Out Of Order

Click HERE to subscribe to Noah's "Watching China in Europe" newsletter and read the April edition HERE. Official Statements: Statement by Christoph Heusgen in the High-level virtual event on the situation of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim minorities in Xinjiang, May 12Final Remarks by Ambassador Christoph Heusgen in the Security Council on Germany's 2019/2020 termsArticles:U.S., UK Germany Clash with China at U.N. over Xinjiang (Reuters; May 12, 2021) China Outlines Its Priorities as UN Security Council President (The Diplomat; May 5, 2021)'Good Riddance,' China Says as Germany Leaves U.N. Security Council (Reuters; December 22, 2020)

In the third installment of "Watching China in Europe," Noah Barkin speaks with Raphael Glucksmann, a member of the European Parliament and chairman of a special committee in the Parliament that is looking into foreign interference and disinformation. Mr Glucksmann, one of several lawmakers who was put on a Chinese sanctions list in March, revealed that the European Council is working on a mandate that would give the EU new powers to counter Chinese disinformation. He also talked about the "Faustian pact" between European business and China, and the "dangerous mood" in European capitals that has led some leaders to remain silent on China's sanctions. New episodes of the "Watching China in Europe" series will be posted to the Out of Order feed every few weeks. For more on China in Europe, subscribe to Noah's monthly newsletter at the link below. The new May edition is online today.

Click HERE to subscribe to Noah's "Watching China in Europe" newsletter and read the April edition HERE.  

Lawmakers Call for Green 'Due Diligence' in Supply Chains (Euractiv) MEPs: Hold Companies Accountable for Harm Caused to People and Planet (European Parliament) #WeSeeYou: COVID-19 and the Fashion Retail Industry  (Blog post by Laura Basagni, Trade Experettes) Video: Rana Plaza Collapse: The Deadly Cost of Fashion (The New York Times)

Related Reading: Netherlands Election: Mark Rutte and Europe's New Awkward Squad (Financial Times)"Frugal Four" Propose "Loans for Loans" Approach to Coronavirus Recovery Fund (Politico EU, May 2020)Netherlands Election: Mark Rutte Set to Win Big-- But What Next? (The Guardian, March 2021)Nederlanders zijn niet de nieuwe Britten (Caroline de Gruyter, NRC Handelsblad, March 2021)  Episode Music - Blue Dream - CheelDemocracy to Despotism - Zachary Tarrant

Subscribe to Noah's monthly "Watching China in Europe Newsletter" HEREEpisode Music: Blue Dream by Cheel 

Paper: "Flexible Security Arrangements and the Future of NATO Partnerships" (Steven Keil and Sophie Arts, GMFUS.org) Op-Ed: "New Possibilities Open for the U.S.-Poland Relationship" (Michal Baranowski, RealClearWorld)Policy Brief Series: "Agenda 2021: A Blueprint for U.S.-Europe-India Cooperation" (Garima Mohan, GMFUS.org)   

Links: How Biden Can Achieve Russian Restoration (Michael Kimmage, The New Republic) 

New York Times: “Top EU Officials Comes Under Fires in Vaccine Wars”The Guardian: EU Leaders Began to Feel Heat Over Slow Covid Vaccine RolloutPeterson Institute: The Pandemic is Not Under Control Anywhere Unless it is Controlled Everywhere

Out of Order is turning to the not-so-distant past to take stock of Germany’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union, which recently ended. After six months helming the EU’s policy agenda… what were the expectations and how did Germany fare? And now that Portugal has picked up the baton, what should the priorities for 2021 be? GMF’s Sudha David-Wilp leads two conversations with top German officials on their country's EU presidency and what comes next. First up: Germany’s Chief Economist and Director General for Economic and Fiscal Policy Strategy Jakob von Weizsäcker. Followed by two key legislators: Sergey Lagodinsky, Member of the European Parliament for Alliance 90/The Greens; and Jürgen Hardt, Foreign Policy Spokesperson of the CDU/CSU Parliamentary Group. To kick off the episode, GMF’s Sydney Simon talks to Goetz Frommholz, a Berlin-based analyst with the Open Society European Policy Institute (OSEPI) about the position of the Council presidency itself and how it all went. Thanks to our fr

 Report: “A Future Internet for Democracies: Contesting China’s Push for Dominance in 5G, 6G, and the Internet of Everything” (Lindsay Gorman, Alliance for Securing Democracy)Article: "Democratic Source Code for a New EU-U.S. Tech Alliance" (Marietje Schaake and Tyson Barker, Lawfare)

