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PODCAST

This Is Not A Drill with Gavin Esler

Exploring threats to global stability from Ukraine to China to the Middle East with host Gavin Esler – former BBC News presenter, Washington correspondent and host of Newsnight – plus Ukraine-based war reporter Oz Katerji and independent conflict analyst Emma Beals. This Is Not A Drill dives deep into the dangers, corruption, conflicts, disinformation, rivalries and ruthless realpolitik that are making our world ever more dangerous. Support This Is Not A Drill on Patreon from just £3 per month to

news politics

All Episodes

42:22

Putin is beating our sanctions. Here’s how to stop him.

This Is Not A Drill with Gavin Esler ·

2024/08/07

Russia is the most sanctioned country in the world. The Ukraine war might have left her internationally isolated and starved of resources – but Putin and his oligarch court are adept at avoiding financial restrictions, cutting side deals that enable them to fund the war and protect their power. Are the West’s sanctions working? How can we tighten them? Is there really any difference between sanctions evasion and international criminal money laundering? And who are Putin’s true allies? Gavin Esler

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44:32

The West in retreat?

This Is Not A Drill with Gavin Esler ·

2024/07/31

The days of Western economic, cultural and military dominance are fading. China’s influence and military assertiveness are growing. Rising economies like Brazil, Indonesia and India are increasing powerful. What will the world look like when the West doesn’t write the rules any more?Gavin Esler talks to former UK diplomat Samir Puri about his book Westlessness: The Great Global Rebalancing, and with Tufts University Professor of International Politics Dan Drezner about America’s foreign policy

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34:50

The Dictators’ Cartel and What It Wants – Anne...

This Is Not A Drill with Gavin Esler ·

2024/07/24

The existential threats to world stability are working together. Autocrats in Moscow, Beijing, Tehran and Pyongyang are moving in concert with both their clients and fellow travellers in Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Myanmar, Belarus and other despotisms. United not by ideology but by a love of repression, wealth and power, these new tyrants strike deals to consolidate their control and threaten their shared enemy: us.What does this League Against The Nations want? And how can we combat it

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49:50

America’s crisis is the world’s crisis

This Is Not A Drill with Gavin Esler ·

2024/07/17

The US is currently suffering a crisis in democracy, and its effects are far-reaching. But how does it relate to the global rise in authoritarianism and conflict? In the wake of compounding concerns created by the recent Supreme Court immunity decision and increasing calls for Joe Biden to step down from the Presidential nomination due to his age, This Is Not A Drill assesses the stakes at play for global security. America is in turmoil after the assassination attempt against Donald Trump. But

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42:16

Can Europe’s centre hold?

This Is Not A Drill with Gavin Esler ·

2024/07/10

Europe’s most powerful countries are in political crisis. Emmanuelle Macron’s big gamble to halt the progress of Marine le Pen’s Rassemblement National seems to have paid off – for now. But Germany’s far right Alternative für Deutschland continues to eat into the national vote and the country’s post-war consensus. What does the rise of extremists who are soft on Putin, or even pro-Russia, mean for the safety of Europe? Gavin Esler asks Economist Paris bureau chief Sophie Pedder about France’s close

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1:31

🚨 The Oh God, What Now? Election Marathon on YouTube...

This Is Not A Drill with Gavin Esler ·

2024/07/04

ALERT! Get yourself over to the Oh God, What Now? YouTube channel right now for all-night second-screen coverage of the election with all your favourite presenters. Coverage starts just before 10pm and runs til late… or early. And if you’ve got questions, Tweet us at @OhGodWhatNowPod. The panel will answer as many as they can. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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41:44

Volt Typhoon and the new cyber war

This Is Not A Drill with Gavin Esler ·

2024/07/03

A recent large-scale attack on an NHS provider by the Russian based criminal group Qilin has exposed lingering vulnerabilities in our digital infrastructure - but an ongoing Chinese state sponsored attack, known as Volt Typhoon, has been described by US officials as a game changer in the realm of cyber warfare. Emma Beals speaks to former founding chief executive of the UK National Cyber Security Centre Professor Ciaran Martin and senior fellow for global cyber policy at the Council on Foreign

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47:12

The Battle for Kyiv and beyond

This Is Not A Drill with Gavin Esler ·

2024/06/26

How did the Ukrainian people face down an invasion of unprecedented savagery from Putin’s Russia? And how did the battle for Ukraine’s capital shape the war that followed? Illia Ponomarenko is the author of the new book I Will Show You How It Was: The Story of Wartime Kyiv and former defence correspondent at the Kyiv Independent. He talks to Oz Katerji about the experience of reporting under fire – and what it’s like for a people to defy subjugation.Buy I Will Show You How It Was: The Story of

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44:10

Defence of the Realm – How will Britain’s next...

This Is Not A Drill with Gavin Esler ·

2024/06/19

The West’s era of supremacy is over. Britain’s next Prime Minister will face the most dangerous security environment since the Second World War – a new age of critical insecurity. From Ukraine to the Middle East to China/Taiwan and beyond, the threats are piling up: cyberattacks, nuclear intimidation, assassinations on our territory and more. How will the next Prime Minister handle them? And have Brexit and our political instability left us too weakened to withstand them? Gavin Esler find out from

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38:24

The Trump Legacy – How will the Felon President fit...

This Is Not A Drill with Gavin Esler ·

2024/06/12

Whether Trump wins the Presidential Election or not, his dark place in American history is assured. He’s not just the first former or sitting President to be convicted of criminal activity, and the first to attempt to overturn an election. He has changed the Republican Party and its voter base deeply and possibly irrevocably.How will Trump be remembered? Gavin Esler asks Boston College professor of American History Heather Cox-Richardson what Trump has done to the Republican Party – whether a Trump

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36:42

Far Right on the march – What Europe’s populist surge...

