The World Next Year: Transitioning Into 2021

Hosts James M. Lindsay and Robert McMahon are joined by Shannon K. O’Neil to unpack the extraordinary year of 2020, and forecast international challenges and developments in 2021.

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Hosts
  • James M. Lindsay
    Senior Vice President, Director of Studies, and Maurice R. Greenberg Chair
  • Robert McMahon
    Managing Editor
Episode Guests
  • Shannon K. O'Neil
    Vice President, Deputy Director of Studies, and Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Latin America Studies

Show Notes

In this special year-end episode of The World Next Week, James M. Lindsay and Robert McMahon are joined by Shannon K. O’Neil, CFR’s vice president, deputy director of studies, and Nelson and David Rockefeller senior fellow for Latin America Studies. Lindsay, McMahon, and O’Neil break down the supply chain challenges that come with distributing COVID-19 vaccines, what’s on President-Elect Joe Biden’s foreign policy agenda, and the impacts of disinformation in the United States and beyond.

United States

This special episode of The World Next Week features a summerlong feast of reading, watching, and listening treats. Deborah Amos, the Ferris Professor of Journalism in Residence at Princeton University and a former international correspondent for National Public Radio, joins CFR’s TWNW hosts Robert McMahon and Carla Anne Robbins to discuss good reads they recommend, books they are looking forward to reading, and other entertainment they are enjoying this summer.

France

France’s governance is at stake as it holds snap elections for its National Assembly, with the far-right National Rally looking to build on its success in the European Parliament elections; the United Kingdom (UK) has its own snap general elections with Keir Starmer and his Labour Party looking to end the fourteen-year rule of the Conservatives; Iran’s snap presidential elections could signal unity of regime hard-liners or glimmers of change; the European Union (EU) plans to impose provisional tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles; and Ukraine strikes more than thirty Russian oil refineries.  

Russia

A Russian court moves judicial proceedings for detained U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich to Yekaterinburg for a closed-door espionage trial; the success of far-right parties in the European Parliament elections challenges the power of several incumbent European Union (EU) leaders; the Boeing Starliner "Calypso" spacecraft prepares to return from the International Space Station after delays; and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dissolves his war cabinet. 

Top Stories on CFR

Japan

Russia’s expanding security ties with North Korea raise weighty foreign policy questions for Japan and complicate the geopolitical dynamics in the Indo-Pacific. 

Israel

In a visit in June, I found a somber mood and many doubts about the current national leadership.

United States