Season Two Trailer

Is China exporting its authoritarian model to other countries? Is the “fast fashion” industry accelerating climate change? In season two, Why It Matters explores a new series of issues that are flying under the radar now, but won’t be for long.

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Host
  • Gabrielle Sierra
    Podcast Host and Producer
Credits

Asher Ross - Supervising Producer

Markus Zakaria - Audio Producer and Sound Designer

Rafaela Siewert - Associate Podcast Producer

Center for Preventive Action

The world is entering a new era of great-power competition. As U.S. policymakers look ahead, it pays to know what global threats to anticipate. Every January, the Council on Foreign Relations publishes a survey that analyzes the conflicts most likely to occur in the twelve months ahead and rates their potential impact on the United States. But can the country prepare itself for mass immigration, cyberwarfare, and nuclear tensions while still cooperating with adversaries on global issues such as climate change?

Global Governance

In 2022, several colossal events dominated the headlines, most prominently the war in Ukraine and the worldwide inflation that it helped spark. But beyond Ukraine, events with global implications continued to unfold. In this episode, Why It Matters checks in with three CFR fellows and CFR President Richard Haass to understand the least-covered stories of 2022 and to take a peek at what could await the world in 2023.

Technology and Innovation

For years, the world thought of the internet as a borderless zone that brought people from around the world together. But as governments pursue very different regulatory paths, the monolithic internet is breaking apart. Now, where there had been one, there are at least three internets: one led by the United States, one by China, and one by the European Union.

Top Stories on CFR

United States

The collapse of SVB is a reminder that the fastest way for the United States to cede ground in the present era of great power competition is to debase its financial system and relinquish its global financial leadership position.

Cybersecurity

After its invasion of Ukraine, concerns flared over a decoupling of Russia from the global internet. This has not materialized, but we may be witnessing the start of a more fundamental fragmentation of the global internet.

Mexico

Shannon K. O’Neil, vice president, deputy director of Studies, and Nelson and David Rockefeller senior fellow for Latin America Studies at CFR, sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss Mexico’s new electoral law and other developments that may be eroding the country’s democratic governance.