This Is Not A Drill with Gavin Esler ·

2024/06/05

Hard right parties are sweeping Europe and analysts fear they will do well in this week’s elections across the EU. How deeply are radical right parties, with their immigration and culture war fixations and indulgence of Putin, distorting politics from Spain to Germany and Poland and beyond? What does their success mean for the EU’s stability and the defence of Ukraine? And can the populist wave be stopped? Gavin Esler talks to political analyst Catherine Fieschi – author of Populocracy: The Tyranny

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38:42

The Bear On The Doorstep – Poland, Georgia, and...

This Is Not A Drill with Gavin Esler ·

2024/05/29

What’s it like to live next to the world’s worst neighbour: Vladimir Putin’s Russia? In 2024, pro-democracy Georgians are beaten for resisting their pro-Moscow government from enacting a Putinesque “foreign agents” law. Poland is rearming against the Russian threat, and the Baltic states of the former USSR are subjected to hybrid warfare from their former occupiers.Yet instead of terrorising Europe, is Putin’s aggression uniting it behind ideals of democracy and mutual support? Polish historian

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39:30

“China is now Putin’s master” – Ex-defence secretary...

This Is Not A Drill with Gavin Esler ·

2024/05/22

As Defence Secretary, former Scots Guard Ben Wallace was one of few well-respected ministers during the Johnson years. In office he faced the Afghanistan withdrawal and Russia’s war on Ukraine. As he prepares to leave Parliament, he tells Oz Katerji why Europe must re-arm to support Ukraine and deter Putin’s Russia; how Netanyahu has over-extended Israel in its war with Hamas; and why China is now the economic master of Russia. Support This Is Not A Drill on Patreon to get early episodes,

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43:08

Will technology kill democracy?

This Is Not A Drill with Gavin Esler ·

2024/05/15

In 2024 four billion people will vote in the biggest election year in history, which will see existential tests for democracy in the US, India and elsewhere. What is shaping the battle between democracy and autocracy? And who is winning? Ellection-distorting technology is outpacing governments’ ability to regulate it. Can democracy survive the uncontrolled spread of A.I., deepfakes and disinformation technology? Emma Beals talks to “Godfather of democracy studies” Larry Diamond, senior fellow at

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34:38

What does Xi want?

This Is Not A Drill with Gavin Esler ·

2024/05/08

The new Cold War between China and the US isn’t just fought on the digital plane. China is supplying equipment to Russia, intimidating Taiwan, bringing countries across Africa and Asia into its orbit – and, according to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, attempting to influence the US Presidential Election. What does Xi Jinping really want? Can he square China’s goal of being the “workshop of the world” with its foreign policy? And will he really move against Taiwan? Gavin Esler talks to

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39:10

How America lost its New World Order… and what comes...

This Is Not A Drill with Gavin Esler ·

2024/05/01

America’s war to liberate Kuwait from Saddam Hussein in 1991 was supposed to inaugurate a New World Order. President George HW Bush spoke of protecting ‘“peace, security, freedom and the rule of law… such is a world worthy of our children’s future.” But the failed wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in the 2000s, China’s resurgence and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have left the idea of a coherent, US-led world order in tatters.In a special panel episode, Gavin Esler is joined by co-hosts Emma Beals and

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45:47

Gold Wars, Russia’s Africa Corps… and the biggest...

This Is Not A Drill with Gavin Esler ·

2024/04/24

The world has responded with stunning cynicism to the wave of coups d’etat across Central Africa – either ignoring the violence, suffering and the rise of military strongmen, or exploiting it for their own ends. From Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso to the bloody civil war and mass displacement in Sudan, Oz Katerji finds that the Sahel region isn’t only threatened by war, drought and Islamist terror. The “Africa Corps” wing of Russia’s Wagner paramilitaries are vying with the Gulf States for power,

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25:50

Emergency Edition: Iran attacks Israel – what next?

This Is Not A Drill with Gavin Esler ·

2024/04/15

Iran’s drone attacks on Israel, in retaliation for an Israeli strike on its embassy in Damascus, shocked the world this weekend. Israel’s divided war cabinet is considering a response, the US has warned it will not take part in a counteroffensive, and world leaders fear an escalation into regional war. But will it really happen?Gavin Esler speaks to expert on the Iranian regime Prof Ali Ansari of the University of St Andrews about whether a weak and isolated Teheran really wants war, Netanyahu’s

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37:58

Guns, Drugs and Crypto – Who’s funding the return of...

This Is Not A Drill with Gavin Esler ·

2024/04/10

Why does the militarily weaker side lose many battles but often win the war? In the 21st Century the David-vs-Goliath threat of asymmetric warfare – where small non-state militias and terror groups defeat vastly better armed nation states in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere – is back. Now armed groups including Yemen’s Houthi, Hamas and Islamic State are growing and re-energised by a vast new funding sources: the global drugs trade, and even crypto. Gavin Esler speaks to Dr David Ucko – professor at

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39:05

Dangerous Waters – How the world shipping system...

This Is Not A Drill with Gavin Esler ·

2024/04/03

Houthi attacks on shipping have thrown global supply lines into turmoil, and led 20 countries to intervene militarily. But the Red Sea logistics crisis is just the latest in series of shocks to the world trade system, from the Pandemic to Ukraine and beyond. What does it mean when any pirate with a missile and a TikTok account can hold domestic supplies to ransom? And who wants to take advantage?Emma Beals speaks to Elisabeth Braw – senior fellow with the Atlantic Council's Transatlantic Security

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206 results

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