Women Leaders
by Women Leaders - European Leadership Network
The podcast that discusses global current affairs with women leaders! Ilana Bet-El chats with wonderfully qualified women experts from around the world in informal but in-depth conversations that explain, analyse and highlight events of the day. Women Leaders brings incredibly well-informed perspectives to world events: not the news, but what the news means! From geopolitics to security, defence and wars, and from economics to journalism, media and disinformation, we bring context and insight to the rapid changes in the world. Contribute to the conversation or share your topic wishes with a comment & a 5-⭐️ Reach us on our Instagram and follow for updates @women_leaders_podcast Proudly partnered wit
Episodes
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Elections galore! with Janice Stein
The dizzying outcome of the US mid-term elections held on November 3rd has stunned many both in the country and worldwide. The people of the US elected so many Democratic candidates that both the Senate and the House of Representatives were flipped. After nearly two years of Republicans holding…
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The furious youth of France and Europe with Claire Berlinski ct
What is a polycrisis crossed with an omnishambles? The current situation in France, according to writer and Paris-based Claire Berlinski. This isn’t necessarily a criticism so much as a description of reality — and it is not confined to France. In many parts of Europe young people are protesting...
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Belarus as a buffer with Katia Glod
The full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022 was partly staged through the border between Belarus and Ukraine. This is not by chance: despite gaining independence in 1991, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, since 1994 Belarus has been controlled by Alexander Lukashenko, a…
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The demise of democracy with Marci Shore
As the world seems to stumble from crisis to crisis, be it conflicts or economic woes or ethnic violence, it sometimes seems as if we are living through the 1930s again — but in a rogue AI version. Whilst specific crises can be analysed and rationalised, there is a constant sense of déjà vu, be…
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9/11 25 years on with Brenda Berkman
The background to the disaster that was 9/11 has been researched exhaustively, while the security and geopolitical outcomes — notably in Afghanistan, Iraq, the whole Middle East and many other parts of the world — are evident, with many effects felt to this day. But the event itself has receded...
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Mary, The Formative Female Figure with Miri Rubin
Women Leaders concludes its summer season of women authors There is probably no more famous and pervasive female figure than Mary, mother of Christ. There are remarkably few known facts about this woman, but that has never stopped myths, ideas, imagery and music to evolve around her as a core...
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China’s Children Separated with Barbara Demick
The summer season of women authors is truly global, taking us this time to China. The superpower image it now exudes overshadows realities in the near past, when poverty was rife and beyond the big cities hundreds of millions were in poverty and often illiterate. The outside world had little...
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Life, Love and War with Katherine Saad Feghali
Women Leaders continues its summer series with women authors. Much has been written about the current horrors of Lebanon, but they really started long ago, in the civil war that raged between 1975-1990. As part of our women authors summer season, we turn to a novel written about coming of age in...
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Our life in the classics with Mary Beard
Women Leaders is having a relaxing summer with women authors. The Odyssey is a big summer hit, but it has been a hit for 3000 years: it is both a classic, and part of the classics, a broad field of study that Western culture has long been obsessed with. From legalities to laughter and from…
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Security, Cooperation and Conflict with Rose Gottemoeller
We are living in a world of open conflicts existing alongside peaceful life: while life in many parts of Europe and the US are focused upon summer holidays, Ukrainian cities are being pounded by Russian missiles and their soldiers are fighting Russian ones in the Donbas, while missiles are flying...
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The US at 250, the exceptional experiment with Laurel Rapp
The United States is celebrating the 250th anniversary of its founding on July 4th. Whilst the country is living through deep changes in its global perception, it is well to remember that as an entity it has always been different: the first declared republic, rejecting monarchy or any form of...
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Lebanon’s pivotal place in the Middle East with Suzan Haidamous
The war in Iran, and the broader Middle East, is apparently over — at least according to US President Trump. A 14-point agreement between the US and Iran has been signed - in Versailles Palace, where the ill-fated agreement ending World War I was signed - largely giving Iran all it asked for. The...
