Encounter - Voice Of America

John Fortier, resident scholar at The American Enterprise Institute, and Jim Kessler, executive vice president for policy at Third Way, take stock of US President Joe Biden’s first year in office. Despite his major accomplishments, including the Covid-19 relief bill and bipartisan infrastructure legislation, a couple of conservative Democrats in the evenly split Senate have thus far stymied Biden’s hopes for passing voting rights and “Build Back Better” legislation before the end of 2021.

A bill to create a commission to study the effects of slavery and discrimination in the United States has been stalled in the House of Representatives for more than seven months. In this encore edition of Encounter, host Carol Castiel talks with Jennifer Oast, professor and chair of the Department of History at Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania, and Noah Millman, political columnist for “The Week,” about the merits and drawbacks of reparations for descendants of slaves and why the debate has been revived in recent days. Listen to Encounter on the Voice of America!

US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping attempted to fend off further escalation over contentious issues like Taiwan, human rights, and the global balance of power and reach some agreement on health security and climate change at a recent virtual summit. East Asia experts Richard Fontaine, CEO of The Center for a New American Security, and Dean Cheng, Senior Research Fellow at the Asian Studies Center at The Heritage Foundation talk with host Carol Castiel about the challenges ahead for the US-China relationship.

Olayemi Olurin, a public defender with the Legal Aid Society in New York City and Mollie Saltskog, an expert in disinformation and domestic extremism at the Soufan Center, discuss the ramifications of the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse, a young man charged with homicide in the deadly Kenosha, Wisconsin shootings of August 2020. Olurin tells VOA the self-defense argument was unsupported and Saltskog expresses dismay over the celebration of Rittenhouse as a “hero” among right-wing media/politicians and domestic and foreign terrorist groups. The guilty verdict for three white men who fatally shot a young Black jogger, Ahmaud Arbery, on the other hand, was hailed by civil rights leaders across the country.

Will Pomeranz, deputy director of the Kennan Institute at the Wilson Center, and Andrea Kendall-Taylor, senior fellow and director of the Transatlantic Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, discuss the motives behind Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko’s creation of an artificial migrant crisis on the border with Europe and the malign role played by Russian President Vladimir Putin in this ruse with host Carol Castiel. They also analyze the Russian troop buildup on the border with US ally Ukraine.

Ambassador Tibor Nagy, former assistant secretary of state for African Affairs and former US Ambassador to Ethiopia and Ambassador Donald Booth, former US Ambassador to Ethiopia and former special envoy to Sudan and South Sudan, diagnose the roots of the looming crisis in Ethiopia as well as recommend keys to a peaceful outcome with host Carol Castiel.

John Fortier, resident scholar at The American Enterprise Institute, and Jim Kessler, executive vice president for policy at Third Way, discuss the main issues dominating the US political landscape with host Carol Castiel, including the implications of the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races for the 2022 midterm elections. A decisive Republican victory in Virginia is seen as a “wake-up” call for Democrats nationwide and a good omen for Republicans who seek to win back one or both houses of Congress in 2022. Program Note: Late Friday night (11/05/21), Democrats set aside differences and passed a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, sending it to President Joe Biden to sign into law. This program was recorded before the legislation was passed.

Cameron Hudson, former chief of staff to the US Special Envoy to Sudan and Ismail Kushkush an independent Sudanese journalist, discuss the factors leading to the recent coup in Sudan with host Carol Castiel. They tell VOA the military fear losing control over key economic sectors in which they have business interests and the prospect of facing accountability for past atrocities. Hudson and Kushkush say the Sudanese who rose up to throw off the yoke of military rule under Omar al Bashir, are likely to mount a strong resistance to this attempt at subverting the democratic transition.

On this edition of Encounter, host Carol Castiel talks with Eric Farnsworth, Vice President of the Council of the Americas and the Americas Society, and Steve Hege, deputy regional director for the US Institute of Peace in Colombia, about the significance of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to Colombia and Ecuador and challenges in bolstering democracy, equitable economic growth, combatting corruption and mitigating irregular migration from Haiti and Venezuela.

