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
Modi: one year on
As Narendra Modi completes a year in office, Monocle’s Steve Bloomfield is joined by Milan Vaishnav and Shashank Bengali to discuss where the world’s largest democracy is today.
Poll position
No election is complete without arguments over opinion polls. Who’s up, who’s down, what we care about, what we don’t. It’s time to brush up on our sample sizes, our margins of errors and, of course, our confidence intervals. Three polling experts explain the science.
Syria: is Assad losing?
Monocle’s foreign editor Steve Bloomfield asks if Bashar al-Assad is finally losing the battle for Syria? He analyses the ongoing war – now in its fifth year – with acting editor at ‘Syria Deeply’, Katarina Montgomery, and Liz Sly, Beirut bureau chief for the ‘Washington Post’.
Terror in Kenya
After 148 people were killed in Garissa, Kenya is a country in mourning. But much of the anger is focused on a government that failed to protect its citizens. Steve Bloomfield speaks to Kenyan journalists and activists about the country’s crisis.
Remember Darfur?
In 2015 Sudan re-elected a president accused of genocide. Steve Bloomfield chairs a discussion on why the Darfur campaign failed.
Hillary Clinton versus no one
Steve Bloomfield talks to CNN’s Peter Hamby and the AP’s Lisa Lerer about the strange non-race to be the Democratic nominee for president in 2016.
The election no one will win
Britain goes to the polls in May but no party can win a majority. Steve Bloomfield talks to commentators David Aaronovitch and John Rentoul about the likely chaos following the vote, while Sean Kemp gives the inside story on the bizarre coalition negotiations last time around.
Civil war in Yemen?
Western diplomats once lauded the ‘Yemen model’ as the solution to conflicts in the Arab world. Now it’s unravelled, leaving the country split and with no solution in sight. Steve Bloomfield talks to journalist Iona Craig, activist Baraa Shiban and diplomat Frances Guy.
Israel after Netanyahu
Israel may have a new prime minister in less than two weeks but what would an Israel led by Isaac Herzog look like? And what would it mean for the peace process?
The debt dilemma
Greece’s creditors may not like it but debt write-offs have succeeded in the past. Monocle’s Steve Bloomfield hears from a campaigner, an economist and a historian to learn why old battles point the way forward to a Greek solution.