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Risk and reality with Tinatin Japaridze
It remains unclear whether the US President had requested a full risk assessment before deciding to launch airstrikes against Iran, or whether the option of Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz was highlighted then. However, the reality of the closed Strait, the global economic impact and the...
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The new context in Ukraine, 2026 with Hanna Shelest & Yuliia Shaipova
Long wars evolve and change, sometimes due to innovation and weapons other times due to politics and personalities — but in all cases there is a sharp change of context: the realities in which the war started cease to apply, and the new ones dictate events. The war in Ukraine has now reached this...
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Hungary and the defeat of illiberal democracy with Eva Cartwright and Flora Hevesi
There are certain events that are so important they signify a word now rarely used: possibility. The victory of the opposition Tisza party in Hungary over the long-ruling illiberal Fidesz party embodies the idea of possibility — a possible new and better future, a possible reconciliation with the...
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Wide waves of war with Shihoko Goto & Rebecca Christie
As all eyes remain on Iran, the US and the Strait of Hormuz, the global repercussions of the Iran war are becoming ever more evident. Food is an issue slowly hitting many parts: fertilisers are by products of fossil fuels, and the blocked Strait will constrain sowing seasons around the world. As...
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The final battle in the Middle East? with Lina Khatib
The regional war that started on 28 February 2026 with US and Israeli airstrikes against Iran has engulfed Lebanon, Israel and the Gulf states. Meting out destruction, death and disillusion on all sides, 40 days of conflict stopped with US President Trump threatening to wipe out Iranian...
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Iranians at war with Liora Hendelman-Baavur & Maneli Mirkhan
In week three of the war started by US-Israeli airstrikes on Iran, the main outcome appears to be destruction: of buildings and gas fields and military hardware; of the world energy market; of US credibility. The conflict has spread to Lebanon courtesy of Hezbollah, and Israel is being hit by...
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Destruction and disorder with Dina Esfandiary
The Islamic revolution that swept Iran in 1979 changed not only that state but also the region, and the world. The current war in and Iran can still be understood as a direct outcome of that event. The humiliation of the US in 1979 made it implacably opposed to Iran. The alignment of most of the...
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Gisèle Pelicot and opposing objectification with Katrin Bennhold & Elisa Braun
Gisèle Pelicot’s memoir has just been published, and the Jeffrey Epstein files continue to become public. While the admirable Ms Pelicot has become a modern heroine, the two stories have forced a strong focus upon a core common reality: women remain the ultimate objects, to be subjugated by men.…
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Iran at a crossroads with Roxane Farmanfarmaian
Iran is at a boiling point. In January mass protests broke out across the country and many thousands of people were wounded and killed — by their own government. US President Trump appeared to egg the protesters on, though no tangible aid or succour materialised. On the other hand the US has now...
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When dignity dies with Almut Möller & Signe Biering
The world is at a point of extreme discomfort, even pain. The first year of the second Trump administration was brutal, undermining the structures of democracy within the US and actively seeking to destroy the post WWII global order everywhere else. In the global south the cuts to US aid are...
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A cracking start to the year with Rachel Ellehuus
2026 undoubtedly started with a spectacular show by the US in Venezuela; the question is -- what is it a show of?? Force, for sure. Planes, drones and soldiers all invaded Venezuela in a meticulously planned operation that focused on abducting President Maduro and his wife to the US, to stand…
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Africa all around with Amaka Auku
Tittle: Africa all around There is a renowned inclination to view and discuss Africa largely in terms of failure and disaster. The horrendous civil war in Sudan, the coups in the Sahel, the never ending wars in the DRC, are excellent examples. More broadly, in the West the continent tends to be...
