Chair

Michael Goldfarb

Michael Goldfarb is an American journalist, broadcaster and author. He has written for The Guardian, The New York Times and The Washington Post but is best known for his work in public radio. Throughout the 1990’s, as NPR’s London Correspondent and then Bureau Chief, he covered conflicts and conflict resolution from Northern Ireland to Bosnia to Iraq for NPR.  He is host of the FRDH podcast that can be found here.

Speakers

Jonny Dymond

Jonny Dymond is Royal Correspondent for the BBC and a presenter of BBC Radio 4 and BBC World Service News programmes.  He covered the US elections of 2000 and 2012 for the BBC as Washington Correspondent

Dan Roberts 

Dan Roberts is the Guardian’s Brexit policy editor. Previously he was the Washington bureau chief and covered the 2016 presidential election. He was also head of UK national news and business editor.

Andrew MacLeod

Is an Australian/British businessman, author, humanitarian lawyer and former aid worker. He is now a regular contributor for the Independent and a regular commentator on US politics.

Acclaimed journalist and artist Molly Crabapple has drawn and reported on stories from Guantanamo Bay, Syria, the West Bank, Iraqi Kurdistan and across the United States. With her powerful illustrations she has pushed the boundaries of visual reportage – and established an important place for art in hard news.

On the release of her memoir Drawing Blood, which intersperses testimony of her own artistic and journalistic engagement with full-colour illustrations, we welcome Molly Crabapple to the Frontline Club to reflect on recent projects and to share her personal insight into the use of art as a tool for better understanding and documenting current events. With US presidential primaries now firmly underway, she will discuss her ongoing work on topical home turf issues including policing and the justice system, as well as her experiences covering the effects of conflict across the Middle East.

Molly Crabapple is an artist, journalist, and author of the memoir, Drawing Blood. Called “an emblem of the way art can break out of the gilded gallery” by the New Republic, she has drawn in and reported from Guantanamo Bay, Abu Dhabi’s migrant labor camps, and in Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, the West Bank, and Iraqi Kurdistan. Crabapple is a contributing editor for VICE, and has written for publications including The New York Times, Paris Review, and Vanity Fair. She is the winner of a 2015 Front Page Award for her drawings of Aleppo for Vanity Fair, and was shortlisted for a Frontline Award in 2013. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.

This event will be chaired by Natasha Lennard, a British-born, New York-based writer of news and political analysis, focusing on justice, power, biopolitics and dissent. She writes regularly for the Intercept, Fusion and Al Jazeera America, and has written for VICE News, The New York Times, Salon, The Nation and Politico, among others. She is editor-at-large at The New Inquiry journal.

Illustration: Molly Crabapple for VICE: ‘What Life is Like Inside the Besieged, War-Torn Syrian City of Aleppo’

With the 2015 State of the Union address showing a rejuvenated and confident Barack Obama, a panel of experts met at the Frontline Club on Wednesday 21 January to debate his legacy, the partisan nature of US politics and whether racial divides have been healed by the nation’s first black president.

l-r: Robert Carolina, Xenia Wickett, Matt Frei, Kim Ghattas, Michael Goldfarb

Chair Matt Frei, former Washington correspondent and current Europe editor for Channel 4 News, began by asking the panel what they thought Obama’s legacy would be.

Xenia Wickett, formerly of the US State Department and now at Chatham House, replied: “His legacy is going to be economic. President Obama came in in 2009 after the great recession, and if you listened to his state of the union, [now] America is strong, the economy is strong.”

Kim Ghattas, BBC correspondent based in Washington, offered her view of Obama as “the president who always struggled to convince people in the US and abroad that he was a good president, that he did a good job, because the narrative of him being a reluctant president stuck, no matter what he achieved.”

To kick off @mattfrei challenges tonight’s panel to give Obama’s legacy in a minute and a half – live now pic.twitter.com/htmL7vKMKM

— Frontline Club (@frontlineclub) January 21, 2015

The panel also discussed the difficult situations Obama has found himself in throughout his presidency. Veteran journalist and broadcaster Michael Goldfarb said: “He was a president at a time when no-one was really in charge, the world was in a terrible state of drift.”

Frei questioned whether “Obama’s legacy is a legacy of absences – the absence of a war that he started, the absence of an economic calamity. Preventing economic calamity is more difficult to get brownie points for than actually causing a great economic success.”

However, as chair of Democrats Abroad UK Robert Carolina pointed out: “Coming back from economic collapse was by no means assured.”

One of the biggest difficulties that Obama has faced as president has been a deeply partisan Republican congress. The panel wondered whether America’s finely-tuned system of checks and balances is unable to cope with such partisan politics. “If it’s trench warfare, it’s not checks and balances,” said Frei.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Democrat Robert Carolina laid the blame with the Republican party for this state of affairs. He said: “They have become a party whose governing philosophy is almost nihilistic. A failure to achieve anything is almost a victory.”

