The UN Security Council has adopted Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan, which includes deploying an International Stabilization Force (ISF) to handle transitional governance. To discuss, we SPOTLIGHT Séverine Autesserre. Autesserre is an award-winning author, peacebuilder, and researcher, as well as a professor of political science at Barnard College, Columbia University. She is the author of The Frontlines of Peace, Peaceland, and The Trouble with the Congo. Autesserre has been involved intimately in the world of international aid for more than twenty years. She has conducted research in twelve different conflict zones, from Colombia to Somalia to Israel and the Palestinian territories. Her research has helped shape the intervention strategies of several United Nations departments, foreign affairs ministries, and non-governmental organizations, as well as numerous philanthropists and activists. She has also been a featured speaker at the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, the U.S. House of Representatives, and the United Nations Security Council. Media includes: The New York Times, The Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, CNN, BBC, PBS.
This week the House will be voting on whether to release more files related to Jeffrey Epstein. To discuss, we FEATURE Rochelle Keyhan. Keyhan is the chief executive officer of Collective Liberty and the 2018 Thomson Reuters Foundation Stop Slavery Hero. Keyhan offers 15 years of experience in government and nonprofit organizations as an advocate for vulnerable populations, leveraging in-depth experience in gender-based violence issues, including domestic violence, sexual violence, and human trafficking. She is called on as an expert on combatting human trafficking for government officials, financial institutions, and other for-profit and non-profit corporations across the United States. She has also provided technical assistance to organizations across Europe and the Middle East. As CEO at Collective Liberty, she develops and executes the organization's strategic direction and collaborations focused on disrupting specific types of human trafficking, including recruiting and maintaining robust collaborative networks of law enforcement, agency stakeholders, and service providers. Media includes: NBC Nightly News, local NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox news.
The Supreme Court has agreed to review a policy introduced in the first Trump administration that turns away asylum seekers before they reach the U.S. border. To discuss, we FEATURE Lourdes Martinez. Martinez brings twenty years of experience in the immigrants’ rights field with her to Centro Legal de la Raza, where she serves as directing attorney. After graduating from George Washington University Law School, Lourdes worked at the Tahirih Justice Center in Falls Church, Virginia, representing immigrant women and girls fleeing gender-based violence in a variety of cases, ranging from affirmative asylum to removal defense in immigration court. Lourdes later moved to California and became a legal educator at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center in San Francisco. Martinez’s areas of legal expertise include family-based immigration and asylum law, with a focus on protections for women and sexual minorities. Media includes: Univision, Telemundo, NBC Bay Area, KQED News.
A federal judge, citing issues of misconduct, has ordered the Justice Department to give James Comey’s lawyers all the grand jury materials used to indict him. To discuss, we FEATURE Dana Gold. Gold is an attorney and currently serves as the director of education with the Government Accountability Project, the nation’s leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organization. In addition to having represented and/or worked with dozens of whistleblowers over the past 25 years, Gold is also a former Network Fellow with Harvard University’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics and the co-founder and former Director of the Center on Corporations, Law & Society at Seattle University School of Law. Gold has unique expertise and perspective as both a whistleblower advocate and corporate governance educator on the role whistleblowers play in promoting institutional accountability and democracy. Media includes: Slate, The Hill, NowThis Politics, WNYC's On the Media, KUOW.
The Trump administration announced plans to require U.S. passports of transgender people to show the gender they were assigned at birth. To discuss, we FEATURE Emily Greytak. Greytak is the ACLU’s director of research. She leads the ACLU’s policy research work – partnering with national staff, affiliates, and outside partners to develop, execute, and disseminate rigorous research that drives our policy and advocacy agenda. Prior to joining the ACLU in 2019, she served as research director at GLSEN, the leading organization focused on LGBTQ issues in education. During her tenure there, she ran the biennial National School Climate Survey and spearheaded a diverse array of projects, including the first national study of transgender youth experiences, an assessment of the bullying policies of all U.S. school districts, and examination of LGBTQ youth in the school-to-prison pipeline. Media includes: The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Mother Jones, The Daily Show, The Washington Post, Teen Vogue, Univision, People Magazine, CNN.