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Bad plans come unstuck with Hanna Shelest & Iryna Krasnoshtan
According to Wikipedia, 28 is “approximately the number of grams in an ounce, and used as such in commercial trade.” This may explain why there were 28 points in the US plan to end Russia’s war on Ukraine: it was drafted by people interested in commerce and trade, and the US stands to gain some…
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Ukraine inside and out with Kristina Zeleniuk and Kim Barker
A long war is unimaginable to people in the developed world. Since WWII, most states in Europe have not experienced conflict in their lands, barring the Balkans in the 1990s, and the US has never really lived through such a reality, apart from the bombing of Pearl Harbour in December 1941 and the...
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Talking about a revolution with Janice Stein
There are many aspects to our current events: trade wars, international realignments weakening democracies, strengthening autocracies, social discontent, wars kinetic and hybrid, a faltering international system and much more. Each element may be explained individually but taken together they add...
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Mired in the Middle East with Tahani Mustafa & Miriam Rosman
As most international mediators know, Israel-Palestine is a conflict to avoid. Intellectually, it should be solvable, but in reality it is intractable. In this episode we bring together a Palestinian and an Israeli — Dr Tahani Mustafa of the ECFR and Dr Miriam Rosman of the Dvorah Forum — hoping…
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China watching with Lauren Gloudeman
Donald Trump is everywhere: at the UN General Assembly, at special press conferences, at meetings of his military leadership and in the White House - condemning Europe and climate change one day, announcing a Gaza deal the next, doubling down on tariffs the third, doing nothing about Russia...
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The driving force of development with Susan Brown
International development has come to an end, according to some economists. Be it the sudden closure of USAID earlier this year, the shift of EU and NATO states to defence spending, or the populist inspired interest in isolationism, the inclination to fund others is diminishing. However,...
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Trump 2 and US reality with Jodi Rudoren
The summer is over but it has hardly been a period of repose and relaxation: the world has continued in its turmoil, not least at the behest of the US. In moves that have often baffled traditional US allies, the current Trump administration has made brash moves claiming to be about Making America...
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The South Caucasus Conundrum with Tinatin Japaridze
While the eyes of many have been on the US, Ukraine, Russia, Iran, Israel, Gaza, the wider Middle East and much more, the southern Caucasus, that collection of states composed of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, have been roiling between order and disorder - and attracting the attention of many...
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A NATO Summit for “Daddy” with Kerry Buck & Muriel Domenach
The NATO summit in The Hague (24-25 June) will be recalled for a number of reasons: the allies, barring Spain, committed to raising their spending on defence to 5% of GDP by 2035, a sum deemed inconceivable before; there were no significant disagreements, not least because all allies went out of...
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The hidden crisis behind global fertility rates with Birgit Van Hout (UNFPA)
In a world of kinetic wars and increasing expenditure on defence and security - coupled with the culture wars so exacerbated by the extremes of left and right - we often forget, or probably ignore, the wider context of bombs and ideologies: people. And in many parts of the world humans are...
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War is not a spectator sport with Nataliya Gumenyuk
The vast majority of humanity experiences war as a spectator — which is excellent. The distance from the reality of noise and danger and hurt and debris allows for passionate opinions on right and wrong, disgust and despair. But for those living and experiencing the harsh reality, whether as a...
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China, the world, and power with Dr Ivana Karásková
During his gold plated visit to Saudi Arabia this week, Donald Trump made a speech in which he noted that the US would no longer be “giving you lectures on how to live” advising the people and states of the region to establish “your own destinies in your own way.” No more nation building and...
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Living in historic times with Marci Shore
The turmoil and changes of the past five years — from the coronavirus pandemic to the second Trump administration — make clear one basic fact: the post Cold War era is over. It could be that happened already in 2008, in the financial crisis, or it could be in 2014 when Russia invaded Ukraine and...
