Category: Briefings

Background Briefing: December 3, 2024

South Korea’s President Yoon Declares Martial Law Then Has to Back Down

We begin with South Korea’s President Yoon declaring martial law which prompted massive demonstrations in front of the National Assembly where inside 190 lawmakers out of the 300 voted to overturn the martial law declaration forcing Yoon to back down but clearly not end the crisis of governance given Yoon’s unpopularity and rash move not seen in the country in 44 years when the military last took over. Joining us is Stephen Noerper, Founder and President of Asia Dialogue and a senior UN program adviser who serves on the faculty of the Punahou Academy and Hawai’i Pacific University. A former State Department senior analyst, he’s held fellowships at the EastWest Institute, East West Center, Korea’s Institute for Foreign Affairs and National Security, and the Edward. R. Murrow Center for Public Diplomacy.

 

Trump Threatens There’ll Be “All Hell To Pay in the Middle East” If Hamas Does Not Release the Hostages Before His Inauguration

Then we look into President-elect Trump’s warning that there would be “all hell to pay in the Middle East” if the remaining hostages held by Hamas in Gaza are not released by his inauguration. Joining us is Juan Cole, a professor of Modern Middle Eastern and South Asian History at the University of Michigan. He is also the author of the blog Informed Comment at JuanCole.com and the author of The Ayatollahs and Democracy in Iraq, Engaging the Muslim World, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace Amid the Clash of Empires and we discuss his latest book, just out, Gaza Yet Stands.

 

Will the Apolitical Rank and File at the FBI Survive a Fanatical Pro-Trump Ideologue as Their Director?

Then finally we assess how the apolitical rank and file at the FBI will survive a fanatical pro-Trump ideologue Kash Patel as the bureau’s new director and speak with David Shapiro, a Distinguished Lecturer and Coordinator of the Fraud Examination and Financial Forensics program at New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice at The City University of New York. He worked as an FBI special agent and is the co-author of How They Got Away With It: White Collar Criminals and the Financial Meltdown.