Cormac Smith works at the intersection of authentic leadership & effective communication. He travelled to Ukraine in 2016 to take up a special appointment as the ‘Strategic Communication Advisor’ to Pavlo Klimkin, the then Foreign Minister of Ukraine. Cormac was attached to the British Embassy in Kyiv but was embedded in Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign…
Coordinated and Produced by Elisa Garbil Dive into the ongoing war with Cormac Smith today. Dominic and Cormac discuss Mariupol, whether the war can be considered genocide, the disinformation war, the reality of Russian aggression, war crimes, hybrid warfare, the need for unity, and more! Today we are joined by Cormac Smith. Cormac works at the intersection of…
Written by Elisa Garbil – 16.10.2025 Late in the night of 4–5 October 2025, Russian forces launched one of the more intense combined missile-and-drone assaults of the war. According to Ukrainian officials, more than 50 ballistic and cruise missiles, along with nearly 500 drones, struck nine regions across the country, hitting energy infrastructure, civilian districts, and industrial…
Coordinated and Produced by Elisa Garbil Today Dominic Bowen hosts David Dunn back on the podcast. They discuss the recent Alaskan Summit and its global implications. Find out more about the symbolic wins for Putin, and which ones they are exactly. The American unpreparedness and what its implications are, what the result is for Ukraine, how the EU decided to…
Written by Elisa Garbil – 01.09.2025 The Alaska summit, convened between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, was presented as a breakthrough moment of diplomacy, a supposed glimpse of how peace might be brokered after years of brutal war in Ukraine. Yet the event revealed less about genuine pathways to stability than about how both leaders envision a…
Written by Elisa Garbil – 14.08.2025 The war on Gaza has moved far beyond the realm of conventional military conflict. What is unfolding is a methodical, prolonged campaign against an entire civilian population. The destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure, the mass killing of noncombatants, and the deliberate targeting of essential services reflect a calculated strategy to dismantle not…
Assem Dandashly is an Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science at Maastricht University. He is an expert on the EU-MENA relations. Prior to joining Maastricht University in September 2012, Assem was a Research Fellow at the Kolleg-Forschergruppe “The Transformative Power of Europe” Freie Universität Berlin. Assem holds a PhD in Political Science (2012)…
Coordinated and Produced by Elisa Garbil A difficult topic, one that we keep seemingly talking about without our governments doing anything – The ongoing genocide in Gaza. Dominic and Assem Dandashly discuss the paradox of aid and conflict, the reality on the ground in Gaza, the Western (and international) hypocrisy and what the inevitable consequences are…
Coordinated and Produced by Elisa Garbil Dominic Bowen hosts Stefan Wolff back on the podcast to discuss the Russia-Ukraine war. They dive into the current state of the war, how Trump’s ultimatum affects diplomatic tensions and whether this will actually change anything. Moreover they discuss Russia’s hybrid warfare and the challenges these bring to peace talks….
Written by Elisa Garbil – 04.08.2025 Diplomacy Without Traction As the Russia–Ukraine war enters its fourth summer, the balance between diplomacy and devastation has become increasingly precarious. While representatives from both sides have returned to negotiation tables in Istanbul and Doha, the intensifying violence across Ukrainian cities and the internal strains within Ukraine’s own institutions suggest that…
