Global Power Shifts is about the new multipolar world — and the rise of the rest. Journalists Jim Stenman and Suzanne Kianpour (CNN, BBC, NBC, Fox News, Reuters) speak with the people who set policy, not just comment on it. Previous guests include sitting and former ministers, ambassadors, and security chiefs offering unvarnished views on energy, sanctions, tech sovereignty, maritime chokepoints, information ops, and statecraft. It’s decoding a changing world — how power is moving beyond a single center, and what that means for governments, markets, and daily life.
Ethiopia's New War Could Pull In Its Neighbors, with Cameron Hudson
A seven-group coalition, including the TPLF, has declared war on Abiy Ahmed's government. Tigrayan forces have seized regional airports and are pushing toward the Djibouti trade corridor. Addis Ababa has accused Eritrea, Egypt and Sudan of backing the alliance.Cameron Hudson spent years inside the CIA's Africa directorate and later served as Chief of Staff to the US Special Envoys for Sudan. He now runs 54 Advisors and called the collapse of the Pretoria peace deal months before it happened.Jim Stenman sat down with him about a week into the fighting to ask who gains if Ethiopia breaks apart and whether Washington has any leverage left. They also get into whether Abiy still controls the country he governs.00:00 Cold Open00:29 Welcome Back to Global Power Shifts01:22 A Week Into the Fighting03:02 Why the Pretoria Agreement Finally Broke07:02 The Ingredients for a Regional War08:58 Eritrea, Washington and the New Rules of Engagement13:53 Evidence of Egypt and Eritrea's Involvement15:58 Is Abiy Still in Control?18:39 What Leverage Does the West Have Left?22:37 What Cameron Is Watching NextGlobal Power Shifts is a geopolitics podcast hosted by Jim Stenman and Suzanne Kianpour, covering the new multipolar world through conversations with the people who set policy.Watch more: https://jimstenman.com/global-power-shifts/Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1T2CsAK4983mRNmZPfApRyListen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/global-power-shifts/id1791326929#Ethiopia #Tigray #Geopolitics #HornOfAfrica #CIARecorded September 29, 2026.
24 Sept 2026
Africa's $12.5B Mega Airport the US and China Want In
Washington and Beijing both want a piece of Ethiopia’s massive $12.5 billion Bishoftu airport, but so far, Ethiopian Airlines is the only one actually footing the bill.Originally published on September 15, this is the audio version of Jim Stenman's Horn Horizons article, published before the latest fighting flared up in Tigray.The piece breaks down how Ethiopian Airlines has already poured $3.2 billion of its own equity into land acquisition and resettlement housing, while major lenders like the African Development Bank stay on the sidelines. Then there is the geopolitical tug-of-war: Washington is dangling financing, but with strict conditions regarding Chinese firms, even though Chinese contractors hold a notable share of the shortlisted slots.To unpack all of this, Jim brings together an expert panel:• Sean Mendis (Aviation Analyst)• Mered Fikireyohannes (Addis-based Investment Adviser)• Yufan Huang (Chinese Lending Researcher)• Michael Rubin (Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute)They get into why this mega-project has zero sovereign guarantee, what Washington and Boeing are really after, and the heavy local impacts. This includes the thousands of farmers displaced from their land in Oromia and how global supply chain shifts have impacted regional diesel supplies.Read the full piece on Substack:https://hornhorizons.substack.com/p/bishoftu-airport-financing-us-chinaFollow Horn Horizons on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/horn-horizons-7333815312498200576#GlobalPowerShifts #HornHorizons #Ethiopia #Bishoftu #EthiopianAirlines #Africa
11 Sept 2026
Why America Never Had a Second 9/11: FBI Veteran Donald Alway, 25 Years On
America has never had a second 9/11, and Donald Alway spent over two decades inside the FBI after the attacks trying to keep it that way.
On the 25th anniversary, Suzanne Kianpour and guest co-host Jamie Angus, a former BBC news executive, sit down with the man who was sent from Quantico to the Pentagon after the attacks for what he thought would be four days and stayed 35. He worked the crime scene in New York the following spring, went on to serve in Iraq and Doha and lead the FBI's Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate, and retired as Assistant Director in Charge of the Los Angeles Field Office. He is now Chief Security Officer at Herbalife.
He explains why Europe's returning-fighter problem never took hold in the United States, and what makes a person radicalising alone online harder to stop than a trained cell. He says the FBI never thought it needed a counter-propaganda campaign, and warns that people convicted of terrorism are starting to finish 25-year sentences and may not be on anyone's radar.
Jamie puts Britain's decision to strip Shamima Begum of her citizenship to him, and asks what the Gulf's surveillance-heavy model has bought after this week's Houthi strikes on Saudi Arabia, and whether the Patriot Act should ever be rolled back. Suzanne raises the 170,000 pages of Ground Zero air quality records released by Mayor Zohran Mamdani this week and the turnover at the top of the FBI under Kash Patel. She closes on how a former counterterrorism official sees New York's first Muslim mayor, 25 years on.
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Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/global-power-shifts/id1791326929
All episodes: https://jimstenman.com/global-power-shifts/
Chapters
00:00 "A four-day trip became 35 days"
00:20 Introduction
01:54 Quantico, the Pentagon and the day everything changed
05:08 The Mamdani air quality documents: "no one would have stayed home"
07:25 Why there has never been a second 9/11
09:18 Radicalised alone, undetected
11:25 Why Europe's returnee problem never reached America
13:03 The IRGC, homegrown plots and terrorists finishing their sentences
16:08 Should foreign fighters be allowed home?
17:13 Shamima Begum and stripping citizenship
19:49 October 7, Gaza and the campuses
21:38 Can America's stance on Israel ever change?
23:32 The ISIS song and why the FBI never ran counter-propaganda
31:25 The Gulf: surveillance, trust and the Houthi strikes
33:44 The Patriot Act, 25 years on
35:50 "You're not in the bureau anymore. What do you really think?"
37:41 Kash Patel and the turnover at the top
39:10 Who is left, and the 9/11 museum programme for new agents
41:41 A smaller American footprint in the Middle East
44:22 New York's first Muslim mayor
45:25 Close
Who has been a guest on Global Power Shifts
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Emil Avdaliani
Christopher Steele
Gustavo de Carvalho
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