Podcast

This week on Hold Your Fire!, Richard talks with Abdulaziz Sager, Crisis Group’s Trustee and Founder and Chairman of the Gulf Research Center, about Riyadh’s foreign policy and diplomatic efforts seemingly aimed at mending ties in the region.

This week on War & Peace, Olga Oliker and Elissa Jobson talk with Janka Oertel, director of the Asia Programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations, about the fast-evolving EU-China relationship and Beijing’s role in Russia’s war in Ukraine.

This week on Hold Your Fire!, Richard talks with Crisis Group’s Sudan expert Shewit Woldemichael and Crisis Group’s Horn of Africa Director Alan Boswell about the fighting in Sudan and whether Saudi-U.S. led mediation can bring relief to millions of Sudanese caught in the violence.

This week on The Horn, Alan is joined by Jerome Tubiana, a researcher, journalist and Crisis Group’s former senior Sudan analyst, to take a closer look at the origins of Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces and what’s behind their rivalry with the Sudanese armed forces.

This week on Hold Your Fire!, Richard speaks with Olga Oliker, Crisis Group’s Europe and Central Asia Program director, about the latest from the front lines in Ukraine, Kyiv’s long-awaited counteroffensive, what might change Moscow’s calculations and Western capitals’ stamina in supporting Ukraine.

This week on Hold Your Fire!, Richard speaks with Murithi Mutiga, Crisis Group’s Africa director, about the fighting in Sudan and whether mediation efforts to stop the country descending into all-out civil conflict might bear fruit.

This week on The Horn, Alan speaks with Dr. Amgad Fareid Eltayeb, a former assistant chief of staff for Sudan's prime minister and a long-time political activist, about the clashes in Sudan, the origins of the power struggle between the Sudanese Army and the RSF, and prospects for ending the fighting.

The Horn of Africa is in turmoil. From revolution in Sudan to civil war in Ethiopia, from Somalia’s political stalemate and the regional spread of jihadism to troubled East African democracies, the region’s pace and scale of change is difficult to keep up with. The Horn, a podcast series from the International Crisis Group, helps make sense of it all. Host Alan Boswell and guests dive deep behind the headlines as they analyse events, debate diplomacy, and discuss avenues towards peace. Produced by Maeve Frances. Episodes from past series of The Horn can be found here: Season 1, Season 2 and Season 3.

This week on Hold Your Fire!, Richard speaks with Crisis Group’s Sudan expert Shewit Woldemichael and Horn of Africa director Alan Boswell about the fighting in Sudan, the humanitarian disaster unfolding in urban areas and what can stop the slide into full-scale war.

This week on War & Peace, Olga Oliker talks with historian and writer Dr. Ilana Bet-El about the ongoing protests in Israel, the surge of the far right in that country and parallel political developments in Europe and beyond.

This week on War & Peace, Olga Oliker and Elissa Jobson talk with Tbilisi-based journalist Joshua Kucera and Crisis Group’s Senior Analyst for the South Caucasus Olesya Vartanyan about the March protests in Georgia and what they might spell for the political future of the country.

This week on Hold Your Fire!, Richard speaks with Nigar Göksel, Crisis Group’s Türkiye director, to discuss Ankara’s foreign relations under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and, with elections scheduled for May, whether a change in Ankara would bring a change in policy.
 

This week on The Horn, Alan is joined by Edmund Yakani, a leading South Sudanese civil society activist and executive director of the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization, to discuss the state of South Sudan’s peace process and the prospects for elections next year.

This week on Hold Your Fire!, Richard speaks with Omar Mahmood, Crisis Group's Somalia expert, about the Somali army’s latest offensive, together with clan militias, against Al-Shabaab’s Islamist insurgency and challenges as the battle moves from central Somalia to Al-Shabaab’s southern strongholds.

This week on The Horn, Alan is joined by Julia Steers, Nairobi bureau chief and correspondent for VICE News, to discuss the Russian military contractor Wagner's operations in Africa, why African countries partner with the group and how Western governments are responding.

