Launched in 2012, "Talking Foreign Policy" is a one-hour radio program, hosted by CWRU School of Law Dean Michael Scharf, in which experts discuss the salient foreign policy issues of the day.
Talking Foreign Policy - What is the future of the NATO alliance?
Host Michael Scharf interviews John Bellinger, Sandy Hodgkinson, Paul Williams, and Milena Sterio about the evolving future of the NATO alliance.
24 Mar 2026TRANSCRIPT
Talking Foreign Policy - Board of Peace and its prospects for success and potential risks
March 24, 2026
Talking Foreign Policy - Board of Peace and its prospects for success and potential risks
20 Jan 2026TRANSCRIPT
Talking Foreign Policy - Age of Atrocity: A Fire-Side Chat with Ambassador Beth Van Schaack
January 20, 2026
Talking Foreign Policy - Age of Atrocity: A Fire-Side Chat with Ambassador Beth Van Schaack
Case Western Reserve University School of Law
1 Dec 2025TRANSCRIPT
Talking Foreign Policy - U.S. Attacks on Venezuelan and Colombian Narco Vessels
Talking Foreign Policy - U.S. Attacks on Venezuelan and Colombian Narco Vessels
December 1, 2025
Case Western Reserve University School of Law
22 Sept 2025TRANSCRIPT
Talking Foreign Policy - The UN at 80: Is it Still Relevant
23 Jun 2025TRANSCRIPT
Talking Foreign Policy - Turning Points and Paradigm Shifts in U.S. Foreign Policy
Host Michael Scharf leads a discussion with international law and policy experts about potential paradigm shifts in U.S. foreign policy under President Trump, examining the long-term consequences for the United States and the world in this interview episode.
3 Mar 2025TRANSCRIPT
Talking Foreign Policy - Prosecuting Russian Environmental War Crimes
In its war with Ukraine, Russia has targeted the environment as its most insidious means of warfare. It has blown up dams, flooded coal mines, burned down national forests, and even targeted the black sea dolphins that inhabit the waters off Ukraine’s coast. With an effort to obtain a peace agreement now underway, will the perpetrators of these attacks be brought to justice? Where will they be tried? And what law will apply?
2 Dec 2024
Talking Foreign Policy - Is Taiwan at Risk?
Talking Foreign Policy - Is Taiwan at Risk?
Dec. 2, 2024
26 Aug 2024TRANSCRIPT
Foreign Policy and the 2024 Presidential Election
Conventional wisdom says that foreign policy doesn’t matter in U.S. Presidential elections. Quote “It’s the economy, stupid,” was long thought to be political gospel. But this election might be different. According to polls, a divided America cares deeply about the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, about the influx of migrants from south of the border, about the looming trade war with China, and about the escalating climate crisis.
With the election just two months away, “Talking Foreign Policy” takes a look at where the Presidential Candidates and the electorate stand on the major foreign policy challenges facing the United States.
28 May 2024TRANSCRIPT
75th Anniversary of the Geneva Conventions
This August, the world will celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions on the Law of War. These seminal treaties were negotiated following the horrors of the Second World War. Their object was to lay down rules to limit the savagery of armed conflict. Every country in the world has signed them, making the Geneva Conventions the most ratified of all treaties.
But are the 75-year-old Geneva Conventions sufficient in a world where the technology portrayed in the Terminator, the Matrix and Star Wars is quickly becoming science fact. Do we need to update the Geneva Conventions to add rules about autonomous weapons, cyber warfare, space warfare, and combating modern-day terrorists?
I’m Michael Scharf, Dean of Case Western Reserve University School of Law. In this broadcast of “Talking Foreign Policy,” I’ve assembled a group of military, diplomatic and legal experts who will address these questions. … Right after the news.
19 Feb 2024TRANSCRIPT
Talking Foreign Policy - Ukraine Endgame
Two years ago, on February 24, 2022, Russia launched a massive invasion of neighboring Ukraine. The International community responded with military aid and sanctions. The U.N. expelled Russia from the Human Rights Council and the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russia failed to capture Ukraine’s largest cities or topple Ukraine’s government. The fighting has ground to a bloody stalemate with hundreds of thousands of casualties on both sides. Now, the U.S. Congress appears poised to cut off aid to Ukraine and Russia is raising the prospects of peace negotiations.
20 Nov 2023
Talking Foreign Policy - Foreign Policy and Climate Change
September was the hottest month in recorded history. Last summer, smoke from Canadian forest fires blanketed the United States. Maui ignited. Libya was deluged by flooding of biblical dimensions. Sea levels rose as glaciers and ice sheets melted at an accelerating rate. The world’s great rivers and lakes are drying up, while climate migrants are pouring across borders.
Is it too late to stop climate change? What can the international community do to respond to this existential global crisis? I’m Michael Scharf and in the next broadcast of Talking Foreign Policy, our expert panelists will seek to answer that question.
14 Aug 2023
Talking Foreign Policy - The Age of the Strongman
23 May 2023
Talking Foreign Policy - The Indictment of Vladimir Putin
May 30, 2023
Two-months ago, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin. He’s been charged with orchestrating the abduction of thousands of Ukrainian children and transferring them to Russia for adoption. It’s the first time a major world leader has been indicted by the International Criminal Court. How will this affect the course of world events? I’m Michael Scharf and in the next broadcast of Talking Foreign Policy, our expert panelists will seek to answer that question.
21 Feb 2023
Talking Foreign Policy - What Went Wrong in Afghanistan?
February 21, 2023
Case Western Reserve University School of Law
Since the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, the situation there has gone from bad to worse. Today, 20 million Afghans are starving and millions are internally displaced. The Taliban is back in power. They are once again providing sanctuary to terrorist groups that threaten the United States. They have decreed that Afghan girls shall not have access to education above the sixth grade.
In a recent report to Congress, John Sopko, the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan, wrote: “Unless the U.S. government understands and accounts for what went wrong, why it went wrong, and how it went wrong, it will likely repeat the same mistakes in the next conflict.” In the February 21 broadcast of Talking Foreign Policy, host Michael Scharf, Co-Dean of CWRU School of Law, has assembled a group of experts, including Inspector General Sopko, who will seek to answer those questions.
25 Oct 2022
Talking Foreign Policy - The US-Iran Crisis
January 23, 2020
Case Western Reserve University School of Law
19 Oct 2022
Talking Foreign Policy - Prosecuting Russian Leaders for War Crimes
October 24, 2022
Case Western Reserve University School of Law
10 Sept 2022
Talking Foreign Policy - Responding to the Ukraine Crisis
March 21, 2022
Case Western Reserve University School of Law
9 Sept 2022
Talking Foreign Policy - Blood & Treasure
Sept. 28, 2021
Case Western Reserve University School of Law
Inside a recent episode
Talking Foreign Policy - What is the future of the NATO alliance?
Published 13 Jul 2026 · Transcript excerpt
[…] For the next 14 years, every member of NATO as well as partner members of NATO sent troops to Afghanistan, over 100,000 European troops sent to help the United States fight in Afghanistan against al-Qaeda. Denmark, Poland, Norway, Turkey, Netherlands, Romania were some that contributed particularly heavily. After the defeat of the Taliban and the routing of al-Qaeda, NATO was asked by the UN to manage the stabilization and security force, ISAF, to restore security in Afghanistan. And that became NATO's largest mission in history. Numerous NATO troops were killed in Afghanistan fighting to help the United States. […]
Pod Engine is an independent podcast discovery and analytics service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by this podcast. Artwork and show content belong to their owners. Full legal notice.
Explore this show Podcast research with Pod Engine
