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13th July 2023 · Articles & Interviews by: Vikas Shah MBE

Bellingcat is an independent investigative collective composed of researchers, investigators, and citizen journalists, all united by a shared fervour for open-source research. Established in 2014, the collective has blazed a trail in the realm of open-source research methods, investigating a vast array of topics of public interest. The subjects they have probed into span from the shooting down of flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine to police brutality in Colombia and the unlawful wildlife trade in the UAE. Their meticulous research frequently finds mention in international media and has been quoted by numerous courts and investigative missions. In this interview, I speak to Eliot Higgins, the Founder & Creative Director of Bellingcat. Eliot was named one of Foreign Policy magazine’s Global Thinkers in 2019 and one of Politico Europe’s top 28 most influential people in Europe in the “Disrupters” category in 2021. He was also awarded the Hanns Joachim Friedrichs Award for excellence in journalism in 2015. In 2022, he was awarded the Swedish based Monismanien Prize for freedom of speech. He is the author of ‘We Are Bellingcat: An Intelligence Agency for the People‘ (paperback -2022), a Sunday Times best seller.

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13-07-2023 14:04:14
Thought Economics

25th May 2023 · Articles & Interviews by: Vikas Shah MBE

General H.R. McMaster served as a commissioned officer in the US Army for thirty-four years. He retired as a Lieutenant General in 2018 after serving as the United States 26th National Security Advisor. Today, McMaster is the Fouad and Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He is also the Bernard and Susan Liautaud Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute and lecturer at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. McMaster designed the future army as the director of the Army Capabilities Integration Center and the deputy commanding general, futures, of the US Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC). As commanding general of the Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Benning, he oversaw all training and education for the army’s infantry, armor, and cavalry force. He has commanded organizations in wartime including the Combined Joint Inter-Agency Task Force—Shafafiyat in Kabul, Afghanistan, from 2010 to 2012; the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment in Iraq from 2005 to 2006; and Eagle Troop, Second Armored Cavalry Regiment in Operation Desert Storm from 1990 to 1991. McMaster also served overseas as advisor to the most senior commanders in the Middle East, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He is author of the bestselling books Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World and Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Lies that Led to Vietnam. McMaster is the host of Battlegrounds: International Perspectives on Crucial Challenges and Opportunities In this interview, I speak to General H. R. McMaster, Former National Security Advisor to the United States. We discuss the current state of global security, the security and foreign policy challenges facing our world, and whether we should be hopeful for the future of global peace.

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25-05-2023 12:14:05
Thought Economics

21st March 2023 · Articles & Interviews by: Vikas Shah MBE

A new dawn of brain tracking and hacking is coming. Will you be prepared for what comes next? Imagine a world where your brain can be interrogated to learn your political beliefs, your thoughts can be used as evidence of a crime, and your own feelings can be held against you. A world where people who suffer from epilepsy receive alerts moments before a seizure, and the average person can peer into their own mind to eliminate painful memories or cure addictions. Neuroscience has already made all this possible today, and neurotechnology will soon become the “universal controller” for all of our interactions with technology. This can benefit humanity immensely, but without safeguards, it can seriously threaten our fundamental human rights to privacy, freedom of thought, and self-determination. In this interview, I speak to Nita Farahany – widely considered to be one the foremost experts on the ethics of neuroscience. We discuss the battle for our brains – and why we need to defend the right to think freely in the age of neurotechnology.

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21-03-2023 11:15:55
Thought Economics

23rd February 2023 · Articles & Interviews by: Vikas Shah MBE

In this interview, I speak to Kira Rudik. She is a Member of Parliament of Ukraine and First Deputy Chairwoman of the Parliament Committee on Digital Transformation. Kira is Leader of Golos (Ukraine’s Liberal Political Party) and Vice-President of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE). Before politics, Kira Rudik was an IT entrepreneur who headed Ring Ukraine company and ensured its acquisition by Amazon for $1 billion. In our conversation, Kira describes the realities of life in Ukraine, a year into Russia’s invasion. We discuss the role of the international community, the threat of escalation, the strength of the Ukrainian people and what it will take to bring peace, and rebuild Ukraine.

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23-02-2023 15:22:51
Thought Economics

31st December 2022 · Articles & Interviews by: Vikas Shah MBE

Dr. Joshua N. Weiss is one of the world’s foremost experts in negotiation. He is co-founder of the Global Negotiation Initiative at Harvard University and a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Negotiation Project. He is also the Director and creator of the Master of Science degree in Leadership and Negotiation at Bay Path University. Dr. Weiss has spoken and published on leadership, negotiation, mediation, and systemic approaches to dealing with conflict. In this interview, we discuss what it takes to be a great negotiator, why negotiation skills matter, and the secrets of how to effectively handle even the most complex negotiations.