War & Peace is a podcast series from the International Crisis Group, in which Olga Oliker and Elissa Jobson interview experts about all things Europe and its neighbourhood, from Russia to Türkiye and beyond. Their guests shed new light on everything that helps or hinders prospects for peace. Episodes from past series of War & Peace can be found here: Season 1, Season 2 and Season 3.

This week on War & Peace, Olga Oliker and Elissa Jobson are joined by Bert Koenders, former Dutch minister of foreign affairs and current Crisis Group trustee, to discuss how the war in Ukraine has changed Europe and what the EU can do to adapt.

This week on Hold Your Fire!, Richard Atwood is joined by Ali Vaez, Crisis Group’s Iran director, to discuss the China-brokered Saudi-Iranian deal, Iran's evolving foreign relations and its fast advancing nuclear program.

This week on Hold Your Fire!, Richard Atwood is joined by Amanda Hsiao, Crisis Group's China expert, and Stephen Pomper, Crisis Group’s chief of policy, to discuss China's involvement in Ukraine, the U.S. downing of the Chinese spy balloon and risks of confrontation over Taiwan.

This week on War & Peace, Olga Oliker and Elissa Jobson are joined by Richard Gowan, Crisis Group’s UN director, and Brian Finucane, Crisis Group’s senior adviser for the U.S., to talk about the prospects of a crime of aggression tribunal for Ukraine.

This week on The Horn, Alan is joined by Liesl Louw-Vaudran, Crisis Group’s senior adviser to the African Union (AU), to discuss the 2023 AU Summit and the challenges and opportunities facing the continental union amid shifting geopolitics.

This week on Hold Your Fire!, Richard Atwood and Olga Oliker, Crisis Group's Europe and Central Asia director, discuss the latest fighting in Ukraine, the mood in Kyiv, Moscow and Western capitals, and where the war might be headed a year into Russia’s full-scale invasion.

This week on War & Peace, Olga Oliker and Elissa Jobson are joined by Sam Sokol, reporter at Haaretz, to discuss the impact of the war in Ukraine on the country's Jewish communities, accusations of anti-semitism in Ukraine and Russia and their relationship to the real thing, and Ukraine-Israel relations.

This week on Hold Your Fire!, Richard Atwood speaks with Crisis Group’s trustee, Lagos-based lawyer and human rights activist Ayo Obe, and Crisis Group's Senior Adviser Nnamdi Obasi, about Nigeria’s forthcoming elections, held amid deteriorating security and a currency crisis.

This week on The Horn, Alan is joined by Abdi Latif Dahir, East Africa correspondent for The New York Times, to discuss how tweets are disrupting succession politics in Uganda and the challenging task of covering the vast and diverse political landscape of East Africa.

This week on Hold Your Fire!, Richard Atwood speaks with Mark Malloch-Brown, president of Open Society Foundations and former UN Deputy Secretary-General, about the war in Ukraine and protecting open societies in a more dangerous world.

This week on Hold Your Fire!, Richard Atwood speaks with Mairav Zonszein and Tahani Mustafa, Crisis Group’s Israel/Palestine experts, about the past week’s violence, which follows the deadliest year in the West Bank and Jerusalem for almost two decades.

This week on The Horn, Alan is joined by Professor Guma Kunda Komey to discuss Sudan’s arduous path toward restoring civilian rule following a framework agreement between the military and a coalition of major civilian actors in December 2022.

This week on Hold Your Fire!, Richard Atwood speaks with Richard Moncrieff, Crisis Group’s interim Great Lakes project director, about an incident in which Rwanda's army shot at a Congolese fighter jet, raising fears that tensions between Kinshasa and Kigali could boil over. 

This week on War & Peace, Olga Oliker and Elissa Jobson are joined by KIMEP University Professor Nurseit Niyazbekov to talk about what has happened since last January's deadly protests in Kazakhstan, prospects for political reform and the future of Kazakhstan-Russia relations.