A member of the audience highlighted Obama’s historic status as the first African-American President of the United States. Xenia Wickett commented:

“The greatest achievement in that respect is that you have five people here and that isn’t what we’d put as his legacy. In terms of a statement about where America is today, I think that’s a huge statement.”

With recent events in Ferguson exposing the ongoing deep racial divides that exist in the United States, Ghattas said: “the only people who talk about America as a post-racial society are white.”

Goldfarb added: “He decided, as many successful African-Americans do, ‘I’m not going to make a thing of my race, I’m not going to play that card’. He chose to downplay it.”

The panel also debated whether Obama had gained or lost international respect for his handling of US foreign policy. “What you get from world leaders today is that there is a failure of leadership and Obama is missing in action,” said Ghattas.

Wickett closed the discussion with a comment on the factors that have most hindered Obama’s presidency:

“He’s in a fundamental dilemma. Everybody wants American leadership, everybody wants America to use its leadership to keep sea lanes open, Middle Eastern energy flowing, the Chinese in their box, Europe safe through NATO. But the trouble is they only want it when it’s their way and they all want something slightly different. He cannot win!”

Watch and listen back below:

With the speechwriters putting the final touches to Barack Obama’s second inauguration address, a panel of experts assembled at the Frontline Club on Wednesday 16 January to assess the challenges and expectations facing the president.

As with the gruelling election campaign, Obama’s priority will be the economy and more specifically the rate of job creation. Channel 4’s Felicity Spector summarised American expectations:

“The whole point behind the pivot to jobs that happened during the last election cycle was that Obama realised that simply talking about the deficit doesn’t mean much to people. Losing jobs is what hurts people and that’s what needs to change for people to feel the economy is getting better.”

With the panel debating the economic challenges facing the government, the discussion inevitably turned to the difficulties of Washington politics. With Democrats and Republicans narrowly avoiding the so-called fiscal cliff after a last minute compromise was reached on New Year’s Eve, easing the notorious log jam on Capitol Hill will be the second challenge for Obama.

ABC’s Nick Schifrin said the president:

“claimed that he would break the Washington politics as usual. That’s how he ran, that’s what he promised and he has failed to do that. Perhaps gun control today, with two dozen executive orders, maybe we’ll see a more aggressive Barack Obama taking his popularity for a spin.”

Spector added that Obama won’t be seeking re-election and so has scope to use his Presidential powers more extensively. Democrats Abroad chair Robert Carolina agreed:

“We are seeing a bit of a shift in his style of dealing with Washington. We’re certainly seeing a difference in approach and that had some positive outcomes with the fiscal cliff and I think we’ll see a different style of resolution to the debt ceiling.”

Whilst the panel were unanimous in their belief that domestic economics and politics will present Obama’s biggest tests, his foreign policy will be scrutinised just as closely. Spector sensed the significance of Obama’s pick for Secretary of Defence and State, Chuck Hagel and John Kerry respectively, suggesting they lack the appetite for foreign intervention:

“They’re both people who are very much against a policy of aggressive interventionism in the rests of the world. It’s likely these are the kind of people who will continue with a dis-engaged policy, who only want America to get involved in international conflicts as a very last resort if American interests are directly affected.”

Schifrin forecast a bleak future for a post-Assad Syria if the US remained disengaged from the opposition forces.

“Unless there’s a concrete effort to organise a concrete opposition, northern Syria becomes a failed state. And in a failed state there are a lot of actors, warlords, corruption. A force like Al-Qaeda comes in and offers an alternative…they mete out justice and slowly become popular. It’s a huge problem and it doesn’t seem like the Obama administration has a real strategy for Syria.”

Indeed whilst the American economy will certainly provide a four year challenge, instability in the Middle East remains an unpredictable sand trap that the President can’t afford to ignore.

Watch the full event here:

New York’s Park Avenue runs the length of Manhattan before crossing the river into the Bronx. The long stretch between Grand Central Terminal and 96th Street is home to some of the most expensive real estate in the world. Ten minutes to the north, over the Harlem River, Park Avenue enters the South Bronx. Here, more than half the residents receive food stamps, unemployment has reached 19% and children are 20 times more likely to be killed than their neighbours to the south.

In the palatial apartments of 740 Park Avenue, the wealthy are visited by presidents and senators, who are promised millions of campaign dollars in exchange for lower taxes. Residents of Park Avenue in Bronx can not influence presidents, suffer cuts in public spending and have seen the door to social mobility close. Through the story of the two Park Avenues, director Alex Gibney puts forward an eloquent argument that the extreme wealth of a few has been used to impose their ideas on the rest of America.