Credit Music by Patrick PatrikiosTitle Music by Zachary Tarrant

Op-Ed: "I Helped Negotiate the Iran Deal. Here's How Joe Biden Could Revive It." (Catherine Ashton, TIME) Report: "Together or Alone: Choices and Strategies for Transatlantic Relations for 2021 and Beyond." (The German Marshall Fund and the Bundeskanzler-Helmut-Schmidt-Stiftung)

Songs in Episode:Staycation - Corbyn Kites Out of Order Theme - Zachary Tarrant

Episode Music: Easy Stroll -  Track Tribe 

Related Reading:  "Iran and Russia Seeks to Influence Election in Final Days, U.S. Officials Warn" (The New York Times, October 21, 2020)"Cyberattacks, Foreign Interference, and Digital Infrastructure: Conducting Secure Elections Amid Pandemic" (The Alliance for Securing Democracy and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems)"Voting by Mail is Still Secure. Here's Why." (David Levine and Amber McReynolds;The Fulcrum, October 5, 2020)"Voter Registration Deadlines—It's Complicated." (Tammy Patrick; The Fulcrum, October 18, 2020)Episode Music:  End Music: Subway Dreams - Dan Henig 

The media plays an essential role in every democracy; but in an election season marked with uncertainty on many different levels, the responsibility of the press corps to preserve the truth while getting the story right is even greater. Now armed with the lessons of 2016—and with disinformation and misinformation still rampant – how is one of America’s most prominent broadcast networks taking on the challenge of covering the 2020 election?CBS News’ Political Director Caitlin Conant and Deputy Director of Surveys Jennifer De Pinto join the Alliance for Securing Democracy’s Rachael Dean Wilson for a conversation about how CBS News and its peers are navigating an increasingly complex information environment, what it’s learned since 2016 and how it’s preparing to cover any potential Election Day curveballs, and the role of the media in preserving the integrity of the vote in this very unusual year.

This week, we’re handing the mic over to Josh Rudolph, the Malign Finance fellow at GMF’s Alliance for Securing Democracy and the author of the new report, Covert Foreign Money.Josh is joined by Luke Harding, best-selling author and senior international correspondent at The Guardian. Harding, who served as The Guardian’s Moscow bureau chief from 2007-2011, recently published the new book “Shadow State: Murder, Mayhem, and Russia’s Remaking of the West.” From Novichok poisonings to millions in covert money, Josh and Luke discuss how the Kremlin tries to spread its influence around the world. The fake news and Facebook trolls are just part of this story.   Links:Book: Shadow State: Murder, Mayhem, and Russia's Remaking of the WestReport: Covert Foreign Money: Financial Loopholes Exploited by Authoritarians to Fund Political Interference in DemocraciesArticle: Alexei Navalny and the long history of poisoned Kremlin criticsOp-Ed: The Rise of Foreign Funds That Distort Western Politics

For almost the entirety of its nearly three decades of independence, the former Soviet country of Belarus has been led under an iron fist by autocrat Alexander Lukashenko. When Belarusians went to the polls last month to vote for their next president, few could have imagined the push for political change —and the movement of mass protests that would soon catapult the country into international headlines.As protests continue amidst a violent crackdown by the government, GMF’s Jonathan Katz is joined by Artyom Shraibman, a Belarusian political analyst based in Minsk to discuss what’s really going on in Belarus, what Vladimir Putin’s role is in all of this, and why this tiny country in Europe's east has so much geopolitical importance.This episode is the first of Out of Order’s new format. In which it will feature a rotating cast of GMF experts speaking with renowned voices in their respective fields. This discussion was taped on Friday, September 11.Show Notes: https://www.gmfus.org/blog/2020/09/14/what-kremlin

The experience of military veterans returning home may often be thought of as a local or national issue - but it is universal.From studying Denmark’s veteran's transition resources and applying best practices back in the U.S., to the unlikely path that led him to help establish the first Ministry of Veteran’s Affairs in Ukraine, no one appreciates the global aspect of veteran’s affairs more than John Boerstler, CEO of the Houston-based Combined Arms and an alum of GMF’s Marshall Memorial Fellowship.A veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps himself, John tells the story of his journey from Iraq to Houston to Denmark to Ukraine (and various place in between) and what he learned about the veteran transition experience -- and how to improve it-- along the way.Note: This episode was taped earlier this year.