The Munk Debates Podcast - Munk Members-Only Pod: Episode 35

Episode Date: September 3, 2021

This is a sample of the Munk Members-Only Podcast. The program provides listeners with a focused, half-hour masterclass on the big issues, events and trends driving news and current events. The show features Janice Gross Stein, the founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and bestselling author, in conversation with Rudyard Griffiths, Chair and moderator of the Munk Debates. This week's Munk Members only podcast focuses three stories in the news: now that the Afghan withdrawal is complete will the West forget the people of Afghanistan? What do we owe our Afghan allies who remain trapped in the country? Why is there no discussion of foreign policy in the Canadian election. Are we really this provincial as a country? And, the Chinese government cracks down on online tutors and video gaming. What is behind Beijing's new found animosity towards Big Tech? To access the full length episode consider becoming a Munk Member. Membership is free. Simply log on to www.munkdebates.com/membership to register. Under your membership profile page you will find a link to listen to the full length editions of Munk Members Podcast. If you like what the Munk Debates is all about consider becoming a Supporting Member. For as little as $9.99 monthly you receive unlimited access to our 10+ year library of great debates in HD video, a free Munk Debates book, monthly newsletter, ticketing privileges at our live and online events and a charitable tax receipt (for Canadian residents). To explore you Munk Membership options visit www.munkdebates.com/membership. This podcast is a project of the Munk Debates, a Canadian charitable organization dedicated to fostering civil and substantive public dialogue. More information at www.munkdebates.com.Become a Munk Donor ($50 annually) to get 72-hour advanced access to the full length editions of Friday Focus and Munk Dialogues. Go to www.munkdebates.com to sign up. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi, Monk podcast listeners. The following is a sample of the Monk members-only podcast. To access the full-length edition of this episode and all of our regular Monk members-only podcasts, go to our website, www.W.Munkdebates.com and register for membership. Membership is free, and it's available for you right now at www.munkdebates.com. Hope you enjoy the program. Hello, Monk members. Rudyard Griffiths here, your host and moderator. welcome to this, the Monk members only podcast. This is our weekly Friday program where we dig into the big issues and ideas in the news,

hopefully leaving you with some new analysis and insights. As our guide and our guest, we are extremely fortunate to have Janice Gross Stein. She's the founding director of the Monk School of Global Affairs, an internationally acclaimed author, scholar, and she's all ours for the next 30 minutes. Janice, this week, the first week of September to our non-neutral Canadian listeners is a kind of vacation week, a break week. It's the final week before we all go back to school and usually go back to the office. That's not going to happen this year.

But thank you so much for finding time in your vacation to come on the program. I believe this is our, what, every Friday since the start of the new year. We've been doing this podcast with you. So thank you again. Oh, it's a pleasure, ready. And I'm reflecting back. This has certainly been a period when the world doesn't go. We have no trouble finding things to talk about with members every week.

Yeah, no vacation for global events. The last few episodes, Janice, we spent really the entire show on Afghanistan. This episode I just want to touch on Afghanistan off the top briefly, but then move on to some other important events for us to get your comments and reflections on. So on Afghanistan, you know better than most Janice that we have a tendency here in the West. If something doesn't go well and our people aren't there, and I mean primarily our military and our diplomats, we have a tendency to kind of turn off the lights, close the door, and walk away. What do you think is going to happen in Afghanistan, given just how searing this crisis has been for the last number of weeks, the extent to which it's dominated our media, our social feeds?

Do we get to switch out the lights, or is this a crisis that is going to continue to, to haunt possibly the West for some time to come. Maybe not in terms of a terrorist threat or risk immediately, but maybe this is going to niggle away at our conscience, Janice. What's your take? You know, I sure hope it does. Roger, you're right. And you can see it with President Biden.

Simply wants to close the book, turn the page, move on to the domestic issues, which are front and center for him. and also move on to deal with what he considers the two big challenges, Russia and China, and wants to refocus his State Department, is his Department of Defense and his intelligence community on the big issues. So I think by and large, that's not an uncommon sentiment, but two things are going to prevent that.

And I think Afghanistan will do more than Nigo away. One, it is just now a strategic part of the world. You think about where Afghanistan is. It has Iran as neighbors. It has Russia. The Chinese are all, they will probably be the first one out of the gate to recognize the Taliban. Pakistan is next door and is going to face a whole host of challenges now that the United States is no longer there to buffer. Really interesting, by the way, to watch the Russians and the Chinese on.

on the one hand in public, celebrating the fact that the Americans are slinking away defeated. But actually, in reading their newspapers, quite concerned now, they're going to have to manage all this. And Afghanistan is rising as a place of attention for them because of all the challenges. So the United States is pulled right back in as the thinks about Iran. It can't turn its back on this part of the world. There's a second reason which you know very well, Richard. Many of the media in the United States, Germany, Canada, have connections with Afghans. And they were very close.

They were personal connections that they developed over the years. They stayed in touch. It's really stunning when you think about it. How many journalists and how many veterans have kept in touch with Afghans and their families. These people are still many of them inside Afghanistan, and it is not going to be a quick fix to get people out. Whole set of basket of issues here, who controls the airport? Will the Taliban allow commercial flights to start?

How do you get people from the city to the airport? As long as these issues are front and center, the media, who are really angry about all of this, are going to keep this in our newspapers. I just read a piece that Sally Armstrong is going to have in one of our big papers. It sets the pages on fire, Richard. And good for her. She's not going to let this. She and others are not going to let this just fade away. Yeah. Before we move to the next topic, my only contribution to your excellent analysis here is the power of social media, that, you know, 20 years ago, the country of Afghanistan was a black box.

Nothing was coming in. Nothing was going out. I believe there was one computer connected to the Internet in all of Kabul. Today, our social feeds are filled with these just searing recordings of panicked calls, of desperate pleas for help. I wonder how that is going to kind of affect public opinion. and possibly keep Afghanistan on our collective conscience for longer than it might normally be. You've been listening to a sample of the Monk Members Only podcast.

To access the rest of the episode, consider becoming a member. Membership is free and available at www.w monk debates.com. Once you've joined as a member, go to your membership profile to access the rest of this episode and all of our Monk members' podcasts. Thanks for listening.