Ellen Laipson, professor, and director of the Center for Security Policy Studies at George Mason University, and Sarhang Hamasaeed, director of Middle East programs at the US Institute of Peace, discuss the outcome and significance of the most recent parliamentary elections in Iraq, which were precipitated by the 2019 protest movement (Tishreen) against corruption, inordinate Iranian influence in Iraq and calls for major reforms of the political system. What do results augur for the future of democracy and stability in Iraq?

John Fortier, resident scholar at The American Enterprise Institute, and Jim Kessler, executive vice president for policy at Third Way, discuss the major issues dominating the US political landscape with host Carol Castiel including a debt ceiling extension deal, intense negotiations among Democratic lawmakers over the scope and cost of a human infrastructure bill critical to President Joe Biden’s agenda, and an interim Senate report exposing former President Donald Trump’s attempt to install a loyalist attorney general to pursue unfounded claims of election fraud.

Michael Green, Senior Vice President for Asia, and Japan Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and Kori Schake, Director of Foreign and Defense Policy Studies, at the American Enterprise Institute discuss the significance and implications of the so-called AUKUS accord, a new strategic alliance between the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia to counter China’s assertive actions in the Indo-Pacific region.

On this Africa edition of Encounter, Joshua Meservey, senior policy analyst for Africa and the Middle East at the Heritage Foundation and Oge Onubogu, director of the West Africa program at the U.S. Institute of Peace, discuss setbacks in democracy and good governance as exemplified by coups in Guinea and Mali, the need to strengthen regional institutions like ECOWAS and the African Union and the importance of fostering positive trends epitomized by the peaceful transfer of power in Zambia.

On this edition of Encounter, John Malcolm, vice president for the Institute for Constitutional Government and the director of the Meese Center for Legal & Judicial Studies at the conservative Heritage Foundation, and Elliot Mincberg, senior fellow at the liberal People for the American Way, spar over the merits and drawbacks of expanding the 9-member Supreme Court and making other changes such as imposing term limits to the lifetime appointments and reforming the so-called “Shadow docket” with host Carol Castiel.

On the 20th anniversary of the deadliest terrorist attack on US soil, renowned terrorism analysts Ali Soufan, former supervisory FBI agent, now CEO of The Soufan Group, and Bruce Hoffman, senior fellow for counterterrorism and homeland security at the Council on Foreign Relations, reflect on the successes and failures over the past two decades of the “war on terror” and the daunting challenges that remain with host Carol Castiel.

On this politics edition of Encounter, John Fortier, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and Jim Kessler, senior vice president for policy at Third Way, discuss prospects for the passage of two pending infrastructure bills, the resurgence of the Delta variant of Covid-19, and whether or not President Joe Biden may pay a political price for the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan as he sought to end America’s military involvement in the 20-year war.

Ambassador Ronald Neumann, former Ambassador to Afghanistan, now President of the American Academy of Diplomacy and Michael Kugelman, Senior Associate for South Asia for The Wilson Center discuss with host Carol Castiel the ongoing US withdrawal from Afghanistan, including whether the country may once again become a breeding ground for terrorism under the Taliban. Program Note: This program was recorded before the Kabul airport terrorist attack.

Lisa Curtis, former senior National Security Council official under the Trump administration, now director of the Indo-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), and Marvin Weinbaum, director for Afghanistan and Pakistan Studies at The Middle East Institute discuss with host Carol Castiel the domestic and international ramifications of the Biden administration’s controversial troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and the subsequent Taliban takeover after the rapid collapse of Afghan security forces.

In this encore edition of Encounter, Zack Smith, a legal fellow in the Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the conservative Heritage Foundation, and William Roberts, managing director for Democracy and Government Reform at the liberal Center for American Progress, join host, Carol Castiel to spar over the constitutional, historical, and political arguments for and against statehood for the District of Columbia, the seat of the nation’s capital.

On this edition of Encounter, host Carol Castiel returns to her native Pennsylvania to reprise a conversation with the Republican and Democratic leaders in Lawrence County: Paul Stefano, chairman of the Democratic Party of Lawrence County, and Richard Flannery, a local and state Republican leader, whom she interviewed prior to the 2020 elections. They discuss President Joe Biden’s job performance – from his management of the Covid-19 pandemic and vaccine distribution to infrastructure proposals and prospects for the Democrats and Republicans in the 2022 midterm elections.