The Western Bubble

We are Balder Hageraats and Dario Hasenstab, a professor and his former student of international relations. Together we examine how Western countries are increasingly lost in their own delusions on the world stage, and what can be done to bring them back to reality. In this introduction episode, we discuss the beginning of this podcast and the main theme, the Western bubble...

During the recording of our last episode, right-wing populism, Dario went on a rant about society’s treatment of the youth during the Covid-19 pandemic. It was too long to keep in the original episode, but also too honest and important to fully cut it. So we decided to upload it as an EXTRA Episode, enjoy!

This podcast is published with the help of RAIA and edited by RAIA member Usama Ghanem...

With the BRICS and G20 summit taking place last week, Western countries and media are panicking over new members to the BRICS and interpreting China’s absence from the G20 summit as a difficult relationship with India. This podcast is published with the help of RAIA and edited by RAIA member Usama Ghanem but is an individual project between the Director of RAIA Dario Hasenstab and Balder Hageraats. If you would like to get in touch with us write us an email at thewesternbubble@gmail...

This is our first interview episode of season three and we could not have started it with a better guest but our editor Usama Ghanem. We talk to him about his experiences in the West and with the Western. Listen to the episode to find out what obscure laws there are in the United Kingdom, the Arab Spring in Egypt and why Usama's name is spelled the way it is...

The news of Azerbaijan taking over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh primarily inhabited by ethnic Armenians sparked a debate about self-determination. We weigh in on this debate from the Western Bubble perspective and explain the dynamics of the IR version of rock-paper-scissors: self-determination-sovereignty-global politics...

The tragic situation in Israel and the Gaza Strip also needs to be analysed from the Western Bubble perspective. What lessons can be learned from our analysis of the past and applied here to de-escalate and decrease humanitarian suffering? IMPORTANT: We recorded this episode on October 8th at 10:30. This podcast is published with the help of RAIA and edited by RAIA member Julia Ohm but is an individual project between the Director of RAIA Dario Hasenstab and Balder Hageraats...

One week later and the tragic situation in Israel and the Gaza Strip is still on everybody's mind. Since last week a lot of things have happened and a lot more actors with their own Western Bubble bias have entered the discussions. We analyse the three main groups forming the current conversation and have a particular look at the Western left...

What do the United States and China have in common with Adidas and Nike? According to Dario they are an analogy for global realignment, but you let us know if this works in light of the 10 year celebration of the Chinese Belt-Road-Initiative. This podcast is published with the help of RAIA and edited by RAIA member Usama Ghanem but is an individual project between the Director of RAIA Dario Hasenstab and Balder Hageraats. This episode was supported with research from Yu Jie Law and Aston Roth...

For years now the West has put Venezuela in the naughty corner, only to realise that in the meantime the country has moved closer to Russia and China. Join us for this episode to observe Western efforts to reconnect with the country. As a little extra we will make fun of Jordan Goudreau who tried to take the Maduro government down with a total of 40 mercenaries...

After popular demand, we are back with this topic and the situation on the ground still has not improved. Since our last episode, the West has further isolated itself on this topic on the global stage after a vote in the UN General Assembly. And, we introduce a new category in our podcast: “International Relations Perspective” where we quickly analyse what Russia, Saudi Arabia and China are saying about this conflict...