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Politics meets the people with Viviane Teitelbaum
What happens when a politician faces an audience of people, of citizens? This episode of Women Leaders brings you that reality, in full. Full Circle, a Brussels based organization connecting ideas with the power to act, organised a great Ideas to Action Day in which over 80 people came together…
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Trade wars with Lauren Gloudeman & Rebecca Christie
2 April 2025 will go down in history, of that there is no doubt. US President Trump and his team insist this is because it was, as they termed it, “Liberation Day” from the global intertwined trade system, in which the US imposed shockingly high tariffs on all its trading partners, excluding…
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The battle for freedom of the press with Kate Adie
Democracy and freedom, die in ignorance. There is wilful ignorance, as in not wanting to know; there is collateral ignorance, as in watching silly videos and media feeds rather than seeking information; and there is imposed ignorance, when sources of information are cut off and denied. The Trump...
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Divide, Destroy and Dictate with Trudy Rubin
The car crash of the Zelensky-Trump-Vance meeting in the White House on 28 February is still reverberating around the world. The specific realities have already been analysed, dramatised, satirised, and AI re-engineered with alternative outcomes. But the true implications are being assimilated…
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Decision-makers and dilemmas with Baiba Braže
Politicians tend to aspire to a status quo: a clarity of positions and possibilities that deliver a semblance of stability. In a period of change, not to mention when things go wrong, there is a yearning for a status quo ante — a return to such clarity and stability, regardless of whether it is...
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The end of a world with Olena Tregub & Inna Pidluska
Historians will spend eternity trying to explain why Donald Trump and his administration turned against Ukraine and Europe but one fact is clear: on 12 February 2025 the post Cold War era ended, and the post WWII international system came to a grinding halt. President Trump spoke at length to...
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Tariffs and trade wars with Sylvia Chen & Sara Nordin
Trade is the backbone of the global economy, but its workings are a mystery to many. What is a tariff? What is a trade war? Why is trade so complicated? The chaos wrought by Donald Trump's decision to impose tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico – despite a thirty-day reprieve negotiated for the...
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Rhetoric and reality from the US with Kathleen McInnis
There can be no doubt the world changed on 20th of January 2025. As a matter of fact, a new US President was inaugurated — a second time for President Trump — whose return to power has spooked global friends and enemies alike since his election last November. The flurry of Executive Orders issued...
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2025: A year of turmoil?
As Women Leaders entered its fifth year (!!), it is apt to reflect on our turbulent world and the challenges that lie ahead. From wars in Ukraine, Gaza, and Sudan to the shifting power dynamics of global politics, there is a need to unpack the complexities of our current situation -- and look…
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Syria unbound
“How did you go bankrupt?" “Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.” Novelist Earnest Hemingway put these words in the mouth of one of his characters in his 1926 breakthrough novel, The Sun Also Rises, and it seems they are as true to dictators as they are to a fictional gambler and drunk. Last...
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Germany all around
The political landscape in Germany seems anything but stable. From unresolved disputes and coalitions failing to the publication of Angela Merkel’s memoirs - a timely reminder of a past ideal era - the nation faced mounting challenges. Economic struggles, extremism on the edge and upcoming early...
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Unpacking the U.S. elections
The 2024 US elections were unique. From the last minute candidacy of Kamala Harris through the assassination attempt of Donald Trump to the sheer amount of money involved -- over US$ 15 billion -- events moved at an amazing speed, resulting in an unexpected definitive win for Trump and the...
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Undermining the people
Election results should never be a foregone conclusion, and democratic upsets are a healthy feature of the system. Nonetheless, when the incumbent pro-Russian governing party in Georgia declared itself the winner of national elections on 26 October, with some 54% of the vote, there was a massive...
About this show
The podcast that discusses global current affairs with women leaders!
Ilana Bet-El chats with wonderfully qualified women experts from around the world in informal but in-depth conversations that explain, analyse and highlight events of the day.
Women Leaders brings incredibly well-informed perspectives to world events: not the news, but what the news means! From geopolitics to security, defence and wars, and from economics to journalism, media and disinformation, we bring context and insight to the rapid changes in the world.
Contribute to the conversation or share your topic wishes with a comment & a 5-⭐️
Reach us on our Instagram and follow for updates @women_leaders_podcast
Proudly partnered wit
Hosted by
Women Leaders - European Leadership Network
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