Mark Leonard's World in 30 Minutes
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Mark Leonard's World in 30 Minutes
Weekly podcast on the events, policies and ideas that will shape the world.World in 30 minutes is curated by Mark Leonard, Director of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), and features top-level speakers from across the EU and beyond to debate and discuss Europe’s role in the world. It...
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Trump’s new National Security Strategy
America has published its new National Security Strategy (NSS)—and it contains worrying rhetoric about the EU, European values and the transatlantic r...
China's technological dominance
China’s rise has long fascinated policymakers, economists and technologists. But few observers have studied the country’s technological ambitions as c...
ECFR at 18: Has European foreign policy come of age?
The European Council on Foreign Relations turned 18 in November 2025. This milestone offers a unique moment to reflect on the world in which ECFR was...
Trump's 28-point plan for Ukraine
In this emergency podcast episode, Mark Leonard welcomes Jana Kobzova, co-director of ECFR’s European Security Programme, and Jim O’Brien, former US a...
The future of European air defence
Europe’s most ambitious defence project is in deep trouble. Europe’s Future Combat Air System (FCAS), presented as the crown jewel of Franco-German co...
The politics of migration and integration
Across Europe, immigration and integration have become pressing political issues. The far right is surging in national polls, and debates over borders...
Russia’s hybrid war in Africa
In recent years, military juntas have replaced democratically elected governments in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. These have expelled European forces...
Venezuela and Trump’s hemispheric defence agenda
This week, Mark Leonard returns to the World in 30 Minutes to unpack the latest development in US foreign policy: America’s military buildup off the c...
Ukraine, Russia and Trump’s sanctions gamble
Donald Trump’s efforts to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine have largely taken a backseat to events in Gaza. But a recent call with Vladimir Put...
Gaza ceasefire
This week, Mark Leonard welcomes Eran Etzion, former deputy head of Israel’s National Security Council, and Jamal Nusseibeh, Palestinian legal scholar...
The Neighbourhood: Europe’s enlargement moment
EU enlargement is back at the top of the EU’s political agenda as Russia’s war against Ukraine has transformed it from a bureaucratic process into a m...
France in turmoil
This week Mark Leonard welcomes Célia Belin, senior policy fellow and head of ECFR’s Paris office, to discuss the unprecedented political turmoil in F...
Trump's Gaza plan
Mark Leonard welcomes Hugh Lovatt to unpack Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza and what it means for Israel, Hamas, and Europe.
This wee...
The New Right’s rise in America
In the United States, the political right is undergoing a significant transformation. Once dominated by Reagan economics—characterised by free trade a...
Hedging diplomacy: New Delhi’s foreign policy in Trump’s world
Mark Leonard welcomes James Crabtree and Suhasini Haidar to explore India’s foreign policy and its emerging relations with Europe.
For decades,...
Drones over Denmark: Russia tests NATO’s defences
Mark Leonard is joined by Ulrike Franke, ECFR senior policy fellow, for an Emergency Room podcast. Together, they unpack the recent wave of drone incu...
The dog days of summer: Ukraine battles and diplomacy
Mark Leonard welcomes Jana Kobzova to break down the summer’s key developments in Russia’s war on Ukraine.
This week, ECFR’s director Mark Leona...
The New Politics: Report from Washington
This week, ECFR director Mark Leonard concludes his deep-dive podcast series into the political universe of the “post-liberal revolution”. Throughout...
The New Politics with Balázs Orbán
This week Mark Leonard is joined by Balázs Orbán, Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán’s (no relation) political director since 2021. He is also chai...
The New Politics with Hélène De Lauzun
This week Mark Leonard is joined by Hélène De Lauzun, Paris correspondent for the European Conservative and author of L'histoire de l'Autriche (The Hi...
The New Politics with Gladden Pappin
In the second episode of ECFR’s summer mini-series on the “New Right”, Mark Leonard is joined by Gladden Pappin, president of the Hungarian Institute...
