Corridors of Power: Should America Police the World? — Season 1
About this season
No easy answers? Decision-makers from Kissinger to Rice revisit how the US responded to conflicts from Rwanda to Iraq. Faced with human suffering - who has responsibility to act?
Episodes (8)
1. Iraq: For Every Insect There is an Insecticide
Aired 26 June 2024 • 57 min
Exploring the US's complicated relationship with Iraq, first supporting the country during the Iran-Iraq war but then turning against it after Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait.
2. Bosnia: Our Soldiers Are Not Toy Soldiers
Aired 3 July 2024 • 57 min
As the Balkans deteriorate into a series of bloody wars, President Bill Clinton and Madeleine Albright must decide whether to use force to save innocent civilians from genocide.
3. Rwanda – That Was a Local Thing
Aired 10 July 2024 • 57 min
Why did the world stand by in 1994 as nearly one million people were murdered over one hundred days of terror in Rwanda? American diplomats describe events on the ground.
4. Kosovo – In the Name of Our Future
Aired 24 July 2024 • 57 min
Muslim separatists in the Kosovo region rekindle old conflicts, leading Clinton’s White House to consider Serbian President Milošević’s regime a threat to their own civilians.
5. Darfur – Carrots for a War Criminal
Aired 31 July 2024 • 57 min
In 2003, hundreds of thousands of Americans protested about ethnic cleansing in Sudan. Following Obama’s 2008 election success, could some of those people, now in office, make a difference?
6. Libya – If You Break It You Own It
Aired 7 August 2024 • 57 min
When Gaddafi declared his intention to 'disinfect' Benghazi, Obama faced a dilemma, have previously told the younger Arab generation 'you, more than anyone, have the ability to remake this world.
7. Syria – The Risk of Doing Nothing
Aired 14 August 2024 • 57 min
Obama did not want to be dragged into another war in the Middle East, but when the Syrian regime began to consider the use of chemical weapons, he warned them they would be crossing a red line.
8. Syria – A Loop of Imperfection
Aired 21 August 2024 • 57 min
America’s unwillingness to act after a chemical attack, causes Syrian rebels to despair. Obama concludes that there is no scenario where intervention in Syria would give a desired outcome.