Why so many coups in Africa?

On this month's podcast we're joined by Le Monde diplomatique's new Asia head, Renaud Lambert, who writes in the current edition of the paper about China's global ambitions (‘China: the invention of the roadmap to global power'). The dominant western narrative maintains China is pursuing a master plan to remake the world in its own image, steered by a solitary autocrat, Xi Jinping. Rather than a grand strategy for world domination, Lambert finds a messier reality of devolved power and economic (...) - 2024/03 / Podcast, 2024/03 China

Our guest on this month's podcast is Eric Alterman, CUNY Distinguished Professor of English at Brooklyn College and author of We Are Not One: A History of America's Fight Over Israel (2022). In the February edition of the paper, Alterman writes on the latest phase of that long-running fight in an article entitled ‘Biden's lonely stance on the war in Gaza'. Biden's seemingly unconditional support for Israel is out of step both with much of his own party and, especially, with younger voters. With (...) - 2024/02 / Podcast, 2024/02 alterman

Taipei-based journalist Alice Hérait is our guest on this second podcast of the month on significant elections. Alice has a piece in the January edition of the paper entitled ‘Taiwan's divided loyalties' in which she writes about the disagreements over the island's history that still shape its politics and its people's view of their future. In this interview, she discusses the result of the elections on 13 January, a third consecutive victory for the governing – and pro-sovereignty – Democratic (...) - 2024/01 / Podcast, 2024/10 Taiwan

With the US primary season now under way, in this month's podcast we turn the spotlight on the electoral contest in South Carolina, home state of prominent Trump challenger Nikki Haley and the state that ended Bernie Sanders' hopes of the 2020 Democratic nomination. Our guide to its political landscape is journalist Julien Brygo, who visited South Carolina's Baptist churches, university campuses and political activist meetings last November, a year out from a likely electoral rematch which (...) - 2024/01 / Podcast, 2024/01 USA

In this month's podcast, our guest is Vicken Cheterian, who teaches history and international relations at the University of Geneva. In the December edition of the paper he writes about Azerbaijan's recent military offensive to seize control of the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh (‘Armenia stands alone'). When war last broke out between Armenia and Azerbaijan, in 2020, Russia intervened. This time, it allowed ethnic cleansing of Armenians to proceed. In the interview, Cheterian explains (...) - 2023/12 / Podcast, 2023/12 azerbaijan

In this month's podcast, journalist and South East Asia specialist Christine Chaumeau discusses how the Cambodian capital has been transformed over the last 20 years, with a mushrooming of skyscrapers and private, gated developments, which she writes about in the October edition of the paper (‘Phnom Penh: rising skyline, disappearing lakes'). Under outgoing prime minister Hun Sen, the country experienced rapid economic growth, but his exercise of power was ruthless, and opponents of the (...) - 2023/10 / Podcast, 2023/10 cambodia

The tally of coups in West Africa currently stands at six, after the recent military takeover in Niger (which was followed by another in Gabon in Central Africa). In this month's podcast, Anne-Cécile Robert, director of international editions at Le Monde diplomatique, talks about the conditions in which generals step in, offering simple solutions to complex problems. But, Robert says, it would be wrong to see this as a purely regional phenomenon, an ‘epidemic' affecting a ‘coup belt'. As she (...) - 2023/09 / Podcast, 2023/09 W African coups

On this month's podcast, culture critic Maya Jaggi talks about an exhibition currently on at the National Museum of Archaeology Naples (MANN), which she reviews in the July issue of Le Monde diplomatique in a piece entitled ‘Alexander the Great, between Asia and Europe'. As Alexander the Great pushed ever further east in the late 4th century BCE, his aim was conquest. But the result was much more than that: it also brought cultural exchange, unexpected encounters and the sharing of learning. (...) - 2023/07 / Podcast, 2023/07 alexander

In this month's podcast, Ukraine-based journalist Glen Johnson discusses his article in the June edition of Le Monde diplomatique, ‘Moldova's stark choices about its future'. The key choice this landlocked former Soviet republic faces is over whether it should maintain its hitherto strict neutrality or seek protection under the NATO umbrella. Johnson describes Moldova's initial reaction to the war in Ukraine as ‘pitch perfect'. But since then, he says, its government has veered sharply towards (...) - 2023/06 / Podcast, 2023/06 Moldova

China has designated it a ‘national priority' to become ‘the world's premier artificial intelligence innovation centre' by 2030. OpenAI's release of ChatGPT suggests China may have some catching up to do. In this month's podcast, Gabrielle Chou of NYU Shanghai University discusses some of barriers to China achieving its goal, including a brain drain, corruption and a US embargo on high-end (...) - 2023/04 / Podcast, 2023/04 china