Established in 1600 to secure trade relations between India, East and Southeast Asia, and Britain, the East India Company did this and much, much more. For nearly 300 years it ran a global trading network that operated for profit, politics, and eventually empire. In the process it not only became the world’s first multinational corporation, but — thanks to its own army, navy, currency, and legal system—came to rule territories far more extensive than its home base of the British Isles. On this episode, Mark Williams speaks with historian Ian Barrow about this remarkable company, how it came to support British imperialism, what its history might tell us about the rise of capitalism and the nature of colonialism, and some of the legacies its operations left behind.

Ian Barrow is director of the Axxin Center for the Humanities and the A. Barton Hepburn Professor of History at Middlebury College. An historian of South Asia, he has written three books, most recently a history of the East India Company titled The East India Company, 1600–1858.

For more information on the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs at Middlebury College and the New Frontiers podcast series, visit our website.
New Frontiers is a higher education podcast series bringing scholarly research and expertise to bear on national, international, and global affairs.

Produced and edited by Margaret DeFoor and Mark Williams, director of the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs. Intro by Charlotte Tate, associate director of the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs. Outro by Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs intern, Mehr Sohal.

Music Credits
Forte by Kestra - Summer with Sound Album
Soul Zone by Kestra - Light Rising Album

How has US foreign policy changed since the end of the Cold War? When—and over what issues—did America’s largely bipartisan foreign policy collapse? What major foreign policy challenges await the next US president? Where will the next US administration take America, and how might it seek to advance and protect its notion of the national interest? In this episode of New Frontiers, Ambassador Michael McKinley joins Mark Williams to discuss the foreign policy implications of the 2024 US presidential election. Their conversation ranges from such historic milestones as the end of the Cold War and the Global War on Terror, to more contemporary policy issues like the Middle East, Ukraine, trade, and immigration.

Over the course of a 37-year career, Michael McKinley served as the US Ambassador to Peru, Colombia, Afghanistan, and Brazil, and as Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State. Earlier assignments included serving as Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’affaires at US embassies in Mozambique, Uganda, and the US Mission to the European Union. His articles on foreign policy and US politics have appeared in Foreign Affairs, the Atlantic, the Financial Times, and other publications. He has a Ph.D. from Oxford University in Latin American history.

For more information on the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs at Middlebury College and the New Frontiers podcast series, visit our website.
New Frontiers is a higher education podcast series bringing scholarly research and expertise to bear on national, international, and global affairs.

Produced and edited by Margaret DeFoor and Mark Williams, director of the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs. Intro by Charlotte Tate, associate director of the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs.

Music Credits
Forte by Kestra - Summer with Sound Album
Soul Zone by Kestra - Light Rising Album

America’s modern militia movement emerged in the 1990s, following armed stand-offs with government authorities at Ruby Ridge, Idaho and Waco, Texas. After rising to 370 groups nationwide by 1996, the number of these militias diminished to 68 by 1999—only to surge again when Barak Obama was elected president in 2008. After Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election, several militia groups figured prominently in the January 6 Insurrection which sought to prevent the peaceful transfer of power to Joe Biden. What drives US citizens to form militia groups? What role does racism, anti-government sentiments, nostalgia, and economic, social, and political changes play in their emergence? What do these groups want to achieve? How do their profiles, objectives, and activities differ? And can they help safeguard democracy, civil society, and democratic participation in the United States or threaten it?

In this episode of New Frontiers, sociologist Amy Cooter explores the rise, goals, and philosophies of American militia groups. She explains why their actions could mar the 2024 elections and highlights how a more thorough, accurate teaching of American history could address misconceptions and reduce societal tensions that fuel some of these groups’ strongest grievances.

Dr. Amy Cooter is the Director of Research, Academic Development, and Innovation (RADI) at CTEC who focuses on antigovernment extremism. She has studied a range of groups who use a nostalgic understanding of the past to justify their actions. Her primary expertise is on U.S. domestic militias, and groups of armed individuals who see it as their civic duty to uphold the Constitution the way they believe it should be interpreted.

