Disrupting Peace
World Peace Foundation
Recent Episodes
To close out Season 2, we’re talking about the long-term impacts of electing a right-wing populist to office. Silvio Berlusconi transformed Italian government and society, beginning when he was first elected Prime Minister in 1994. In this episode, we’ll explore how Berlusconi legitimized the far-right (even though he himself was a center right politician), why people repeatedly vote for leaders that don’t make their lives better, and how Italian activists have still achieved some progressive victories.
Fabi Fugazza is the Co-Executive Director and Legal Expert at the Italian Coalition for Civil Liberties and Rights. She is (also) a lawyer with extensive experience in human rights law. Follow her on Instagram @fabi.fugazza.
Luisa Chiodi holds a PhD in Social and Political Science, and has been the director of think tank and online newspaper OBC Transeuropa since 2006. Follow her on Instagram @luisachiodi.
Disrupting Peace is a production of The World Peace Foundation. The show is produced by Bridget Conley and Emily Shaw. Engineering by Jacob Winik and Aja Simpson. Marketing and Social media by Emily Ruhm. Show artwork by Simon Fung.
Special thanks to Jeremy Helton, my colleagues, Lisa Avery, B. Arneson, and Alex de Waal, and the team from the Tufts Digital Design Studio, including Kimberly Lynn Forero-Arnias, and Miles Donovan.
Find out more about the World Peace Foundation at worldpeacefoundation.org. Follow us on Bluesky at worldpeacefdtn.bsky.social, and on Instagram at @worldpeacefdtn.
Today we’re talking about academic freedom in higher education. What it is, why it’s at risk, and what’s at stake for democracy when this particular freedom is eroded. We explore why academic freedom is so threatening to existing hierarchies, why it’s so hard to explain academics to a broad audience, and what everyday people are doing to fight for the integrity of higher education.
Amy Reid is a senior manager for PEN America’s Freedom to Learn program. PEN America is an organization that has been promoting free expression globally for over a hundred years. The Freedom to Learn team focuses on supporting higher education and academic freedom. She is currently on leave from New College of Florida. Find out more about Amy’s work at pen.org.
Isaac Kamola is an associate professor at Trinity College in Connecticut. He focuses on the political economy of higher education, African anticolonial theory, and critical globalization studies. He is also director of the American Association of University Professor’s Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom and founder of Faculty First Responders, a program that monitors right-wing attacks on academics and provides resources to help faculty members and administrators respond to manufactured outrage. Follow Isaac on x @isaac_kamola.
Disrupting Peace is a production of the World Peace Foundation. The show is produced by Bridget Conley and Emily Shaw. Engineering by Jacob Winik and Aja Simpson. Marketing and Social media by Emily Ruhm. Show artwork by Simon Fung.
Special thanks to Jeremy Helton, my colleagues, Lisa Avery, B. Arneson, and Alex de Waal, and the team from the Tufts Digital Design Studio, including Kimberly Lynn Forero-Arnias, and Miles Donovan.
Find out more about the World Peace Foundation at worldpeacefoundation.org. Follow us on Bluesky at worldpeacefdtn.bsky.social, and on Instagram at @worldpeacefdtn.
What's it like to lead without a military? In this episode, we focus on Costa Rica, and explore what happens when a country abolishes its military, Costa Rica’s approach to domestic security, and the ways that having a military can increase violence and instability in a country…Plus we’ll have our first former president on the show!
Carlos Alvarado Quesada served as President of Costa Rica from 2018 to 2022. While president, he focused on combating climate change, defending human rights, democracy, and multilateralism, which is when countries cooperate to solve problems. Carlos currently teaches graduate courses on leadership at the Fletcher School at Tufts University, where the World Peace Foundation is based. Follow Carlos on Instagram @carlosalvq.
Jorge Vargas is Director of the State of the Nation Program in Costa Rica. As an academic researcher, he focuses on state reform and democracy in Central America. Find out more about Jorge’s work at estadonacion.or.cr.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) study we referenced can be found at www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/2024-04/2404_fs_milex_2023.pdf
Check out “The Arms Trade - Let’s Talk About Big Weapons” and “AI & Autonomous Weapons Today” from Season 1 for more about militarization.
