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Ian Explains
Human progress doesn’t have a finish line.
Our body clocks stop ticking at some point, but that’s not the same as reaching a destination, or achieving a goal. So how do we—as a community, as a country...as a world—define progress? What does “better” even look like?
In a word: laundry.
In 1920, the average American spent 11.5 hours a week doing laundry (and that average American was almost always a woman). By 2014, the number had dropped to 1.5 hours a week, thanks to what renowned public health scholar Hans Rosling has called QUOTE "greatest invention of the Industrial Revolution,”: the washing machine. By freeing people of washing laundry by hand, this new technology allowed parents to devote more time to educating their children, and it allowed women to cultivate a life beyond the washboard.
So, as I always say to myself whenever I’m stuck in traffic or on hold with customer service, there has never been a better time to be alive. And yet...And yet...And yet... War in Europe. Famine in Africa. Global pandemics. Fake news. Conspiracy theories. Democracy dying in the bright light of day. And that’s just your average Tuesday. So how much is technology making our lives better, and how much is a part of the problem?
Find out in this week's episode of GZERO World with Ian Bremmer on US public television (check local listings) and at gzeromedia.com/gzeroworld.
There’s no shortage of global crises facing the United Nations as heads of state and top diplomats converge on New York City next week for the annual UN General Assembly.
But this year, things seem particularly dire. Whether it’s the costly war in Ukraine, lurching towards its third year with no end in sight, or the ongoing climate crisis that UN Secretary-General António Guterres says is “boiling” the planet, it’s clear that the thorniest global issues cannot be solved by one nation alone. Oh, and don’t forget our brave new world of artificial intelligence.
But at a time of increased geopolitical fragmentation, can the Secretary-General get hundreds of member nations to agree on what needs to be done? And what to do first?
On this week’s show, Ian Bremmer sits down with Secretary-General Guterres for an exclusive interview ahead of UNGA 2023.
Watch the upcoming episode of GZERO World with Ian Bremmer on US public television this weekend (check local listings) and at gzeromedia.com/gzeroworld.
Who runs the world? It used to be an easy question to answer, but the next global super power isn’t who you think it is—not the US, not China. In fact, it’s not a country at all ... It’s technology.
On Ian Explains, Ian Bremmer breaks down the three global orders of the current geopolitical landscape.
First is the global security order, where the US is the undisputed leader. It’s the only country that can send soldiers, sailors, and military hardware to every corner of the world. Next there’s the global economic world order, which has no single leader. The US and China are too economically interdependent to couple from each other; the European Union is the world’s largest common market; Japan is a global economic power; India’s economy is growing rapidly … You get the idea.
The third global order isn’t quite here yet but it will bring unprecedented changes to our everyday lives: the digital order. As new artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney hit the market, techn firms control increasingly large data sets about massive swaths of the world’s population—what we think, what we feel, how we use the internet. And social media companies can impact elections with a simple tweak of an algorithm.
Who will hold these companies to account as they release new, more advanced tools? What will they do with the massive amounts of data they collect on us and our environment? Most importantly, how will technology companies use their power?
For more on the power of Big Tech and advances in AI technology, watch the upcoming episode of GZERO World with Ian Bremmer on US public television and at gzeromedia.com/gzeroworld.
Antisemitism is as old as civilization. An ancient Greek historian in the second century BCE railed against the “ridiculous practices” of the Jews and the “absurdity of their law.” And Shakespeare’s Shylock once asked, “If you prick us, do we not bleed?” But lately, it feels like this particularly ugly trend is back in fashion. And the numbers back that up, Ian Bremmer explains on GZERO World.
The anti-defamation league found 3,700 instances of antisemitic harassment, vandalism, or assault around the country last year alone, the highest number in 43 years. The FBI has also marked an uptick in hate crimes, with nearly two-thirds of all hate crimes targeting Jews.
Remember the sight of watching torch-bearing white supremacists marching on Charlottesville in 2017’s Unite the Right Rally? Then on October 27, 2018, a gunman killed 11 worshippers in Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue, in the deadliest antisemitic attack in US history. And in January of 2022, a British citizen radicalized by Islamic extremists walked into a Texas synagogue and took a Rabbi and several others hostage, though fortunately, the congregants managed to escape unharmed.
So how did we get here? Or has America always had this ugly undercurrent of hate bubbling beneath its surface, waiting for the right moment—movement—to erupt? It’s a painful question to face, but if we want to avoid the next Tree of Life tragedy, we have no choice.
Watch GZERO World with Ian Bremmer every week at gzeromedia.com/gzeroworld or on US public television. Check local listings.
Why is Russia trying to starve the world?
Nearly a year-and-a-half into its invasion of Ukraine—after the massacre of civilians in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, after the indiscriminate shelling of Europe’s largest nuclear plant in Zaporizhzhia, and after the torture of countless Ukrainian POWs—Moscow’s latest move may be its cruelest so far.