The American Dream poses an image of America that offers individual freedom and equal opportunity, but in recent years this has been tarnished. Today it is virtually impossible for those born in to poverty to climb the ladder of opportunity. Gibney gets to grips with inequality in America by focusing on how the system of privilege is kept in place and stacked against the poor of the country.

Alex Gibney is an Oscar, Emmy and Grammy award-winning producer and director.

Directed by Alex Gibney
Duration: 70′
Year: 2012

Today, a female soldier serving in the US army is more likely to be raped than killed or injured by enemy fire. An estimated 30 percent of servicewomen and at least one percent of servicemen are sexually assaulted during their enlistment; not by the enemy, but by fellow soldiers. Most victims keep quiet in the absence of recourse outside the chain of command. In many cases the person they were obliged to report the assault to was either involved or friends with the assailant.

The Invisible War, by Oscar and Emmy-nominated director Kirby Dick and Emmy-nominated producer Amy Ziering, reveals the extent of sexual assault in the armed forces and investigates the institutions that cover it up.

Interviews with retired and active service members, scholars and legal experts paint an alarming picture of the extent of the problem today. It is the emotional testimonies of victims, conducted by Ziering that form the core of the documentary, and show the profound personal and social consequences of these acts.

Winner of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award

Directed by Kirby Dick and produced by Amy Ziering
Duration: 95
Year: 2011

We are pleased to team up with PBS America – the new UK channel from America’s Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) -ahead of the American presidential elections to screen PBS’s The Choice 2012, an in-depth dual biography featuring both presidential candidates.

With the opinion polls indicating a close-run race and the two major parties offering radically different viewpoints, America stands at one of the most significant political crossroads the nation has seen for many years.

At a time when the two presidential candidates are spending millions on TV advertising, director Michael Kirk puts President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney under the spotlight. In The Choice 2012 Kirk goes beyond the stories told by Obama and Romney themselves to discover what shaped them.

Through interviews with the people who know the candidates best, both in private and as public figures, the programme explores the character of the candidates through key episodes in their lives and the decisions they have taken.

Since 1988, when FRONTLINE (PBS) first presented a dual biography of presidential candidates Michael Dukakis and George H.W. Bush, The Choice has earned a reputation as one of the pinnacles of political broadcast journalism.

Director: Michael Kirk
Duration: 120′
Year: 2012

The Choice 2012 is a FRONTLINE production for PBS:

The screening of Afghan Army girls ended with a roaring sound of applause at the Frontline Club yesterday evening. Lalage Snow, also a photojournalist, made her directing debut with a film beautifully weaved in stills and moving images to showcase the lives of women preparing for a life in the Afghan national army.

Focussing on the lives of three girls training in the army, Samiya, Homa and Zeinab, the film captured their individual personalities, following them on a ten week training course to an isolated military base in Kabul and into some of their homes.

Anyone who is remotely familiar with Afghan news and culture would know that staying away from home is taboo for women, and that this is a big step forward.

One member of the audience questioned if and whether this has had any impact.

Snow said,

“Lets not forget before the occupation of the Taliban, the Afghans used to employ at least 4,000 women in the army. Of course all this has been superimposed by ISAF and NATO lately in an effort to empower the women and the country.

All the training and classes take place in a compound. About the impact – I really don’t have much of an idea now. Of course there are higher generals who are women but they still need to develop a better sense of authority without being trampled over by their male peers.”

Many were curious to know about the reactions from fellow Afghan countrymen and women. Snow said:

“In Afghanistan, not many women are aware that women are being recruited for the armed forces. There is not much publicity about it. Not sure if this is a move by ISAF and NATO to superimpose women’s rights on top of the agenda. Female soldiers are being recruited for the army and the police force to conduct searches.”

She added

“Can’t speak for all but many of the men-folk are progressive and want a future that is sustainable. They want peace and stability.”

While the film tackled many aspects of being a woman in the armed forces, many were still looking for answers as to what would happen when the international troops pull out.

Snow said:

“Well it is a mixed response; I have argued this over and over with my friends. Many think they would like the foreign forces to leave. Others think there is just going to be a civil war if that happens.”

One audience member had the room in hysterics asking, “So can the women shoot?” To which Snow replied, jokingly “No.”

As seen in the film, after graduation, no-one made it to the Afghan Air Force. “All of them were extremely proud and happy to have undergone this training except for one, Samiya,” said Snow.

View event here.

The end of this month will see the anniversary of Osama Bin-Laden’s death, which exposed the escalating tensions between the United States and Pakistan.

Topically, the celebrated writer and central Asia expert Ahmed Rashid joined BBC special correspondent Lyce Doucet in conversation to discuss his new book, Pakistan on the brink: the future of America, Pakistan and Afghanistan. 