Amy has testified before U.S. Congress about her research, and regularly consults with academics, journalists, and law enforcement around the globe. You may find her quoted in such outlets as NPR, Rolling Stone, FiveThirtyEight, and The Washington Post. Her latest book is “Nostalgia, Nationalism, and US Militia Movement” (Routledge Press).

For more information on the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs at Middlebury College and the New Frontiers podcast series, visit our website.
New Frontiers is a higher education podcast series bringing scholarly research and expertise to bear on national, international, and global affairs.

Show Notes:
Produced and edited by Margaret DeFoor and Mark Williams, director of the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs. Intro by Charlotte Tate, associate director of the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs.

Music Credits
Forte by Kestra - Summer with Sound Album
Soul Zone by Kestra - Light Rising Album

“What’s the one thing about India, that isn’t getting enough attention?” That’s the question we put to three India experts; and not surprisingly, we got three different responses.

In August 2023, India celebrated its first successful moon landing. However, while this achievement made headlines around the world, other developments of equal or greater significance may be going unnoticed. One is India’s drift toward illiberal democracy—or perhaps even autocracy. Could this impede its budding strategic relationship with the United States? Another is the Modi government’s apparent efforts to erase important aspects of India’s multicultural past from the national consciousness, and the repercussions of these pursuits. And finally, how has India harnessed technology to realize remarkable success in combating poverty? In this episode of “New Frontiers”, host Mark Williams and co-host Arjun Kumar ‘25.5, explore these topics with guests Jeff Lunstead, Cynthia Packert, and Sunder Ramaswamy.

Jeffrey Lunstead is a Diplomat in Residence at Middlebury College, and former U.S. ambassador to Sri Lanka. He teaches courses on international diplomacy, conflict in South Asia, and the rise of Asia in U.S. policy.

Cynthia Packert is the Christian A. Johnson Professor in the History of Art and Architecture at Middlebury College. She teaches courses on all aspects of Asian and Islamic art, with a particular focus on India. Read more here.

Sunder Ramaswamy is the Distinguished College Professor of International Economics at Middlebury College. He teaches classes on economic development, international trade, and the political economy of India. Read more here.

For more information on the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs at Middlebury College and the New Frontiers podcast series, visit our website.
New Frontiers” is a higher education podcast series bringing scholarly research and expertise to bear on national, international, and global affairs.

Show Notes:
Produced and edited by Margaret DeFoor and Mark Williams. Intro by Charlotte Tate, associate director of the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs. Co-hosted by Mark Williams and Arjun Kumar 25.5. A special thanks to Mehr Sohal.

Music Credits
Forte by Kestra - Summer with Sound Album
Soul Zone by Kestra - Light Rising Album

In June 2023, French police killed 17-year-old Nahal Merzouk during a traffic stop outside of Paris. The killing led to days of street protests, widespread condemnation of racialized police practices, and over 1,300 arrests. This was particularly significant in a country like France, where discussions about race are often avoided or rejected. To gain a deeper understanding of French police practices, Mark Williams sits down with historian Amit Prakash, whose new book—Empire on the Seine—explores how France’s colonial history helped shape how French law enforcement policed North Africans living in Paris from 1925 to 1975. Prakash also details how discrimination and racialized policing persist in a country where officialdom avoids employing race as a demographic category.

Amit Prakash, Visiting Professor of International and Global Studies at Middlebury College, teaches classes on policing, borders and identification, and anti-colonialism. He is a historian specializing in the history of policing, modern imperialism, and decolonization. He has most recently published Empire on the Seine (Oxford University Press, 2022) which is the first history of the Parisian police and North Africans that covers the period from the 1920s to the 1970s. Beyond Middlebury, Prakash has been featured in the documentary The Price of Safety and is the cohost of the history and current events podcast No Politics at the Dinner Table. He holds a B.A. in English from Oberlin College and an M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in History from Columbia University.

