Departures with Robert Amsterdam

Dec 05 2024 100 ep. 29 mins 6

Departures with Robert Amsterdam Podcast artwork

Departures is a literary podcast featuring half-hour interviews with nonfiction authors covering a diverse range of subjects, from geopolitics to law, to history, international affairs, and current events. Hosted by international lawyer Robert Amsterdam, founder of Amsterdam & Partners LLP, Departures brings listeners into casual but revealing conversations with our favorite authors, bringing light to new ideas, arguments, and issues deserving of consideration outside of the usual narratives of the news cycle.

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The ignominious track record of Africa's foreign saviors

Dec 05 2024 31 mins

Throughtout the post-colonial period in Africa, there has been no shortage of economists, non-governmental organizations, diplomats, and aid organizations flying in from the United States and Western Europe with an astonishing array of prescriptions and reform plans to dramatically transform the economies and governance structures of these young nations. With few exceptions, these

Reconsidering the Western Response to China's Global Rise

Nov 28 2024 29 mins

A popular meme in Kenya goes something like this: everytime China visits, we get a hospital. When the US visits, we get a lecture. That's of course not an accurate picture of the competition between the West and China in the global South, but it does highlight a certain disconnect that can be perceived widely among many in these regions which have been included in the Belt and Roa

Kant, Borges, Heisenberg and the Nature of Observation and Knowledge

Nov 20 2024 28 mins

What does it mean to perceive reality? How do art, science, and philosophy converge in shaping our understanding of the world? In this episode of Departures with Robert Amsterdam, we sit down with William Egginton, acclaimed author and professor, to dive into his latest book, "The Rigor of Angels: Borges, Heisenberg, Kant, and the Ultimate Nature of Reality." Egginton weaves a capt

How the Ukraine war has altered the direction of globalization

Nov 12 2024 29 mins

As this coming February will mark the third anniversary of Russia's invasion and occupation of Eastern Ukraine, there is already a clear and tangible impact upon the geopolitical challenges faced by the United States and her allies in Europe in terms of their roles in the international system. This week Departures with Robert Amsterdam is pleased to welcome back past guest Michael

A pivotal election brings uncertainty to Japan

Nov 05 2024 26 mins

In a week in which most eyes are on the US election, there are other meaningful elections which also merit close examination. On October 27 Japanese voters expressed their pent-up frustration with the growing list of scandals associated with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and ended the party's near 70-year long rule. LDP and their partner Komeito failed to reach a majori

Fears, miscalculations, and mistakes which led to the war in Ukraine

Oct 30 2024 27 mins

As the war in Ukraine grinds into yet another brutal winter, narratives are shifting in Western capitals regarding the nature of the conflict, its goals, and the longer term meaning of the war in terms of the balance of power on the European continent. Looking back to the war's origins, it is important not only to examine the build-up of Russia's aggression against the sovereignty

The great rebalancing of the West

Oct 24 2024 26 mins

Perhaps one of the most meaningful facts that illustrates the sweeping changes taking place in global affairs is the following: In 1950, nearly one in three people in the world lived in a Western country. By 2050, that number will dwindle to one in ten, bringing with it a wide variety of recalculations by companies, culture, influence, and politics. This demographic change is but o

How the Congolese view their relationship to the global big tech supply chain

Oct 16 2024 27 mins

The modern world's bottomless demand for precious metals originating in the mines of the Democratic Republic of Congo is covered daily in the news, from the supply chains underpinning the most common consumer electronics in our pockets to the most critical national security and future energy questions. But rarely are these extractive industries understood from the perspective of th

Russia's burning ambition for global power

Jul 09 2024 27 mins

Following the end of World War II, Josef Stalin and Russia's leadership had a certain vision of the postwar order, one which ended up being quite different from reality. They had expected to maintain control over the whole of Europe, and have these gains of war legitimized and recognized by the United States - with specific emphasis on the carve up of territory concluded in the Yal

The beginning of the end of the old Ottoman world order

Jun 21 2024 28 mins

In the early 19th century, the Ottoman empire was facing rebellion, decline, and increasing competition for influence with Europe. The leadership in Istanbul implemented desperate plans to preserve the empire through modernizing reforms, known as Tanzimat, which among other measures declared Muslims, Christians, and Jews to be equal under the law. But things did not go as planned.