On Monday, gunmen in Nigeria attacked a high school and kidnapped 25 girls. To discuss, we FEATURE Palang Kasmi. Kasmi is a print Nigerian journalist covering development stories, ranging from human rights, women, health, gender, environment, politics, education, social and cultural issues, with an experience spanning for 18 years. Born and raised in Jos, Plateau State, North-Central Nigeria, she has participated in many events to advocate for social rights and call for an end to gender based violence. Media includes: Inspire Magazine, The Nigeria Standard, PRTVC Radio.
Feuds between Japan and China have escalated after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told Japanese lawmakers that a military response would be triggered if China were to attack Taiwan. To discuss, we FEATURE Bonnie S. Glaser. Glaser is managing director of The German Marshall Fund’s Indo-Pacific program. She is also a nonresident fellow with the Lowy Institute in Sydney, Australia, and a senior associate with the Pacific Forum. She was previously director of GMF’s Asia program, and senior adviser for Asia and the director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Glaser has worked at the intersection of Asia-Pacific geopolitics and US policy for more than three decades. Glaser is an expert on Chinese foreign policy, US-China relations, North Korea, South China Sea, Taiwan and cross-Strait relations. Media includes: CNN, BBC (radio and TV), ABC, CBS (radio and TV), PBS, NPR.
Bangladesh’s ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been sentenced to death following her handling of a student uprising that killed hundreds of people. To discuss, we FEATURE Nilanthi Samaranayake. Samaranayake is Director of the Strategy and Policy Analysis Program at CNA, a non-profit research organization in Arlington, VA. She leads a team of analysts who conduct research and analysis for civilian and military leaders on maritime strategy, nuclear policy, alliance management, Arctic strategy and policy, and non-traditional security. She is also an Adjunct Fellow at the East-West Center in Washington, D.C. Samaranayake examines Indian Ocean and South Asian regional security, U.S. alliances and partnerships, and small states in international affairs. She is also lead author of Raging Waters: China, India, Bangladesh and Brahmaputra River Politics. She lectures widely at U.S. and overseas research and official institutions, including in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Singapore, and Oman. Media includes: Hindustan Times, Defense One, Lawfare, Newsweek, Bloomberg, Foreign Policy, The New York Times, Al Jazeera, CBS.
Donald Trump has announced plans to allow Saudi Arabia to purchase F-35 fighter planes from the U.S. To discuss, we FEATURE Asha Castleberry-Hernandez. Castleberry-Hernandez is a distinguished national security/foreign affairs expert. She has over a decade of experience working as a Middle East policy expert in the public and private sectors. For the Biden-Harris Administration, Castleberry-Hernandez served as a Senior Advisor (Senior Executive Service) in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs (Middle East Policy) in the U.S. State Department. 2012-2015, Castleberry-Hernandez served in Kuwait, Iraq, and Jordan. Castleberry-Hernandez is also a university professor. She currently teaches Middle East Studies at St. Joseph University. Previously, she served as a professor teaching international relations, foreign affairs, and national security at Fordham University, George Washington University, and Baruch College. Media includes: The Washington Post, The Washington Times, The Hill, Al-Jazeera English, CNN, CBS News, Fox News.
November is National Native American Heritage Month. To commemorate, we FEATURE Adrienne Keene. Keene (Cherokee Nation) is a Native scholar, writer, and blogger and is passionate about reframing how the world sees contemporary Native cultures. She is the creator and author of Native Appropriations, a blog discussing cultural appropriation and stereotypes of Native peoples in fashion, film, music, and other forms of pop culture. She is a former assistant professor of American and Ethnic Studies at Brown University. Through her writing and activism, Keene questions and problematizes the ways Indigenous peoples are represented, asking for celebrities, large corporations, and designers to consider the ways they incorporate "Native" elements into their work. She is very interested in the way Native peoples are using social and new media to challenge misrepresentations and present counter-narratives that showcase true Native cultures and identities. Media includes: The New York Times, Time, The Washington Post, NPR, CNN.















