Out Of Order

Nearly seventy years ago to the day, President Harry Truman signed the North Atlantic Treaty and established NATO. Ahead of an unprecedented address to a Joint session of Congress by NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and ministerial meetings in Washington, Out of Order explores the state of NATO and the key issues animating defense debates from DC to Paris to Warsaw. Around the table this week in Washington: Defense and Security fellow Steven Keil; Michal Baranowski, GMF’s Warsaw office director; and Martin Quencez, fellow and senior program office based in Paris.

From AI to 5G, the innovations that pose unprecedented opportunities also pose a risk to democracy—and there is no consensus yet on how to solve this puzzle. This week on Out of Order, Karen Kornbluh, director of GMF’s new Digital Innovation and Democracy Initiative, and Michel Servoz, special adviser to European Commission President Juncker for robotics, AI, and the future of labor, discuss the frontier technologies changing society, differences in the U.S. and European tech policy debates, and why bridging the Silicon Valley-Washington-Brussels gap is essential.

The controversy over Chinese telecoms giant Huawei and the potential for it to unlock an unprecedented level of access to Europe’s critical infrastructure through 5G has been at the center of headlines around the world. But how does Huawei’s 5G plan actually work, and why does it have policymakers and technologists on both sides of the Atlantic so concerned? Out of Order’s newest host and deputy director of GMF’s Asia program, Sharon Stirling, is joined by two experts on China-US-Europe relations, Janka Oertel and Jonas Parello Plesner to get to the bottom of the Huawei debate, how it's playing out between the US and Europe (and within Europe), and what to watch for as the situation rapidly changes. 

In the concluding episode of the two-part “What to Watch” feature, the Out of Order roundtable discusses another raft of issues that they’ll be tracking this year, now that we have made it through a shutdown and almost two eventful months. We focus this time on Europe, the United States, and global democracy challenges. There is impending Brexit drama with implications of fracturing politics across the European continent,  and key national elections in Poland and regional elections in Germany. In the U.S. there will be a raucous U.S. presidential primary election cycle and an administration that is likely to get more chaotic. We also discuss democratic energy globally and the challenges and opportunities at the intersection of tech and democracy. Finally, some colleagues chime in on key challenges surrounding election security, what hope there might be in the ongoing war in Yemen, and Russian aggression in and around the Black Sea.  

A month into 2019, the fight over immigration policy is without resolution as the White House battles with Democrats over funding for a wall on the southern border. The President is set to deliver his State of the Union address to a divided chamber—and nation. Immigration is expected to feature prominently as prospects of another government shutdown loom.  New York Times White House correspondent Michael Shear joins Out of Order’s Peter Sparding for a timely conversation about immigration politics and how it all got to this point—from the origins of Trump’s fixation on building a wall, to the many characters driving the debate, and where the actual policy stands.

It’s time to say “Goodbye, Au Revoir, and Auf Wiedersehen” to 2018. It was another significant year for the transatlantic relationship: Brexit chaos and the U.S. midterms, fake news and a Facebook reckoning, Merkel 2.0, and the Macron backlash. Out of Order recounts the year’s consequential moments for relations between Europe and the United States, and how this all sets the stage for 2019. In the podcast adaption of the new blog post, “What to Watch in 2019,” the Out of Order hosts—with cameos by various German Marshall Fund experts from around the world—weigh in on what to expect in 2019 when it comes to transatlantic trade battles, China, and U.S. and European domestic politics in Part One of this two-part special. Note: Out of Order will be taking a break for the holidays! We will return the week of January 14th with Part Two of our "What to Watch in 2019"

The Angela Merkel era is ending. The weekend of December 7-8 in Hamburg the curtains draw half closed and we will see who officially waits in the wings to take over. Currently, there are three candidates are vying for that position. Angela Merkel became chairwoman of the Christian Democratic party in 2000 and Chancellor five years later. In what many see as the first step of a tactical retreat, Angela Merkel announced in late October that she would not seek reelection to head her party, though she will remain in her spot at the head the government until the next elections in 2021 – or at least presumably. Because of course as soon as someone else takes over leadership of her party, Germany will have a new heir (or heiress) apparent. The cast of characters is interesting: The ambitious Jens Spahn,  currently serving as health minister in the government; the woman generally viewed as Merkel’s anointed heir and perhaps a kind of Merkel 2.0, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, and finally Friedrich Merz, an old arch riva

  While everyone in DC is off for the holiday, Rachel Tausendfreund is joined by two colleagues in Berlin to discuss some recent events in global politics that we can appreciate, or in the holiday lingo, be thankful for. Maryna Raklei, who works as a program officer in Berlin on projects supporting Belarussian civil society and used to work as a journalist in Minsk, talks about a successful crowdfunding campaign in support of critical press in Russia, and a new official Ukrainian church. Jan Techau, the director of GMF’s Europe Program, talks about positive spending developments in Berlin and hopeful notes in U.S. society. Rachel gives thanks for the success of anti-gerrymandering measures in Michigan and elsewhere in the U.S. in the recent Midterms. Stay tuned for next week as we resume programming, shifting our focus back to the state of the European Union with an episode dealing solely with France and Germany. We hope that all of our U.S. based listeners are enjoying the Thanksgiving holiday with family an

