The Grassroots View
Podcasts
The Grassroots view, the new podcast series launched by the European Economic and Social Committee (https://www.eesc.europa.eu/) (EESC), explores the hot topics everyone seems to be debating these days in Europe, but it does so from a civil society perspective, bringing testimonies from actors on the ground and accounts from EESC members who represent their interests in Brussels. A podcast member of EuroPod: https://www.bullemedia.eu/europod
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Location:
Belgium
Genres:
Podcasts
Description:
The Grassroots view, the new podcast series launched by the European Economic and Social Committee (https://www.eesc.europa.eu/) (EESC), explores the hot topics everyone seems to be debating these days in Europe, but it does so from a civil society perspective, bringing testimonies from actors on the ground and accounts from EESC members who represent their interests in Brussels. A podcast member of EuroPod: https://www.bullemedia.eu/europod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Language:
English
Website:
https://www.crisisgroup.org/fr
Episodes
S2 Episode 6: Keeping humans in command. Why the EU must ensure that the use of Artificial Intelligence respects its fundamental values
12/13/2021
AI has been advancing in leaps and bounds over the last few years and AI applications have crept into our lives almost without us noticing it. The EESC was the first – back in 2017 – to make the case for Europe-wide regulation based on an ethics-focused, "human-in-command" approach. Now, as the EU sets about adopting the first-ever AI legislation in the world, EESC AI expert Catelijne Muller, NRC journalist Reiner Kist, and KU Leuven researcher Valerio De Stefano discuss the merits of this...
Duration:00:15:09
S2 Episode 5 : Without media freedom, there is no democracy
10/25/2021
The EU may still enjoy the status of the safest place for journalists in the world, but this may easily change as the current worrying trend of intimidating, harassing and even killing reporters seems to be on the rise. Our guest is investigative journalist Matthew Caruana Galizia, whose mother Daphne Caruana Galizia was brutally murdered in 2017 trying to expose corruption in Malta. Julie Majerczak, head of the Brussels office of Reporters without Borders, told us the murders of journalists...
Duration:00:14:02
S2 Episode 4: The National Recovery and Resilience Plans: three recipes for success
7/23/2021
What can be done to make the National Recovery and Resilience Plans a success? The EESC's trio of group presidents have some answers! Listen to the insights of Employers' leader Stefano Mallia, Workers' helmsman Oliver Röpke and Diversity Europe chief Séamus Boland. A successful roll-out of these plans will enable the European Union to emerge stronger and more cohesive from the crisis.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Duration:00:14:44
S2 Episode 3: A new narrative for Europe
6/4/2021
The COVID-19 crisis has shown the importance of solidarity among EU Members States, EU institutions and citizens. In this podcast we discuss the reasons why the Conference on the future of Europe is a new and important step in thinking together about our common European future. EESC President Christa Schweng believes people must be persuaded to engage in shaping Europe's future and that they need to see their ideas turn into action. Guy Verhofstadt, MEP, member of the CoFoE executive board...
Duration:00:12:10
S2 Episode 19: Venezuela’s Multifaceted Crisis and Europe
5/25/2021
Venezuela’s multifaceted crisis has no solution in sight: from the massive migration problem – the number of Venezuelan refugees surpasses the Syrian crisis this year – to widespread hunger, the need for a regime transition and a shortage of vaccines against COVID-19. What can the European Union (EU) do to push for a sustainable future in Venezuela?
In a special episode prepared in collaboration with the Open Society European Policy Institute, Olga and guest co-host Mariano de Alba talk to...
Duration:00:30:50
S2 Episode 18: Peacemaking in Cyberspace
5/11/2021
What happens behind closed doors during peace talks? Adam Cooper, senior program manager at the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue and host of The Mediator’s Studio, talks to Olga and Hugh about the hidden world of peace diplomacy and how social media has changed it.
Adam shares what he has learnt from talking to seasoned mediators on his podcast, the challenges they face behind the scenes, especially when online disinformation has to be factored into the process. They also discuss cyber...
Duration:00:30:33
S2 Episode 17: Has the Spread of Nuclear Weapons Added to Global Stability?
4/27/2021
Maintaining the balance of power is considered essential to stability and peace. What happens when nuclear weapons enter the equation? Petr Topychkanov, senior researcher at the SIPRI Nuclear Disarmament, Arms Control and Non-proliferation Program, tells Olga and Hugh that nuclear proliferation in South Asia has lessened the intensity of traditional warfare fuelled by local geopolitics. Together they explore what his findings mean more broadly for doctrines of deterrence
It’s not just new...
Duration:00:24:33
Bonus episode: Rising Russia-Ukraine Tensions and the West (from the Crisis Group podcast Hold Your Fire!)
4/23/2021
In this episode of Crisis Group's podcast Hold Your Fire!, Richard Atwood and Naz Modirzadeh talk to Crisis Group’s program director for Europe and Central Asia, Olga Oliker, about rising tensions between Russia, on one hand, and Ukraine and Western capitals on the other, over Moscow’s recent military build-up at the Ukrainian border. They talk about the motives behind Russia’s deployments, how they are being perceived in Kyiv, the situation in separatist-held parts of Ukraine’s eastern...
Duration:00:39:21
S2 Episode 16 : Colonial Amnesia and Racial Justice in Europe
4/13/2021
The Black Lives Matter protests that engulfed the U.S. last year sparked similar anti-racism demonstrations in London, Paris, Brussels and several other cities across Europe. The challenge now is how to channel this newfound momentum into meaningful conversations and concrete changes, both nationally and regionally.
Dr Liliane Umubyeyi, research coordinator at Avocats Sans Frontières, and Dr Amah Edoh, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and African Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of...