The new politics with Rod Dreher
This week Mark Leonard is joined by Rod Dreher, a visiting fellow and Network Project director at the Danube Institute in Budapest, and former senior...
The new politics with Yoram Hazony
In the second episode of ECFR’s summer mini-series on the “New Right”, Mark Leonard is joined by Yoram Hazony, Israeli political scientist, president...
The new politics with Ivan Krastev
The re-election of President Donald Trump and the recent successes of right-wing parties across the world are posing a challenge to the established po...
Democratic decay in Bulgaria
This week, Mark Leonard is joined by Vessela Tcherneva, deputy director of ECFR, and Maria Simeonova, head of ECFR’s Sofia office, to discuss the dete...
Live from the Aspen Security Forum: America’s inward turn
This week, Mark Leonard is joined by Jeremy Shapiro, ECFR’s research director and head of its US programme, and Tom Wright, senior fellow at the Brook...
Crisis and control in Gaza and the West Bank
This week, Mark Leonard is joined by Hugh Lovatt, ECFR policy fellow, and Tahani Mustafa, visiting fellow in ECFR’s Middle East and North Africa progr...
Tariff tensions: Avoiding an EU-US trade war
This week, Mark Leonard is joined by Tobias Gehrke, ECFR senior policy fellow, for a 15-minute Emergency Room episode dissecting the collapse of an EU...
Beyond the battlefield: Europe’s long-term strategy for Ukraine
This week, Mark Leonard is joined by Jana Kobzova, ECFR senior policy fellow, and Camille Grand, ECFR distinguished policy fellow, to discuss ECFR’s n...
Hidden empire: How America wields economic power
This week, Mark Leonard is joined by Henry Farrell, ECFR council member and professor at John Hopkins University, to discuss Henry’s new book “Undergr...
Live from Warsaw: Polling European politics under Trump’s shadow
Recorded live from ECFR’s Annual Council Meeting 2025, this week’s podcast features Mark Leonard in conversation with Ivan Krastev, Chair of the Centr...
NATO summit 2025: How Europe can secure its future
This week, Mark Leonard is joined by Camille Grand, former NATO assistant secretary general and ECFR distinguished policy fellow, for a 15-minute Emer...
What to expect from the conflict between Israel and Iran
This week, Mark Leonard is joined by the deputy director of ECFR’s Middle East and North Africa programme, Ellie Geranmayeh, and Eran Etzion, policy p...
Israel attacks Iran: Europe’s role in stopping a dangerous regional war
Mark Leonard is joined by Ellie Geranmayeh, deputy director of ECFR’s Middle East and North Africa programme, for a 15-minute Emergency Room episode d...
Doves and Hawks: Foreign policy in the second Trump age
A humanitarian crisis in Gaza; question marks around Iran; unstable governments in eastern Europe; and the growth of China’s economic and military mig...
Uncrowded house: European power during demographic change
How policymakers respond to Europe’s many challenges—from Russian aggression to sluggish economic growth to the shift to clean energy - will shape the...
NATO and Europe first: Britain’s new Strategic Defence Review
This week, Mark Leonard is joined by Malcolm Chalmers, deputy director general at the Royal United Services Institute and former Labour government adv...
Nawrocki’s win: What Poland’s populist president means for Europe
This week, Mark Leonard is joined by Piotr Buras, head of ECFR’s Warsaw office, for a 15-minute rapid-response episode dissecting the outcome of Pola...
Mobilising Europe: The case for a European Preparedness Act
This week, Mark Leonard is joined by Tiago Antunes, ECFR associate senior fellow at and former Portuguese secretary of state for European affairs; and...
Crisis and collapse: Europe’s intervention in Gaza
This week, Mark Leonard is joined by Julien Barnes-Dacey, ECFR’s Middle East and North Africa programme director, for an emergency room episode diving...