For more information on the New Frontiers academic podcast series visit the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs website.

SHOW NOTES:
Produced and edited by Margaret DeFoor and Mark Williams. Intro by Charlotte Tate, associate director of the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs.
Outro by Chris Martucci ‘25.

Music Credits
Forte by Kestra - Summer with Sound Album
Soul Zone by Kestra - Light Rising Album

On January 6, 2021, supporters of US President Donald Trump—spurred on and energized by the defeated president himself—launched a violent attack on the US capital to stop the peaceful transfer of power to president-elect Joe Biden. What are we to make of the January 6 insurrection? What does it tell us about ourselves as Americans and the state of our democracy? And with another presidential election approaching—and an indicted Donald Trump the likely Republican candidate—how might our parties, courts, and Justice Department act in ways that could safeguard democracy, or threaten it even more?

In this episode, political scientist Bert Johnson reflects on the state of American democracy, the dangers it faces, and some of the ways Americans might preserve their democratic political system.

Bert Johnson (B.A. Carleton College, 1994; Ph.D. Harvard University, 2003), professor of political science, has taught American politics at Middlebury College since 2004. His research and teaching interests include campaign finance, federalism, and state and local politics. Johnson is author of Political Giving: Making Sense of Individual Campaign Contributions (Boulder: FirstForum Press, 2013), and coauthor (with Morris Fiorina, Paul E. Peterson, and William Mayer) of The New American Democracy (Longman, 2011). His articles have appeared in Social Science History, Urban Affairs Review, and American Politics Research. He is owner and author of Basicsplainer.com.

For more information on the New Frontiers podcast visit the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs website.

SHOW NOTES:

Music Credits

• Forte by Kestra - Summer with Sound Album
• Soul Zone by Kestra - Light Rising Album

This episode was produced by Margaret DeFoor and Mark Williams.

Intro by Charlotte Tate, associate director of the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs.

Outro by Srivats Ramaswamy ‘25.5

International nongovernmental organizations (INGO’s) like Amnesty International, Care, Oxfam, or World Vision operate independently of governments around the world. But what do we really know about these organizations and their operations, behavior, effectiveness or limitations? What might they be doing or be unable to do, in a country like Ukraine, where many people are suffering and there are dire needs, and yet the war that Russia unleashed impedes their work?

In this episode, political scientist and INGO specialist Sarah Stroup lifts the curtain on international nongovernmental organizations to illuminate their function, efficacy, and constraints.

SHOW NOTES:

Music Credits

• Forte by Kestra - Summer with Sound Album
• Soul Zone by Kestra - Light Rising Album

Outro by Arjun Kumar '25

For information on Sarah Stroup's book , Borders Among Activists: International NGOs in the United States, Britain, and France (Borders Among Activists: International NGOs in the United States, Britain, and France (Cornell University Press, 2012), visit here.

For more information on Middlebury College and the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs, visit here.

For months, hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens have taken to the streets to protest government plans to overhaul the judiciary—including plans that would vitiate checks on executive power, allow a simple majority of 61 in the 120-seat Knesset to override almost any ruling by Israel’s Supreme Court, and permit politicians to appoint most of the Court’s justices. Both the protests and proposed reforms take place against the backdrop of significant demographic changes which, in turn, have enhanced the power and parliamentary representation of Israel’s religious parties. Given the Knesset’s current makeup therefore, the reforms will—at least indirectly—grant the religious parties extensive influence over Israeli society.

In this episode, Middlebury College political geographer and Professor of Geosciences Tamar Mayer explains why these plans for judicial reform have pitted the government against many of its citizens, what is at stake in this crisis, and why the roots of this crisis stretch far back into Israel’s past.

SHOW NOTES:

Podcast produced by Margaret DeFoor and Mark Williams.

Outro by Middlebury student Vee Syengo ‘25

Music Credits

• Forte by Kestra - Summer with Sound Album
• Soul Zone by Kestra - Light Rising Album

For more information on New Frontiers podcast episodes and guests visit the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs website.