Duration:00:26:30
S2 Episode 15: What’s the Point of Nuclear Weapons Today?
3/30/2021
Nuclear weapons sometimes sound like a throwback to another era, but they don’t just remain on stand-by. Nuclear-armed nations are investing heavily in creating more sophisticated and diverse nuclear arsenals.
After the end of the Cold War, NATO, like the U.S. and Russia, significantly reduced its reliance on nuclear weapons and nuclear policy took a back seat. Then came the Russian invasion of Crimea in 2014 and support for separatists in eastern Ukraine. Since then, there has been a...
Duration:00:30:48
S2 Episode 2: Without solidarity where would you be now? Civil society against COVID
3/18/2021
This time last year, the health services of the Italian city of Bergamo were sinking under the burden of COVID-19, as we hear from EESC member Giuseppe Guerini when the NGO Emergency stepped in to manage a field hospital set up to cope with the huge influx of patients. As we hear from medical director Oliviero Valoti, their help was providential.
This life-saving role in the crisis has earned Emergency the EESC Civil Solidarity Prize. EESC Vice-President Cillian Lohan explains the...
Duration:00:15:53
S2 Episode 14: Europe’s Colonial Legacies
3/16/2021
Indonesia was the first country to proclaim its independence after the Second World War, setting in motion a significant chapter of post-colonial history by doing so. In his latest book, Revolusi, Belgian cultural historian and prolific author David van Reybrouck examines the Dutch East Indies’ past and places it in a global context. A five-year project spanning over 200 interviews with living eyewitnesses, he tells Olga and Hugh why he undertook it, and how (spoiler alert: even the dating...
Duration:00:27:32
S2 Episode 13: Planning for Nuclear Armageddon
3/2/2021
While the threat of imminent nuclear armageddon may not be at the forefront of the average person’s mind today, it was a real, globe-spanning fear not so long ago during the Cold War. Absent the treaties and confidence-building measures developed to mitigate the risk of such an event, U.S. and Soviet civil defense then was totally consumed with the daunting task of planning for the worst.
So how does a state prepare for the event of a nuclear attack? How do you ensure continuity of...
Duration:00:26:10
S2 Episode 12: Police, Protests & Populism in Central Asia
2/16/2021
Central Asia is no exception to the protests that have emerged with renewed vigour on a global scale, a phenomenon made more visible against the backdrop of COVID-19 restrictions.
Although the grievances driving them are context-specific, deep socio-political divisions and populist leaders are recurring themes, says Dr. Erica Marat. A professor at the U.S. National Defense University and a post-Soviet security expert, she joins Olga and Hugh to discuss what connections can be drawn between...
Duration:00:24:26
S2 Episode 1: MFF: the good, the bad and the ugly
2/10/2021
"The Grassroots View" podcast opens its second season with an episode dedicated to the new European Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). Our four guests tell us what is the good, the bad, and the ugly in this long-awaited agreement.
Jan Olbrycht, MEP and co-rapporteur on the MFF for the European Parliament, explains why the negotiations were so difficult and also underlines the importance of the new EU4Health program. Stefano Palmieri, president of the ECO section at the European Economic...
Duration:00:11:31
S2 Episode 11: Reviving Dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia
2/2/2021
Thirteen years after Kosovo broke away from Serbia to become de facto independent, political inertia continues to stall the largely European-driven dialogue process aimed at reaching an understanding between the two parties and thus securing lasting stability for the region. On the back of our recently published report, “Relaunching the Kosovo-Serbia Dialogue”, Crisis Group’s Balkans expert Marko Prelec joins Olga and Hugh to examine why that is.
Taking a step back from the state of talks...
Duration:00:21:39
S2 Episode 10: Turkey’s Trials and Errors
1/19/2021
Ankara’s assertive foreign policy choices delight many at home. But they can puzzle and anger its counterparts as Turkey experiments with increasingly militarised postures in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, the South Caucasus, and the ongoing wars in Libya and Syria.
Ambassador Selim Yenel, Turkish ambassador to the EU until 2017 and now president of the Istanbul-based think-tank Global Relations Forum, joins Olga and Hugh to help make sense of what is driving Ankara in a changing world....
Duration:00:25:02
S2 Episode 9: Europe Has Much to Prove in 2021
1/5/2021
With the international system in major flux as we turn the page on 2020, Ambassador Gérard Araud believes one main thing is clear: 2021 opens a new, more dangerous chapter.
A Crisis Group trustee who represented France on the world stage for over three decades, most recently as ambassador to the United States (2014-2019), Araud gives Olga Oliker and Hugh Pope a decidedly skeptical take on the state of power politics, describing destabilizing international rivalry, leaderlessness, and...
Duration:00:26:37
S2 Episode 8: Personal Reflections on 2020, between Europe and the Middle East
12/22/2020
“I think I should kill you”.
So began one especially fraught encounter in Hugh Pope’s critically acclaimed memoir, Dining with Al Qaeda, now out in an updated edition. He joins Olga Oliker as co-host-turned-guest for this week’s episode to reflect on how his three decades of reporting in the broader Middle East remain relevant for Western readers grappling to understand it today.
Olga and Hugh then reflect on the year that was and how COVID-19 became a phenomenon that has both disrupted...
Duration:00:24:40
S2 Episode 7: Twenty-first Century Threats
12/8/2020
Sir John Sawers, former chief of the British secret service MI6 and Executive Chairman at Newbridge Advisory, joins Olga and Hugh for a dynamic conversation on the changing global balance of power and emerging threats that will shape multilateral diplomacy.
Drawing on 40 years of international service, Sir John describes how Western interventionism has evolved since the early 1990s, the implications of a rising China and declining U.S. for the international system, what motivates and...
Duration:00:24:43