Independent Thinking

In Tigray, the world’s largest armed conflict rages between Ethiopian federal government troops and the Tigray Defence Forces. With estimates placing those killed in the fighting at 600,000, how did Ethiopia, one of Africa’s great success stories, descend into civil war, and what hopes are there for recent peace initiatives? Meanwhile in Ukraine, all eyes are on Zaporizhzhia, as Europe’s largest nuclear plant continues to be occupied by Russian forces. With fresh reports of explosions near the

In Iran, since September the country has been swept by thousands of women-led protests, demanding an end to the morality police and the even the fall of the Islamic Republic. Meanwhile at Chatham House this week, we hosted our long-awaited Iraq conference, which delved heavily into the multiple challenges facing Iraq two decades on from the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. Joining Bronwen Maddox on the podcast this week are Dr Sanam Vakil, the Deputy Director of our Middle East and North Africa

In the United States, the midterm elections threw up some surprising results, with the anticipated Republican ‘red wave’ failing to materialise. Meanwhile at COP27 in Egypt, world leaders met in the first week of the summit. What did their presence achieve? To find out, returning to the podcast this week with Bronwen Maddox are Leslie Vinjamuri, Director of our US and Americas Programme who was in Atlanta Georgia for the midterms and Anna Aberg Research Associate, Environment and Society Programme

In Brazil, former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva beat incumbent Jair Bolsonaro by the narrowest of margins. Meanwhile in the United States, the Democrats are fighting to retain the House and Senate from a resurgent Republican Party, still enamoured with Donald Trump. Joining Bronwen Maddox this week are Leslie Vinjamuri, Director of our US and Americas Programme, Christopher Sabatini, Senior Fellow on Latin America and Ana Yang, Executive Director of our Sustainability Accelerator. Read our

Rishi Sunak enters Downing Street as the youngest prime minister in modern times, whilst also this week Chatham House welcomed the US Special Presidential Envoy on Climate, John Kerry, to discuss what lies ahead for COP27. To discuss all this and more, Bronwen Maddox is joined by John Kampfner, Executive Director of Chatham House’s UK in the World Initiative, Simon Fraser, formerly of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Hans Kundani an Associate Fellow with the Europe Programme and Anna Åberg, a

Amid political chaos in the UK, with the resignation of Liz Truss, Bronwen Maddox speaks with Gideon Rachman, chief foreign affairs commentator for the Financial Times, and Orysia Lutsevych, Head of the Ukraine Forum at Chatham House, about the latest developments surrounding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Putin's nuclear threats. Joining them is Dr Yu Jie, Senior Research Fellow for Chatham House’s Asia Pacific program, to break down Xi Jinping’s speech at the 20th National Congress of the