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Departures with Robert Amsterdam

May 28, 2021

When a government wants to break into someone's iPhone or Android device, there's a marketplace where that kind of vulnerability hacking service is bought and sold - costing sometimes as much as $2.5 million.

The very fact that such a marketplace exists for cyberwarfare is an illustration of the rapidly growing field of...


May 24, 2021

Imagine you are trapped in a far-flung foreign compound with 10 other people, none of them want to be there, but you have a seemingly limitless supply of alcohol. Oh, and you are charged with developing critical intelligence and knowledge for Imperial Russia's ambitions to gain global power.

That's among the many...


May 21, 2021

For decades, academics and journalists have struggled to explain Russia by attempting to better explain Vladimir Putin, endlessly debating his background, his personal character, and his thinking. Many of them argue that his personal power is at the heart of decision-making, that his will alone drives events. And we...


May 17, 2021

From the first election of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela in 1998 to the death of Fidel Castro in Cuba in 2016, Latin America experienced a vast "pink tide" of left-leaning leaders often described as populist.

And while it would be a mistake to consider all these diverse personalities and governments under a single banner, it...


May 11, 2021

In light of the escalating violence taking place in Israel this week, we reached out to our friend and colleague Ron Robin, a scholar, author, and the President of Haifa University.

In this brief interview, which was interrupted at several points by air raid sirens nearby Prof. Robin's location, we discuss the origins...