American voters have spoken and Democrats will soon control the U.S. House of Representatives. How might this new political reality at home affect the Trump administration's policies abroad? What levers will the Democrats pull, if any, when it comes to oversight of a disruptive global agenda? GMF’s Derek Chollet and Jamie Fly join Out of Order to weigh in on how America's global posture will -- or won't -- change and what's at stake for transatlantic relations.  New Feature: We want to hear from you. Engage with the Out of Order team through our new listener inbox at outoforder@gmfus.org  Send us your thoughts, questions, comments, and suggestions for future topics you'd like to hear us cover. We will feature select input on upcoming Out of Order episodes. Speakers Derek Chollet | Executive Vice President and Senior Advisor for Security and Defense Policy Jamie Fly | Senior Fellow and Director, Future of Geopolitics, Asia Program Washington, DC Moderator Sydney Simon | Media and Communications Specialist Show

Trade is back in the spotlight, and the U.S. is at the center of a building international showdown. A combative economic agenda is now being realized as the Trump administration disrupts trade relations with allies and adversaries alike. From the torpedoed TPP, new NAFTA, tariffs on steel, aluminum, and potentially autos, and even suggestions that the U.S. could leave the WTO – who wins and who loses in this new landscape, and where can constructive compromises be made? Is there a common transatlantic trade agenda in dealing with China, and are we heading for a US-China economic decoupling or even a new Cold War? On the latest episode of GMF’s Out of Order podcast, we’ll deconstruct the current state of international trade—from micro to macro-- with the foremost expert on the matter, Georgetown law professor Jennifer Hillman. Hillman has served as a member of the WTO’s Appellate Body, as commissioner of the US International Trade Commission, and as General Counsel at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representativ

It’s back! The Out of Order podcast returns to the airwaves. Thirty years after the fall of the wall, the reemergence of authoritarianism and illiberalism in Central and Eastern Europe is as pressing as ever and threatens to divide an already shaky EU. With Article 7 proceedings triggered against Poland and Hungary, and continued efforts by the Kremlin to disrupt European unity, what are the implications of an undemocratic Central Europe for the world’s largest economic bloc, what is the next move in Brussels, and where does the U.S. factor in all of this?   In this week’s episode GMF’s Jonathan Katz and Rachel Tausendfreund in Washington are joined by Corinna Horst in Brussels to discuss the state of European (dis)Union in Europe, especially its eastern states. And after that [], Jonathan sits down with three people who are deeply familiar with the politics of the Visegrad group: Slovakia’s former ambassador to the US and Hungary Rastislav Kacer; Jakub Wisniewski, the former Polish ambassador to the OECD and

In July on Out of Order, we discussed what’s on the line for multilateral sanctions against Iran in the wake of President Trump’s withdrawal from the JCPOA (better known as the Iran Nuclear Deal). [Episode Link] Now the stakes have been raised even further; last week, the remaining members of the nuclear deal announced that they will create a new payment infrastructure, allowing countries to sideswipe U.S. regulations and continue doing business with Iran. With the next set of U.S. sanctions set to go into effect in just over a month from now, we’ve decided it’s a good time for a primer on this escalating battle of sanctions. To put the pieces together, we’re back at the table with GMF’s resident illicit-finance and sanctions expert Joshua Kirschenbaum to talk special purpose vehicles, Iran, and the future of U.S. sanctions. In addition, stay tuned for the debut of Out of Order's second season, set to premiere in the next few weeks. This season will feature a variety of experts and topics over regularly prog

  During the height of the cold war, the space race between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. was as much an ideological struggle as it was a battle of technological exploration. When the U.S. first stepped foot on the moon, many framed the historical moment as an essential victory of democracy over communism. This melding of ideology and technological progress plays out in our own time through a struggle for design and control over the next wave of invention and innovation. In our interconnected world and at the precipice of machine learning and artificial intelligence, values play an increasingly existential role in the future of tech. But who controls these values comes down to who can harness these new technologies, pitting us in yet another battle for the future.  In this episode, Out of Order will cover the current state of technological progress, who is ahead and where, how the transatlantic community can promote design and control of new technological developments, and the effects which non-liberal actors can

In Episode IX of Out of Order Rachel Tausendfreund talks with GMF fellows Douglas Hengel, Joshua Kirschenbaum, and Andrew Small about transatlantic fights with Iran and the future of sanctions The sanctions regime against Iran that led to the JCPOA is widely considered one of the most successful implementations of sanctions ever, and also the EU’s biggest foreign policy success. But in May President Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from agreement, leaving allies and rivals scrambling to respond. Europe has announced its intentions to preserve the deal and has promised to come up with a plan by November 2019, signaling a willingness to defy U.S. sanctions to do so — and Russia and China are all too happy to cooperate. The foreign ministers of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, met with their counterparts from China, Russia, and Iran in Vienna in early July to continue work on their JCPOA rescue plans. With GMF fellows Douglas Hengel, Joshua Kirschenbaum, and Andrew Small, Rachel Taus