Rashid said:

“Pakistan is the most fragile state with nuclear weapons right now. It’s beset with a crumbling economy, sectarianism, insurgencies in two of the country’s four provinces -and still the army are giving sanctuaries to Islamic extremists of all kinds who are active in India, Afghanistan and central Asia.”

This statement neatly summarised the problems Rashid feels are facing Pakistan. He descibed a state of affairs in the which the country has just been “muddling along” but believes that this can no longer be the case.

The terrorist attacks of 9/11 were a turning point for Pakistan, he said. After that fateful day, “we gave the Taliban sanctuary; we helped the Taliban re-launch their offensive in Afghanistan.”

The problem with Pakistan’s duplicity is that the international community is beginning to recognise it. Speaking of a recent trip to Washington, Rashid said he found that no-one wanted to deal with Pakistan. He said: “We are facing for the first time a serious risk of abandonment by the international community at many different levels.”

Potential investors are pulling out of Pakistan left, right and centre. If the country is left to fend for itself, it will not be able to sustain a population of 180m people, let alone a vast army, bureaucracy and nuclear armaments. 

Meanwhile, war is still raging in Afghanistan with increasing insurgency. Rashid was doubtful that the Americans really will leave any time soon: “The aims of the Obama administration in Afghanistan are seen to be much further away than back when he was elected.”

But he was adamant that Afghanistan must be left by western powers to find its own way, not least because of his conviction that most of the Taliban’s leadership is in fact in Pakistan. He called on Britain, a country divided over war in Afghanistan, to stand up to the US and make stronger demands for withdrawal.

And the public in Pakistan, he said, need to engage with the actions of their government in order to achieve full democracy and stability. 

Against a backdrop of growing discontent, and widespread allegations of fraud, Russia’s recent elections heralded Vladimir Putin’s re-election to the presidency. The man who many still saw as Russia’s de facto leader will now resume his tenure, four years after ostensibly ceding power to Dmitry Medvedev. 

In light of these developments a panel of experienced commentators gathered at the Frontline Club to assess the past, present and future of Putin’s Russia. The evening was chaired by Edward Lucas, The Economist’s Deputy International Editor, in discussion with Masha Gessen, a Russian-American journalist and author, and Bill Browder, an outspoken shareholder activist who was the largest foreign investor in Russia until 2005, when he was banned from the country.

Gessen, author of The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin, described Putin’s Russia as a mafia state in which large-scale corruption at the top relies on small-scale corruption at the bottom. She claimed that Putin “thinks the KGB is the best thing that was ever invented”, adding that she saw him as pleonexic – in that he suffers from the insatiable desire to have what rightfully belongs to others.

Browder agreed, describing his own experience as “the story of how bad things have got in Russia, and emblematic of the bare face of Russia from the beginning to the end.” He began to withdraw his money when he realised that all of his companies were hemorrhaging money to corrupt officials. A saga ensued in which Russian police seized his assets, took control of his companies and – amongst other things – conspired to reclaim $230m that Browder’s companies had paid in tax.

What followed has now become an infamous tale of state corruption and brutality. Sergei Magnitsky, the lawyer investigating matters on Browder’s behalf, was imprisoned and eventually murdered in custody. 

His is not the only case of this kind, as Browder and Gessen observed, but the unfailing bureaucracy of all involved led to the publication of an exact account of the events, written by Magnitsky, and a list of those responsible. Lucas described the Magnitsky list as “one of the most effective fires lit under the regime”, and Browder summarised the reasons behind its impact: 

“The people who committed these crimes didn’t do it because of religious intolerance, or ideological intolerance. They did this for money.”

Browder suggested that the regime was unsustainable, given the prevalence of events like this, but the panel recognised the inherent difficulty in ensuring a genuine transition of power. Gessen offered her own analysis of the regime’s ability to adapt and protect itself:

“With the whole reset campaign of the last 3 years, there were a lot of people who fell into Medvedev’s trap. The best way to think of Putin and Medvedev is of a president and a first lady: the first lady gets to reach out to people, and perform humanitarian gestures. That humanitarian gesture deceived a lot of people.”

Despite this, Gessen noted that the West is an important influence, even to the most corrupt Russian officials:

“More important than anything else, it’s the place where they keep their money. You can’t keep your money in Russia, there is always somebody better connected than you are.”

And, as the question and answer period drew to a close, Lucas suggested that Putin’s hold on power might begin to loosen if another disaster on the scale of the Kursk or Beslan were to strike:

“He handles these situations very badly. The people who’ve got a huge stake in the survival of the regime may wonder if they can keep it going for a few more years by pushing him downwards or sideways.”

Watch the event here: