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Departures Podcast with Catherine Belton

By Robert Amsterdam | Published: June 23, 2020

There are few other countries in the world that have wielded money and influence as well as the modern Russian state, to the point of purchasing impunity and acquiescence to their status quo. And this is not all simply because of a “master strategy” by Vladimir Putin, but instead a vast and complex system of […]

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Departures Podcast with Sarah Kendzior

By Robert Amsterdam | Published: June 19, 2020

For experts who spend their careers studying modern authoritarianism, it has only recently become prudent to apply their analytical skillset to talking about political developments in the United States. Journalist and author Sarah Kendzior, who stood out in 2015 as one of the lone voices warning that Donald Trump was going to win the presidency, […]

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Departures Podcast with Jean-Pierre Cabestan

By Robert Amsterdam | Published: June 15, 2020

Earlier this month marked the 31st anniversary of Tiannanmen Square, while during this same period, the same Chinese Communist Party solidified its grip on Hong Kong with the passage of a new national security law that would subject Hong Kongers to extradition and Chinese legal jurisdiction. These events are just examples of the extreme lengths […]

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Departures Podcast with Peter Pomerantsev

By Robert Amsterdam | Published: June 12, 2020

I will be honest – I was personally very excited to have Peter Pomerantsev come on to the podcast for today’s episode. Not just because he’s extraordinarily well versed in modern day Russian politics and brings a distinctive, sharp critical voice to the almost unfathomable levels of crookery and corruption that characterizes that country’s government, […]

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Departures Podcast with Stephen Kinzer

By Robert Amsterdam | Published: June 9, 2020

In the aftermath of World War II, instead of prosecuting certain German and Japanese officials for various war crimes, the Central Intelligence Agency decided it would be more useful to recruit some of them into their own ranks, thus opening one of the most bizarre chapters in Cold War history under the agency’s director Allen […]

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Departures Podcast with Robert Patterson

By Robert Amsterdam | Published: June 5, 2020

Our podcast is often focused on international affairs, often involving countries where our law firm is active. But given the dramatic developments taking place in the United States in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, we are confronted with the fact that many of the same authoritarian abuses, the same […]

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Departures Podcast with Barry Gewen

By Robert Amsterdam | Published: June 2, 2020

There are few other living historical figures more divisive that Henry Kissinger, and few others who attract such impassioned debate. Was he an ambitious figure, monstrously bereft of conscience, or a master strategist who accepted the world as it is and deftly manufactured outcomes that benefitted his country? We’re so pleased to have the opportunity […]

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Departures Podcast with Sean McFate

By Editor | Published: May 29, 2020

The United States spends trillions on its military, but are we really achieving stronger national security? Not really, says Sean McFate, the author of The New Rules of War, an incisive exploration of what it takes to win today’s wars. In his conversation with host Robert Amsterdam, McFate argues that the US has become obsessed with […]

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Departures Podcast with Jeffrey Smith

By Robert Amsterdam | Published: May 26, 2020

There are a lot of pundits out there declaring democracy promotion to be dead on arrival in the Trump era. But there’s still an important community of activists fighting for the cause against the odds and even winning. “Democracy matters and democratic leadership matters, even in the face of a fast-moving crisis like the coronavirus,” […]

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Departures Podcast with Stephen Krasner

By Robert Amsterdam | Published: May 22, 2020

If engineering democracy abroad is next to impossible, and autocrats will not accept reforms that could cause them to lose power, how can the US engage with illiberal regimes without enabling them? This question is at the center of Dr. Stephen Krasner’s most recent book, How to Make Love to a Despot: An Alternative Foreign […]

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