Middle East & North Africa

Turkey and the US have been at loggerheads over Syria in the wake of President Trump's decision to pull US troops out of the country. The Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said that the US national security adviser, John Bolton, had made a serious mistake in suggesting the withdrawal was conditional on Ankara agreeing to security guarantees for US-backed Kurdish fighters.

NPR's All Thing Considered talked to Amanda Sloat, Fellow at the Belfer Center's Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship, about Turkey's investigation into the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Belfer Center Director and former Secretary of Defense Ash Carter talks about pulling out of the Iran Deal, North Korea, and more on CNN New Day with Chris Cuomo.

Nicholas Burns, former American diplomat and current professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, joined Chad to react to the current situation in Syria and his thoughts on how the United States need to handle it.

Fmr. Amb. Nicholas Burns joins Morning Joe to discuss the naming of John Bolton as the new national security adviser. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., also joins the conversation.

It was the debut speech heard around the world – Donald Trump at the United Nations, putting American First and other nations on notice. Over the course of 41 minutes, the president criticized the Iran nuclear deal, promised to “totally destroy” North Korea if its leader Kim Jong-Un – otherwise known as “Rocketman” – continues his path and vowed to crush the “loser terrorists” in the Middle East.

As other world leaders took their turns today, President Trump made his first address to the UN General Assembly. He threatened what he called, "small regimes than violate UN principles. Trump threatened to "totally destroy" North Korea, calling Kim Jung Un "Rocket Man" on a "suicide mission." He told an audience of world leaders that Iran is a "murderous regime," and that the nuclear deal is "an embarrassment" to the United States. While saying that some countries around the world are "going to hell," he also called for "standing together" — with the US and every other nation putting its own interests first. All this with cutbacks curtailing State Department diplomacy. Is the Trump Administration giving up leadership of the Western World?

The Belfer Center's Nick Burns and John Park discuss on KCRW's To The Point. 

The United Nations' General Assembly is underway and this year's official theme is "Focusing on People: Striving for Peace and a Decent Life for all on a Sustainable Planet." We are joined by Nicholas Burns of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and John Micklethwait, Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief.