Brussels Sprouts

Melissa Hooper and Dalibor Rohac join Andrea-Kendall Taylor and Carisa Nietsche to discuss the results of Poland’s presidential election and the prospects for democracy in Poland. Hooper is a lawyer and rule of law expert. She is the director of the Foreign Policy and Human Rights Advocacy program at Human Rights First, where she researches anti-democratic trends in Russia and Central Europe. Rohac is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, where he studies transatlantic relations and political trends in Central and Eastern Europe, and a research associate at the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies.

​Ambassador (ret.) Michael McFaul and Vladimir Kara-Murza join Andrea-Kendall Taylor and Jim Townsend to discuss recent anti-democratic developments in Russian politics and U.S.-Russia relations. McFaul is a former U.S. ambassador to Russia and senior director for Russian and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council. He is currently a professor and Hoover Institution fellow at Stanford University. Kara-Murza is a Russian democracy activist, politician, author and filmmaker. He currently serves as chairman of the Boris Nemtsov Foundation for Freedom and vice president of the Free Russia Foundation.​

Michèle Flournoy joins Andrea Kendall-Taylor and Jim Townsend to discuss how a Biden administration can work with NATO to confront transnational threats. Flournoy has been a leader in defense policy under several administrations, including as Under Secretary of Defense for Policy from 2009 to 2012. She is the managing partner of WestExec Advisors and former co-founder of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS).

Ulrike Franke and Frank Sauer join Andrea Kendall-Taylor and Jim Townsend to break down the U.S. proposal to drawdown in Germany, nuclear sharing, and more on a joint Brussels Sprouts-Sicherheitshalber Podcast episode. Dr. Franke is a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. Dr. Sauer is a senior researcher at Bundeswehr University in Munich, where he is also the head of research at Project Metis.

Mike Kofman and Alexander Gabuev join Andrea Kendall-Taylor and Jim Townsend to explain the Russia-China defense relationship on the latest episode of Brussels Sprouts. Kofman is the Director of the Russia Studies Program at CNA and a Fellow at the Kennan Institute in the Woodrow Wilson International Center. Gabuev is aSenior Fellow and the Chair of the Russia in the Asia-Pacific Program at the Carnegie Moscow Center, CEIP.

Steven Pifer and Anna Wieslander join Andrea Kendall-Taylor and Jim Townsend on the latest episode of Brussels Sprouts to discuss the U.S. decision to withdraw from the Open Skies Treaty. Pifer is a nonresident senior fellow in the Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Initiative, Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence, and the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution. Wieslander is the Director for Northern Europe at the Atlantic Council.

Kirsti Kauppi joins Andrea Kendall-Taylor and Jim Townsend to discuss her time as Finland’s Ambassador to the United States, Finland’s response to COVID-19, and more. Amb. Kauppi has been in her current post since 2015. She previously served as Director General of Political Affairs of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland.

Mike Carpenter joins Andrea Kendall-Taylor and Jim Townsend to discuss lessons learned from Vladimir Putin’s time in office, how Putin views the United States, and more. Dr. Carpenter is the Managing Director of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement and a nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council.

Edward Ferguson joins Andrea Kendall-Taylor and Jim Townsend to discuss the United Kingdom’s COVID-19 response, post-pandemic foreign policy, and more. Ferguson is the Minister Counsellor Defence at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., and the MOD Director for the United States.

Ambassador John Tefft joins Andrea Kendall-Taylor and Jim Townsend to discuss Vladimir Putin’s pandemic response, opportunities for U.S. diplomacy, and more. Amb. Tefft served for more than 45 years in the Foreign Service and was the U.S. Ambassador to Russia from 2014-2017. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the RAND Corporation.

Kori Schake joins Andrea Kendall-Taylor and Jim Townsend to discuss the possibility of a second Trump term, transatlantic relations, and more. Schake is the Director of Foreign and Defense Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute.

How could a new Democratic President revitalize the transatlantic relationship? Julie Smith and Tom Wright join Andrea Kendall Taylor and Jim Townsend to discuss the potential challenges from COVID-19, China, and past U.S. leadership the next President may face. Smith is a Senior Advisor to the President and Director of the Asia Program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Wright is the Director of the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution and the author of All Measures Short of War: The Contest for the 21st Century and the Future of American Power.

In this week's episode of Brussels Sprouts, Constanze Stelzenmüller and Nathalie Tocci join Andrea Kendall-Taylor, Jim Townsend, and a live virtual audience to discuss lessons learned from the initial European response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Stelzenmüller is a Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy at the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution and the former Kissinger Chair on Foreign Policy and International Relations at the Library of Congress. Tocci is the Director of the Istituto Affari Internazionali in Rome and an Honorary Professor at the University of Tübingen.

Daphne Halikiopoulou and Paul Taggart join Andrea Kendall-Taylor and Carisa Nietsche to discuss the populist response to the crisis and what type of political blowback we can expect in the future. Halikiopoulou is an Associate Professor of Comparative Politics at the University of Reading. Taggart is a Professor of Politics and the Director of the European Institute at the University of Sussex.

Ashley Feng and Kristine Lee join Andrea Kendall-Taylor and Jim Townsend to explain China’s response to COVID-19 on the latest episode of Brussels Sprouts. Feng is a Research Associate in the Energy, Economics, and Security Program and CNAS. Lee is an Associate Fellow in the Asia-Pacific Security Program at CNAS.