Led by two Troy University political science professors, “International Insights” is a new talk show that explores global politics and diplomacy featuring political and diplomatic leaders from around the world.
Dr. Michael Slobodchikoff, Chair of the Department of Political Science, a leading expert on treaty networks and the creation of global and regional order and a regular contributor to BBC World News and Asharq Al-Awsat News, and Dr. G. Doug Davis, director of the Masters of Science in International Relations program with international development experience in the Middle East where he has worked on projects funded by the European Union, Italian government and the World Bank, have used their connections to the international community to bring a new talk show to the set of the TrojanVision studio.
“We have worked and collaborated with various people during the time of the pandemic and after, so it just was a natural fit that these people had a lot to share that we thought were important for the TROY community to hear,” Slobodchikoff said. “The idea for ‘International Insights’ came about with that.”
Slobodchikoff said they had a few different goals with this program: that these conversations should be shared with the TROY community at large and to interview people that wouldn’t normally be seen, “but that have a lot of information to share about a variety of different global issues.”
“We also wanted to share the knowledge, the experience of our guests with our students as well,” Davis added. “So it would also help our academic formation and expose our students to some incredible people.”
“International Insights” has aired five episodes so far featuring: Khemaies Jhinaoui, former Foreign Minister of Tunisia; Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Konstantinos Loukopoulos of the Greek army and Executive Director of the Euro Mediterranean Security and Cooperation Observatory; Tobias Belgrano, an Argentenian political advisor, public relations expert and international journalist; Ronald Neumann, President of the American Academy of Diplomacy and former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan; and Dr. Borut Roncevic, Dean and sociology professor at the School of Advanced Social Studies in Nova Gorica, Slovenia, and current visiting Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence at TROY.
General Kenneth McKenzie, former Commander of the United States Central Command and a native of Birmingham, Ala., Tomohiko Taniguchi, a special adviser and former speech writer for former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and David Eades, a journalist and former BBC News newsreader, are also in the lineup along with several other surprise guests.
“We have ambassadors. We have international athletes,” Davis said. “We have a lot of different people in the queue that have important perspectives.”
Davis said the response to the first episodes has been very positive, both locally and internationally, and the exposure is adding to TROY’s efforts of remaining “Alabama’s International University.”
“TROY truly is an amazing place in terms of its efforts at internationalization. It truly is Alabama’s International University,” Slobodchikoff added. “That gives us access to talk to people that normally we wouldn’t have access to necessarily. TROY’s devotion to internationalization and providing an international education is extremely important, and the people that we talk to aid in furthering that internationalization effort.
“This is a truly unique show and a unique experience for us as well as for the whole TROY community.”
New episodes air on the TROY TrojanVision channel and YouTube every two weeks.