In July, Russia pulled out of a landmark wartime deal, brokered by Turkey and the United Nations, that had allowed for 33 million tons of food to flow from Ukraine to countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. And soon after announcing their withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Initiative, Russian forces engaged in strikes against the port of Odessa, destroying substantial grain stocks while also inadvertently damaging the Chinese consulate there (oops).
So why is it in Moscow’s interest to spike global food prices? What does it have to gain from exacerbating hunger in the Global South? Many of the African nations likely to be hardest hit, like Ethiopia, have taken pains to remain neutral in the Ukraine war.
Maybe Putin is losing patience.
For more on the Russia Ukraine war, watch the upcoming episode of GZERO World with Ian Bremmer on US public television and at gzeromedia.com/gzeroworld.
Why does Russia have a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council?
On August 1, the United States will take over the Security Council presidency and it has a lot of major issues on the agenda, including food security, human rights, and addressing ongoing humanitarian crises in Haiti and Sudan.
But with Russia a permanent, veto-wielding member of the Council, the chances of any major resolutions the United States proposes actually passing are pretty slim, Ian Bremmer explains on GZERO World.
To understand why Russia has a permanent seat, you have to go back to the creation of the UN in 1945. The winners of World War II–the Americans and the allies–built the UN, including the Security Council. The five permanent members? They’re the WWII winners: the US, UK, France, China, and the Soviet Union.
By 1948, allies had quickly turned to adversaries as the Iron Curtain went up. But it was too late–the Security Council was created, enshrined, and fundamentally broken, all within three years.
Eighty years after its creation, it’s clear the Council no longer reflects the current reality. Veto power in the hands of geopolitical rivals keeps it from passing meaningful resolutions, and there are no countries from Latin America, Africa, or the Caribbean with permanent seats.
“A Security Council that retains the power of the veto in the hands of a few will still lead us to war,” said Barbados Prime Minister during the 2022 UN General Assembly.
There’s no question that we need a more effective and inclusive body to protect international peace in the modern era. But can the UN’s 193 member states put aside their differences to create it?
Watch Ian Explains for the full breakdown, and for more on the US, watch GZERO World with Ian Bremmer on US public television and at gzeromedia.com/gzeroworld.
- Explaining: the history of the UN headquarters ›
- The UN turns 75 — is it still relevant? ›
- As Sudan war worsens, Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield says UN must help ›
- UN official: Security Council Is “dysfunctional” - but UN is not ›
- UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield on Russia, human rights, & the Security Council presidency - GZERO Media ›
- Linda Thomas-Greenfield on Russia, Sudan & the power of diplomacy - GZERO Media ›
- Russia undermines everything the UN stands for, says Linda Thomas-Greenfield - GZERO Media ›
Here’s a secret: the US government’s system for classifying documents doesn’t work very well, and it hasn’t for decades. If you follow the news, you’ve likely seen stories a-plenty about former President Donald Trump’s penchant for holding onto classified documents, not to mention less egregious examples like former Vice President Mike Pence and current President Joe Biden doing the same. But what you might not know is that the US government has a tortured history of overclassifying information, sometimes with disastrous results.
The 9/11 Commission found that a lack of information-sharing between agencies like the CIA, the FBI, and the NSA prevented the US government from foiling the terrorist attacks that day. A key reason for that failure was the over-classification of information. An estimated 50 million documents are classified each year, though the exact number is unknown—not because it’s classified, but because the government just can’t keep track of it all. In the words of former US Solicitor General Erwin Griswold, some “secrets are not worth keeping.”
It’s difficult for the American public to know what its government is up to if so much of its work is classified. It also forces journalists to weigh the risks of disclosing information to the public against the risk of prosecution under the Espionage Act.
There are, of course, plenty of good and important reasons to classify information. We don’t want Kim Jong Un or Ayatollah Khamenei to get their hands on US nuclear codes. But beyond national security concerns, a big contributor to over-classification comes down to incentives—If you’re a government employee, the risk of classifying something that doesn’t need to be classified is low, but if you un-classify something that you shouldn’t, you're in trouble. It’s also about control. Classification protects the government against revelations of mistakes, false predictions, or other embarrassments that the rest of us like to call “accountability.”
Watch Ian Explains for the full breakdown, and for more on the US, watch GZERO World with Ian Bremmer on US public television and at gzeromedia.com/gzeroworld.
Latest
Ian Explains: Is the world better today thanks to human progress?
Ian Explains: The UN General Assembly meets amidst converging crises
Ian Explains: Why big tech will rule the world
Ian Explains: Why antisemitism is increasing around the world
Ian Explains: Why is Russia trying to starve the world?
Ian Explains: Why America is bad at keeping secrets
