The Foreign Desk
Monocle’s global-affairs show with Andrew Mueller. Expert guests, in-depth analysis, and sharp commentary on major geopolitical issues.
Latest Episodes
Sri Lanka on a knife edge
Sri Lanka has plunged into political chaos in the face of financial meltdown. As the crisis rages on, the future of the country’s 22 million people is uncertain. How did we get here and…
Boris Johnson resigns – what next?
After weeks of clinging on, Boris Johnson has at last agreed to step down as UK prime minister. What legacy does he leave behind? What challenges will his successor face? How have Ukrainians reacted?…
NATO: brain-dead no more?
In this special episode, the team travels to Madrid for Nato’s most important summit in generations. How much stronger has Russia made the alliance, if only by accident? Andrew Mueller speaks to Lithuania’s foreign…
Mark Esper
Andrew Mueller sits down with former US secretary of defence Mark Esper to discuss his tumultuous tenure in the Trump administration, the ongoing Capitol Hill committee hearings, and how he thinks other Western militaries…
The evolution of Putin
The course of recent world history and the future of Ukraine rests on the whim of one man: Vladimir Putin. Was Putin’s rule of Russia always going to end up like this? In this…
Globsec 2022 Bratislava Forum, part two
In the second of our special episodes recorded at Globsec, Andrew Mueller sits down with Romania’s state secretary, Simona Cojocaru, former Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt and Ukrainian MP Maria Mezentseva.
Globsec 2022 Bratislava Forum, part one
A special episode at the Globsec 2022 Bratislava Forum. Andrew Mueller talks to Belarus’s opposition leader, the former president of Estonia and the ambassador-at-large at Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Kevin Rudd: How to Avert a Conflict Between China and the US
In this special episode, Andrew Mueller sits down with the former prime minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, to discuss the volatile relationship between superpowers China and the United States, the possibility of a catastrophic…
Finland and Sweden bid to join Nato: why now?
Sweden and Finland have submitted their applications to become Nato’s 31st and 32nd members. We ask what Sweden and Finland would bring to the alliance, and if this expansion would make Nato’s mission of…
Children of giants
In this special episode of ‘The Foreign Desk’, we speak to the descendants of major political figures. What’s it really like to be the child of a head of state? How weird is it…