Disrupting Peace is a production of the World Peace Foundation. The show is produced by Bridget Conley and Emily Shaw. Engineering by Jacob Winik and Aja Simpson. Marketing and Social media by Emily Ruhm. Show artwork by Simon Fung.
Special thanks to Jeremy Helton, Lisa Avery, B. Arneson, and Alex de Waal, and the team from the Tufts Digital Design Studio, including Kimberly Lynn Forero-Arnias, and Miles Donovan.
Find out more about the World Peace Foundation at worldpeacefoundation.org. Follow us on Bluesky at worldpeacefdtn.bsky.social, and on Instagram @worldpeacefdtn.
How does a country rebuild after overthrowing a dictator?
On December 8, 2024, armed forces led by Islamist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham overthrew the Assad regime, which had ruled as a corrupt and brutal dictatorship in Syria for over 50 years.
For now, the country is in an in-between phase – what was is gone, but it’s not yet clear what’s coming next. In this episode, we explore what it was like on the ground in the weeks after the Assad regime fell, why it was necessary to have some continuity with the former government, and key areas where Syria remains vulnerable.
Mohammad Kanfash is a PhD candidate at the Center for Conflict Studies at Utrecht University, where he focuses on State-Society relations in post-conflict areas in Syria. He also works on sanctions. Follow Mohammad on Linkedin, and learn more about his work at www.uu.nl/medewerkers/MKanfash
Ali Aljasem is a researcher at the Centre for Conflict Studies at Utrecht University focusing on paramilitary groups in Syria and on humanitarian aid. Ali visited Syria one week after Assad was defeated. Follow Ali on Linkedin, and learn more about his work at www.uu.nl/medewerkers/AAljasem
Note: we recorded this interview in late January. Since then the former leader of the victorious rebel group, Ahmed al-Sharaa, was officially appointed interim President, an interim Constitution has been crafted, and there has been large-scale violence led by Assad loyalists.
Disrupting Peace is a production of The World Peace Foundation. The show is produced by Bridget Conley and Emily Shaw. Engineering by Jacob Winik and Aja Simpson. Marketing and Social media by Emily Ruhm. Show artwork by Simon Fung.
Special thanks to Jeremy Helton, Lisa Avery, B. Arneson, and Alex de Waal, and the team from the Tufts Digital Design Studio, including Kimberly Lynn Forero-Arnias, and Miles Donovan.
Find out more about the World Peace Foundation at worldpeacefoundation.org. Follow us on Bluesky at worldpeacefdtn.bsky.social, and on Instagram @worldpeacefdtn.
Sustaining a democracy often looks mundane. It includes managing different stakeholders, crafting policy, debating nuances and compromising. Ending a democracy can be dramatic: and it almost happened on December 3, 2024 when the president of South Korea, Yoon Suk Yeol, attempted to declare martial law during a televised address.
In this episode, we’ll hear a first-hand account of what happened on the ground that night, and discuss how a political opposition can successfully overturn a president’s power grab.
Jiho Cha is a member of the South Korean Parliament, in the opposition, Democratic Party. By training he is a physician, and has worked in global health and humanitarian affairs. Follow Jiho on Instagram @chajiho_oh and on Linkedin.
Myunghee Lee is an expert on authoritarian politics, democratization, protest and foreign policy in East Asia. She is an Assistant Professor of political science at Michigan State University. Find out more about her work at https://jmc.msu.edu/faculty-staff/directory/Lee.html
Disrupting Peace is a production of The World Peace Foundation. The show is produced by Bridget Conley and Emily Shaw. Engineering by Jacob Winik and Aja Simpson. Marketing and Social media by Emily Ruhm. Show artwork by Simon Fung.
Special thanks to Jeremy Helton, Lisa Avery, B. Arneson, and Alex de Waal, and the team from the Tufts Digital Design Studio, including Kimberly Lynn Forero-Arnias, and Miles Donovan.
Find out more about the World Peace Foundation at worldpeacefoundation.org. Follow us on Bluesky at worldpeacefdtn.bsky.social, and on Instagram @worldpeacefdtn.