President Trump’s overtures to North Korea represent perhaps the most significant foreign policy development so far during his administration. In addition to marking a departure in how authoritarian regimes are treated by the world’s major power, recent developments have the potential to transform the balance of power in Asia. While there is some relief after the days of "fire and fury" threats, U.S. allies around the world are also nervous. Host Peter Sparding talks to Andrew Small and Jamie Fly in Washington, and Janka Oertel in Berlin, about the summit and its implications. After recapping and assessing the summit and its results, the discussion opens with a tour around the region, as the panel discusses how recent developments look from China, Japan, South Korea, and the United States. Is China the main beneficiary of the new thaw between Washington and Pyeongyang? How does this fit into the larger U.S. strategy towards the Asia-Pacific or is there no coherent strategy? What is driving the debate in South

We are back! After an extended spring break, the Out of Order crew is back in the studio to bring you informative and relevant speakers and ideas, exploring how the world was, is and will be ordered. In this episode, we discuss whether the West is a club built on common values or shared interests. Specifically, we look at the case of NATO and Turkey and consider both how democratic backsliding affects and should affect their relationship. NATO’s founding treaty refers includes a statement of common values in its preamble, mentioning the “freedom, common heritage, and civilization of their peoples” and that it is “founded on the principles of democracy, individual liberty, and rule of law.” But how important have these common principles really been for NATO? Is it really a democratic, liberal organization, or is it simply a security alliance against the (then) Soviet Union and today Russia? We discuss the current political situation in Turkey, the prospects for reform and NATO’s proper role in pushing against

Over the last years, policy makers on both sides of the Atlantic have become increasingly concerned that the Liberal International Order is in danger. At first, threats to this Western-led order seemed to emanate mostly from the outside, as rising powers such as China and Russia challenged the existing order. But with the Brexit referendum and the election of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency, it has become clear that there are plenty of actors within our societies who are equally opposed to existing global order. But what exactly are the opposed to - and what do proponents of the LIO want to defend? It is not clear if either the critics or the supporters agree about what the most essential components of the order are. Is it about the West? It it about free trade and neoliberal economics? Is it about democracy and human rights? What makes the order "liberal" anyway? Do we need to scale back the LIO in order to save it? What would a world without it look like? In this episode, recorded live at the Young Prof

So far, the Out-of-Order Podcast has focused on specific countries and the role they play in trying to stabilize, uphold, change, or transform the current international order. In the fifth episode, we take a different approach as we look at what role the military and hard power plays in shaping the international order. To discuss this and related issues, hosts Amy Studdart and Peter Sparding are joined by GMF Visiting Senior Fellow Shawn Turner and GMF Executive Vice President Derek Chollet. During the Cold War, the role of the military in underpinning the Western international order seemed clear. After the end of the Cold War, however, the mission of Western militaries seemed to change as NATO was looking for a new role and Western militaries primarily focused first on humanitarian interventions like in the Balkans and then, following the attacks on 9/11, on targeted military action fighting against terrorism and broad-scope wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Now, as the new U.S. National Defense Strategy (NDS) o

In the fourth episode of Out of Order, having discussed the roles of Germany, China, and whether other international actors can fill the void left in the international system, this episode focuses on the country that supposedly is leaving this void: the United States. Hosts Rachel Tausendfreund and Peter Sparding talk with GMF Senior Fellow and Director of the Asia and Future of Geopolitics programs Jamie Fly, a long-time Republican foreign policy hand, about U.S. foreign policy in the unpredictable first year of the Trump presidency. Fly argues that Trump’s foreign policy has been relatively conventional, if not too conventional — when you set asides his tweets and some erratic statements. He goes on to contend that U.S. foreign policy thus far has actually continued the trend of the previous democratic administration by stepping even further back from a position of leadership in the world order we’ve come to know. Yet, at the same time, recent domestic political developments and behaviors of the Trump admin

Misinformed, disinformed, and divided —  that’s Russia’s goal. In the third episode of GMF’s Out of Order podcast, we look at Russia’s hybrid toolbox of trouble, and what it means for the future of the liberal international order as we know it. What is the Kremlin doing to undermine Western democracies and why? Hosts Rachel Tausendfreund and Peter Sparding talk with David Salvo and Bret Schafer from GMF’s Alliance for Securing Democracy, a bi-partisan project that tracks ongoing efforts to subvert democracy in the United States and Europe. We talk twitter, the Hamilton 68 disinformation dashboard, money trails, and covert invasions. How much success is it having, and how much should the public care?