Contours is a podcast series of Newlines Institute for Strategy & Policy. It's a fireside chat type of conversation with some of the brightest minds in the geopolitical and foreign policy space. In each episode of Contours we try to unpack for our listeners the complex issues that challenge our national and (by extension) international security. The discussions are geared toward advancing the cause of human security and stabilization and development on our planet.

Contours Podcast

In this segment of the Contours podcast series, Nicholas Heras is joined by two leading experts on the Indian Subcontinent and climate change – Dr. Syed Mohammad Ali and Dr. Saleem Ali – to discuss the geopolitics of climate change in India, Pakistan, and South Asia overall. The discussion then dives into the key findings from Dr. Saleem Ali’s forthcoming book, Earthly Order: How Natural Laws Define Human Life (Oxford University Press, 2022) on how the local, regional, and global effects of climate change are impacting human societies. They also highlight what policy actions the United States can take to help mitigate the prospect of climate-induced state collapse, conflict, and other trans-national threats to human security on the Indian Subcontinent.

The Geopolitics of Climate Change on the Indian Subcontinent

In this episode of the New Lines Institute’s Contours podcast series, host Nicholas Heras is joined by two leading experts on the Indian Subcontinent, Dr. Syed Mohammad Ali and Suchitra Vijayan , to analyze the dangerous emerging dynamics on the Indian subcontinent, especially inside India and in the contentious relationship between India and Pakistan. The discussion covers Vijayan’s critically acclaimed book, Midnight’s Borders: A People’s History of Modern India , and assesses how the tortured history of the subcontinent continues to drive India and Pakistan to instability and conflict. The panel also discusses how the United States can approach its policy toward the subcontinent, with a special focus on how the growing Indian-American community is shaping U.S.-India policy in an era of great-power competition.

Midnight’s Borders: Emerging Dynamics on the Indian Subcontinent

In this episode of the New Lines Institute's Contours podcast series, host Nicholas Heras is joined by three outstanding experts, Leyla Latypova, Misha Yakovlev, and Jeff Hawn, to discuss the state of Russian civil society and the civil resistance movement against the Putin-led Russian government. The discussion focuses on the current, contentious, and potentially regime-destabilizing dynamic between the Putin's regime and Russia's ethnic and religious minority populations. They also explore how the Russian state targets civil rights – including LGBTQ rights – and how the Putin-led government might remodel its security apparatus in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Civil Resistance to Empire in Putin's Russia

Russia’s war in Ukraine is entering a new phase as forces shift their focus to the country’s east and south, seeking to capitalize on gains in separatist enclaves after numerous losses and shortfalls in the campaign’s initial months. As Russia adjusts its posture, the U.S. — particularly its intelligence community — also wants to shift to a long-term strategy that will deter Russian advances and violations of human security in both Ukraine and Eastern Europe at large.
 
In this Contours episode, Senior Analyst Caroline Rose sits down with Douglas London, a decorated veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) Clandestine Service, an adjunct associate professor at Georgetown University’s Center for Security Studies, and a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute.

Great Power Espionage: The US Intelligence Community’s Strategy in Russia’s War on Ukraine

In this episode of the New Lines Institute’s Contours podcast series, Human Security Unit Director Faysal Itani sits down with Lebanese political activist Alaa Sayeg to discuss Lebanese politics amid the worst economic situation in the country’s history. Viewed through the lens of Sayeg’s personal experience as an opposition politician in the May 2022 national elections, the discussion highlights the difficulties anti-regime activists face in the rigid Lebanese political system, as well as Hezbollah's role in the country.

Inside the Lebanese Political System: the Operations of the Anti-Regime Opposition

In the latest Contours episode, Zoe Robbin and Calvin Wilder join host Carolyn Moorman to discuss the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, their importance to the Syrian and Turkish people, and their impacts on the Syrian conflict.

Water's Role in Turkish-Syrian Dynamics

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Water's Role in Turkish-Syrian Dynamics

New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy