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In this episode of Latika Takes: The Podcast, Latika is in Tallinn to interview Estonia’s Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna.
Mr Tsahkna, also a former Defence Minister of Estonia, discusses his call for ‘boots on the ground’ to make sure whatever security guarantees given to Ukraine are meaningful, unlike the 2014 Minsk agreements.
He says the entry of North Korean troops into the War in Ukraine was a huge shock he could never have imagined that it has changed the political understanding of Russia’s war and her authoritarian supporters and backers.
Latika questions Mr Tsahkna about how the war in Ukraine has changed his understanding of China and if he has received satisfactory explanations about the high-profile cases of damage caused to undersea cables by Chinese-flagged ships.
The foreign minister also discusses the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria and what Donald Trump means for Europe and Ukraine.
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This week’s episode is a special edition and comes from the Australian Institute of International Affairs annual conference in Canberra where I hosted the all-star final panel focussing on American power after the shock return of US President-elect Donald Trump.
Panellists include Australia’s former Home Affairs boss and author of the 2009 Defence White Paper and a familiar voice to listeners of this podcast Mike Pezzullo, Professor Hugh White, one of the leading doves on China policy in Australia, Melissa Conley-Tyler, director of the Asia-Pacific Development, Diplomacy & Defence Dialogue and Professor Peter Dean, from the US Studies Centre at the University of Sydney and also author of this year’s Defence Strategic review.
I greatly enjoyed moderating this discussion and hope you enjoy the carefully curated diverse points of view assembled by the AIIA.
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This week Latika Takes interviews John Spencer, Chair of Urban Warfare Studies at Modern War Institute at West Point and is the world’s leading expert on urban warfare.
Spencer, who served 25 years in the US Army, discusses the evolution of urban warfare in Ukraine and Gaza.
He has recently visited Gaza and is one of the few people to have been inside Hamas’ vast tunnel network.
He discusses the challenges underground warfare poses, why the war in Gaza is unlikely to conclude anytime soon despite international condemnation and calls for a ceasefire and the power of the smartphone camera in changing war from a contest of will to a contest of narrative.
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This week Latika Takes is in Australia and sits down with Dr Michael Green, the head of the United States Studies Centre at Sydney University.
Dr Green is a specialist on Indo-Pacific policy, having authored several books on Japanese politics and lived there as well as in Australia. He previously served in the Pentagon and sat on the National Security Council in George W Bush’s Administration.
He explains how the Democrats lost their way this election leading to Trump’s historically huge electoral victory, how US President Joe Biden surrounded himself with yes men to miss the wider picture forming across an inflation-scarred America and why these same dynamics are a factor in the upcoming Australian election.
He argues AUKUS and the Indo-Pacific will fare well under the Trump 2.0 Administration because America-Firsters are also Asia-Firsters.
Europe will not do so well. He says Germany will be panicking and Ukraine should not feel confident as Trump is likely to put previously non-negotiables like NATO on the table in order to bring the war in Ukraine to an end.
He explains why Australia is unlikely to be hit with Trump’s planned blanket tariffs and why the future of the Quad is probably safe.
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In this episode, Latika interviews John Hennessey who served as US Ambassador to the Pacific nation of Palau, which is holding an election on Tuesday.
Palau is one of the few countries that recognises Taiwan and has formal diplomatic ties with the self-governed democratic island.
The retired Ambassador made history and headlines when he visited Taiwan in 2021, becoming the first serving US Ambassador to do so since the adoption of the One China policy.
John discusses his recent piece published by the American Foreign Service Association. He argues that the US risks a credibility gap in the Pacific if it doesn’t step up.
He discusses his time in Palau, how the US is trying to combat Chinese interference i the Pacific and the implications of Tuesday’s Presidential election between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris for US foreign policy.
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In this episode, Latika Takes collaborates with The Next America to discuss the key factors determining the race between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.
James Johnson, founder of JL Partners was chief pollster in Number 10 when Theresa May was Prime Minister. He says this US election is so difficult to poll that many pollsters have given up.
He breaks down how gender, character, strength and foreign policy are deciding votes and reveals insights from the many focus groups he's been conducting about how voters, unfiltered, really feel about the prospect of a woman president, and revisiting the drama of Trumpism.
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Welcome to the refreshed version of the podcast which will reflect more of the content you see in the text version of Latika Takes.
This week I caught up with Stephanie Baker at Bloomberg. Stephanie has just published her book Punishing Putin: Inside the Global Economic War to Bring Down Russia.
We talked about her time as a foreign correspondent reporting in Russia during the rise of Vladimir Putin, the effectiveness of the sanctions imposed on Russian entities after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and what that tells us about how sanctions might work or not against China in the event of a conflict in the Indo-Pacific.
In Ask Me Anything, Stephanie quizzes Latika about Australia’s support for Ukraine.
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In this episode, Latika interviews Tymofiy Mylovanov to discuss the state of Ukraine amid a shifting mood in Kyiv and the US Presidential elections.
My Mylovanov was Ukraine’s former Economy, Trade and Agriculture Minister and is now President of the Kyiv School of Economics. He is a prominent Ukrainian voice online as he argues Kyiv’s case to the world.
Latika and Mr Mylovanov caught up in London. They discussed Ukraine’s efforts to clean up corruption, the bids to join the EU and NATO, why Donald Trump is not necessarily worse for Ukraine than Kamala Harris, why Nato membership won’t be the silver bullet and the United States’ timidity to enforce its sanctions.
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Mykola Bielieskov discusses the war in Ukraine, the recent offensive into Kursk and President Volodymyr Zelensky’s peace plan.
He outlined why Ukraine needs the capability to strike inside Russia, the view from Ukraine about the likelihood of Russian President Vladimir Putin using nuclear weapons against Ukraine and whether the UK should tack to the United States’ position or go it alone and give Kyiv approval independently of the White House.
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In this episode, Latika interviews Australia’s shadow foreign minister Simon Birmingham at the recent GLOBSEC security conference in Prague.
Senator Birmingham recently travelled to Kyiv, becoming the first Australian foreign or shadow minister to visit Ukraine since 2014.
He discussed the need for Australia to upgrade its contributions to Ukraine and why the European theatre matters to the Indo-Pacific. In Ask Me Anything he questioned Latika on what Australian foreign policy can do to engage Europe in Asia better.
On China policy, Simon Birmingham continued the softened tone the Coalition has adopted since losing the election in 2022 but insisted that nothing had changed in their policy settings when it came to standing up to Beijing’s coercion and bullying behaviour.
However, he acknowledged that the opposition no longer would be calling for an inquiry into Covid, a call that triggered the CCP’s economic coercion of Australia.
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In this week’s episode, Mick breaks down the Ukrainian offensive into Kursk and discusses the success of the Ukrainians and the lessons they’ve learnt since the failed, and overhyped counter-offensive.
Then we are joined by Dr Benjamin Tallis, one of Europe, and Germany’s leading foreign policy analysts.
Based in Berlin Dr Tallis was part of Action Group Zeitenwende at the German Council on Foreign Relations and recently launched his Democracy Strategy Initiative as part of his advocacy for a ‘NeoIdealism’ foreign policy.
We discuss why Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz failed to make good on his pledge after the invasion of Ukraine to shepherd through a shift in German security and defence posture.
We discuss whether Germany has learnt any lessons from its dependence on Russia to apply to how it deals with China and the sentiment of the German public on these issues.
In Ask Me Anything Dr Tallis asks Mick and Latika how Australia can improve its relations with Europe.
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This week Latika interviews Australia’s Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.
Dutton served as Home Affairs and Defence Minister in the last Coalition government before it lost power in 2022.
Under that government, Australia-China relations reached a nadir as tensions boiled over and China slapped Australia with enormous tariffs in retaliation for the government’s call for an inquiry into Covid. China ceased communicating with Australia.
Labor has stabilised the relationship and China has lifted some of those duties and resumed diplomatic exchanges, including high-level visits.
Latika asked Mr Dutton what type of relationship the Coalition now seeks with China, whether he still doubts the plan to co-build a new attack submarine with the British — he favoured buying boats from the United States — and the state of our defences.
In Ask Me Anything, Mr Dutton revisits Latika’s time as a press gallery journalist last decade in Canberra.
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This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.latikambourke.com/subscribe
