |  On the eve of the UN Security Council debate about Iran’s nuclear program, Leonard Spector, deputy director of the Monterey Institute's Center for Non-proliferation Studies, and Paul Leventhal, founding President of the Nuclear Control Institute, discuss the urgency of curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions with host Carol Castiel.
(Airdate: 12 March 2006) |
| | Port Controversy: Security v. International Investment? |  P.J. Crowley, director for national defense and homeland security at the Center for American Progress, and Daniel Ikenson, trade policy analyst at the Cato Institute, discuss the trade and security issues as well as the politics behind the controversy over a deal that would authorize Dubai Ports World to take over management of six major US ports with host Carol Castiel.
(Airdate: 5 March 2006) |
| | Africa’s Growing Strategic Importance |  Africa is increasingly important to both the United States and China according to a new report issued by the Council on Foreign Relations. Ambassador Princeton Lyman, former US envoy to South Africa and Nigeria, and Stephen Morrison, Director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, make the case for a new, strategic US approach toward Africa with host Carol Castiel.
(Airdate: 26 Feb 2006) |
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