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31-12-2022 12:39:08
Thought Economics

19th November 2022 · Articles & Interviews by: Vikas Shah MBE

Lord Simon McDonald spent over four decades in HM Diplomatic Service. Sir Simon joined the British Diplomatic Service in 1982 and served in Berlin, Jeddah, Riyadh, Bonn, Washington, and Tel Aviv, and in a wide range of jobs in London. He served as the British Ambassador to Berlin from 2010 to 2015. He was the Prime Minister’s Foreign Policy Adviser and Head of Foreign and Defence Policy in the Cabinet Office from 2007 to 2010. From 2003 to 2006 he was British Ambassador to Israel. His government career culminated with him being Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office, and Head of the UK’s Diplomatic Service. He is Master of Christ’s College, Cambridge. In his first book, Leadership: Lessons from a Life in Diplomacy, Lord Simon McDonald shares his observations from working in close quarters with ministers, diplomats and leaders – on some of the most complex issues faced by our world. In this interview, I speak to Lord Simon McDonald, Former Ambassador & Head of HM Diplomatic Service. We discuss the nature of leadership, how diplomats work to resolve challenging and complex situations, and what his life in diplomacy can teach us all about leading.

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19-11-2022 17:44:35
Thought Economics

31st October 2022 · Articles & Interviews by: Vikas Shah MBE

On 24th February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War (which began in 2014). Whilst exact figures are difficult to establish, by May 2022, some 8 million Ukrainians had been internally displaced and some 7.7million had left the country. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights at the United Nations has estimated over 16,150, and expectations are that military losses are several times more. Commentators have said this is one of the greatest threats to the international peace since the outbreak of World War 2. Simon Smith is chair of the steering committee of the Ukraine Forum at Chatham House. He was previously the British ambassador to Ukraine, and Russia, South Caucasus, and Central Asia director at the Foreign Office. He has also served as British Ambassador to South Korea and to Austria- where he was also the UK’s Permanent Representative to the UN and the UK Governor on the Board of the International Atomic Energy Agency. In this interview I speak to Simon Smith CMG about the history of the Russia-Ukraine War, Russia’s role in the world, how this war could play out, and what it means for international peace and order.

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31-10-2022 13:12:35
Thought Economics

9th August 2022 · Articles & Interviews by: Vikas Shah MBE

Human rights activist and recipient of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize, Nadia Murad is a leading advocate for survivors of genocide and sexual violence. Her New York Times bestselling memoir, The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State, is a harrowing account of the genocide against the Yazidi ethno-religious minority in Iraq and Nadia’s imprisonment by the so-called Islamic State (ISIS). Nadia’s peaceful life was brutally disrupted in 2014 when ISIS attacked her homeland in Sinjar with the goal of ethnically cleansing all Yazidis from Iraq. Like many minority groups, the Yazidis have carried the weight of historical persecution. Women, in particular, have suffered greatly as victims of sexual violence. After escaping captivity, Nadia began speaking out on behalf of her community and survivors of sexual violence worldwide. In 2016, Nadia became the first United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking. That year, she was also awarded the Council of Europe Václav Havel Award for Human Rights and Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. In 2018, she won the Nobel Peace Prize with Dr. Denis Mukwege. Together, they founded the Global Survivors Fund. In 2019, Nadia was appointed as a UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Advocate. In this interview, I speak to human rights activist and recipient of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize, Nadia Murad, about how communities are destroyed in conflict, how sexual violence becomes a weapon of war, and importantly – how we can build peace, rebuild communities, and give hope for a better future.

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09-08-2022 19:53:03
Thought Economics

8th July 2022 · Articles & Interviews by: Vikas Shah MBE

Alan Murray is CEO of Fortune Media. Fortune Media Group are a multinational company that publishes Fortune magazine, Fortune.com and other business media including the Global Forum, Most Powerful Women and Brainstorm conference. Alan has spent four decades at the forefront of business journalism, getting to know the most influential businesses and business leaders on the planet. In this interview, I speak to Alan Murray about the origins and meaning of stakeholder capitalism. We look at how businesses are activating and helping to solve, some of the greatest challenges our world faces from climate to inequality.  We look at why businesses need to engage with broader stakeholder groups, the business case for it, and how tomorrow’s corporate leaders will need fundamentally different skills than today.

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08-07-2022 17:11:52
Thought Economics

3rd July 2022 · Articles & Interviews by: Vikas Shah MBE

Benjamin Sledge is a wounded combat veteran with tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, serving most of his time under Special Operations (Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command). He is the recipient of the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and two Army Commendation Medals for his actions overseas. He was at the front line of some of the deadliest battles in Iraq and Afghanistan, served in Special Operations Command, on the Pakistan border after September 11, and eventually in the deadliest city battle of the Iraq War, Ramadi. In this interview, I speak to Benjamin Sledge about the realities of war, how soldiers prepare for combat, and what war reveals about the best, and worst, of humanity. In this conversation, Sledge reveals an unflinchingly honest portrait of war that few dare to tell.

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03-07-2022 14:42:56
Thought Economics

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