Mark Leonard's World in 30 Minutes

In late September, 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal was evicted from the Madrid flat she had lived in for seven decades, sparking nationwide protests over Spain’s housing crisis. Pedro Sánchez’s government responded with two emergency housing decrees which Congress rejected on October 2nd. Three days later, the prime minister dissolved parliament and called for a snap election on November 29th. Sánchez has snatched victory from the jaws of defeat before, but the polls are pointing towards a PP–Vox coalition that could bring the far right into government for the first time since the return of democracy.In this week’s episode, Mark Leonard welcomes Carla Hobbs, the head of Madrid office and policy fellow at ECFR, along with Nacho Torreblanca, a distinguished policy fellow at the geoeconomics and technology programme and senior adviser to the Madrid office. Together, they discuss whether Sánchez’s gamble will pay off and what it means for Europe. Why did Sánchez call the election now? Where do the polls stand? And what are the central issues that Spaniards will vote on?Bookshelf:“Solos en el mundo” by Arancha González Laya“Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI” by Yuval Noah HarariUpdate: This podcast was recorded on October 7th. Since then, Maricarmen Abascal died in hospital at the age of 87. In addition, Spain’s trade unions have called a general strike over housing for November 11th, just weeks before the vote. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Mark Leonard welcomes Aslı Aydıntaşbaş, associate senior policy fellow at ECFR and a fellow at the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution in Washington, to discuss a recent policy brief for ECFR, authored alongside Evren Balta, professor of international relations at Özyeğin University in Istanbul.In their brief, Aslı and Evren argue that Turkey is an “embedded outsider”. It maintains relations with Moscow and other Western adversaries, but is also a NATO state with the alliance’s second-largest army; it supports Ukraine and is technically an applicant for EU membership. And nowhere has this embedded outsider status been more apparent than at the NATO summit hosted by Recep Tayyip Erdogan in July. The Turkish president gave visiting leaders a Turkish-made revolver, loaded with live ammunition: a gift no one could accept from an ally no one can place.In this week’s episode, Mark and Aslı explore Turkey’s unique position in European and global politics. Together they discuss Turkish autonomy, its relationship with NATO, Russia and the EU, and how Europe can better engage with such a complex actor. How aligned—or misaligned—is Turkey with its Western allies? What role does it play in Ukrainian and Black Sea diplomacy? And to what extent does a shared agenda exist between Ankara and Europe?Bookshelf:An outsider within: The paradox of the Europe-Turkey relationship by Aslı Aydıntaşbaş and Evren BaltaTheo of Golden by Allen Levi Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Mark Leonard is joined by Cary Fowler, founder and president of the Food Security Leadership Council and former US global food security envoy, and Jim O’Brien, ECFR distinguished visiting fellow and former US assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs. As conflict, climate change and geopolitical fragmentation converge, there is a growing risk of a global food crisis. Russia’s war in Ukraine continues to disrupt grain exports, the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz is restricting fertiliser shipments, and a potentially severe El Niño threatens drought and falling harvests across parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America. These overlapping pressures will impact hundreds of millions of people who are already food insecure. While mechanisms are in place to mitigate the impact of food insecurity—for example, in 2022, the UN, the US, the EU and regional actors worked together to keep grain flowing from Ukraine and avert a broader catastrophe—many of the conditions that enabled cooperation then are weaker today. This has created a dangerous gap in global leadership. Together, Mark, Cary and Jim explore how a new international coalition could prevent millions more people from falling into hunger. They discuss the roles of Europe, the UN and major powers such as China, India and Russia; the case for humanitarian ceasefires covering grain exports and fertiliser shipments; and why food security should be treated as a central pillar of global security. Can governments overcome geopolitical rivalry to address a crisis that no one wants? How severe could the impact of El Niño become in already vulnerable regions? What would a ceasefire covering grain and fertiliser look like in practice? And can Europe coordinate a global response when other leaders are absent? This podcast episode was recorded on September 9th 2026. Bookshelf  Not for the Faint of Heart: Lessons in Courage, Power and Persistence, Wendy Sherman The Growth of Biological Thought, Ernst Mayr The Big Bet, Michael Auerbach China’s Global Strategy under Xi Jinping, Steve Tsang and Olivia Cheung Against war, drought and hunger: A global coalition to prevent a food crisis, Cary Fowler, Jim O'Brien and Jana Kobzova  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.