Posts in Interview
“We hold the line”: An Interview with Journalist and Activist Maria Ressa

By Sophie Kaldor

On June 15, 2020, Maria Ressa, one of the Philippines’ most prominent journalists, was found guilty of “cyber libel.” Human rights groups have condemned this verdict as a politically motivated prosecution by the Duterte government. On March 3, 2020, Ressa sat down with Sophie Kaldor from the Yale Journal of International Affairs for an interview, in which they discussed the links between social media and rising authoritarianism in the Philippines, global terrorism, and disinformation.

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“At All Costs”: Former U.N. Syria Envoy Staffan de Mistura Recounts Unrelenting Efforts Towards Peace

By Matt Trevithick

Staffan de Mistura, an Italian-Swedish diplomat with a 40-year career in the United Nations, last served as the UN Special Envoy for Syria from 2014 to 2018. He sat down with Executive Editor Matt Trevithick of the Yale Journal of International Affairs shortly after President Trump’s announcement of a withdrawal of US forces from Syria in October 2019. 

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“The Russians Would Not Have Gone Into That Meeting Empty-Handed:” Bill Browder on The Trump Tower Meeting and Vladimir Putin’s Russia

An Interview with Bill Browder

A meeting between Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, Jared Kushner, a Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and a Russian-American lobbyist, Rinat Akhmetshin, at Trump Tower on June 9, 2016, is the subject of ongoing inquiries by multiple congressional committees and Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III into Russian interference in the 2016 elections. Browder, the founder and CEO of Hermitage Capital Management, invested in Russia from 1996 to 2005 with over $4 billion in Russian stocks.

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Lessons Against Tyranny

By Alex Defroand

A week after the election of Donald Trump, Timothy Snyder, a historian of twentieth-century Europe, posted a message on his Facebook page entitled, “Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century.” Reflecting on the experience of Europeans “who saw democracy yield to fascism,” Snyder urged Americans to heed lessons such as “do not obey in advance” and “be kind to our language.” The post was shared more than 18,000 times.

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“Impunity does not die quickly”: Transitional Justice in Post-Civil War Guatemala

By Erik Woodward and Zack Devlin-Foltz

Alejandra Castillo Díaz is the Assistant Director of the Center for Human Rights Legal Action (Centro para la Acción Legal en Derechos Humanos, CALDH), the organization that led the prosecution against President Ríos Montt and Rodríguez Sánchez. In this interview with Rebecca TeKolste and Erik Woodward, Ms. Díaz discussed the mechanisms of transitional justice currently operating in Guatemala.

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The end of secure jobs? Of US dominance? Of qualified politicians? Our recent podcasts discussed

By Alex Defroand, Joshua Jacobs, Nelly Mecklenburg, Will Wright, Rebecca TeKolste, and Johannes Sosada

In our first ever podcast series, we talked with former presidential candidates, directors of major banks, academics, and journalists as we grappled with the implications of this year in politics and international affairs: Donald Trump’s election; Brexit; the ever-worsening humanitarian catastrophe in Syria; the refugee crisis; and the future of liberalism.

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Europe’s Chief Diplomat Talks Brexit, Feminism and the Future of the EU

By Joshua Jacobs

In a wide-ranging interview with the Yale Journal of International Affairs on the one-year anniversary of her departure from office, Ashton reflects on the vicissitudes of her term. We talk of the more frustrating foreign policy challenges that she faced, the possibility of her own country voting to leave the European Union this summer, and how she felt as the only woman in a room with the European Union’s twenty-eight male foreign ministers.

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Banking on a Mission: Pursuing Profits and Social Impact in Indonesia

By Allison Cordell

YJIA met with Jerry Ng, Bank BTPN’s CEO and president director, for a conversation about the bank’s mission and successful business model. Mr. Ng told us about the bank’s strategy for its microfinance portfolio, the plans for adapting BTPN’s model for other emerging markets in Asia, and the books that helped him become a more effective leader.

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The Trans-Pacific Partnership: Can an Asian Trade Pact Survive Without China?

An interview with David Dollar

In this interview, David Dollar, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and former World Bank country director for China and Mongolia from 2004 to 2009, speaks with the Yale Journal of International Affairs (YJIA) about the TPP’s relevance to the Asia Pacific region, also touching on Vietnam’s growing strength and China’s future role in global trade.

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Governing the Arctic: Finding Consensus in a Region of Increasing Interest

David Biette spoke with the Yale Journal of International Affairs in April 2015, several weeks before the United States assumed the chairmanship of the Arctic Council. The interview reflects the wide-ranging set of issues facing the region, including security posturing, new frontiers in international law, and environmental considerations.

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