April 13 - Is There a Saudi-Turkey Plan to Remove Assad?; An Old Friend of Hillary Clinton on the Candidate Herself; The Pope Speaks Out on the Armenian Genocide

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the recent visit to Iran by Turkey’s President Erdogan, after an earlier visit to Saudi Arabia, and look into a possible shift in regional alliances as Saudi Arabian military involvement in Yemen deepens and warnings from Iran are ignored. Henri Barkey, a Professor of International Relations at Lehigh University and a former member of the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff, joins us to discuss whether the rumored talks between the Saudis and Turkey in Qatar, aimed at removing Syria’s Assad, indicate a new boldness from the Saudis or paranoia over a possible U.S. rapprochement with Iran.

Part 2

Then as the just-announced presidential candidate Hillary Clinton heads to Iowa in a van on a road trip across Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, we speak with someone who has known her since she first met her husband Bill. Ambassador Derek Shearer, a former U.S. Ambassador to Finland who is currently a Professor of Diplomacy and World Affairs at Occidental College, joins us to discuss whether in a country whose politics are dominated by a plutocracy, there is still an American meritocracy, and whether his old friend Hillary, could become the first female president of the United States.

Part 3

Then finally we look into the remarks made by Pope Francis that the Armenian genocide was the first genocide of the 20^th Century and that Turkey’s concealing or denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding. Ronald Suny, a Professor Emeritus of Political Science and History at the University of Chicago and the author of a new book, just out, “They Can Live in the Desert but Nowhere Else: A History of the Armenian Genocide”, joins us.