In this week’s podcast veteran peacemaker, Monica McWilliams, author of Stand Up, Speak Out, joins former UN Assistant Secretary-General, Andrew Gilmour, author of The Burning Question: Climate and Conflict - why Does it Matter? and Dr Roxani Krystalli from St Andrews University at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in partnership with Beyond Borders. Where they reflect upon climate, conflict and the state of our troubled world and what we have to do to make more safe, secure and just.

Featuring:

Monica McWilliams Andrew Gilmour Dr Roxani Krystalli

Beyond Borders Scotland: https://www.beyondbordersscotland.com

More From Monica McWilliams: (2021) Stand Up, Speak Out: My Life Working for Women's Rights, Peace and Equality in Northern Ireland and Beyond (Blackstaff Press Ltd) at: https://www.abebooks.co.uk/9781780733227/Stand-Speak-Out-Life-Working-1780733224/plp

More From Andrew Gilmour: (2024) The Burning Question: Climate and Conflict - why Does it Matter? (Berghof Foundation) at: https://berghof-foundation.org/library/the-burning-question

Audio Editor: Aedan Wilson

In this week’s podcast Mark Muller Stuart KC talks to veteran United Nations diplomat Staffan de Mistura at the Edinburgh International Book Festiva who reflects on his remarkable 50-year career in international diplomacy and conflict mediation for the UN in places like Sudan, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.

Featuring:

Mark Muller Stuart KC Staffan De Mistura

Beyond Borders Scotland: https://www.beyondbordersscotland.com

Audio Editor: Aedan Wilson

Join veteran BBC broadcaster, Jim Naughtie, as he talks to Steve Crawshaw, former UK head of Human Rights Watch and author of Prosecuting the Powerful, alongside Derek Goldman, director of the Centre for Global Performance and Dialogue at Georgetown University, and the Noor Al-Naser, programme manager of the Scottish Peace Platform, about their work and the state of the world in the era of Trump. New York theatre director, Irina Kruzhilina, introduces students from Peebles High School who bring the festival to close with their rendition of a New Declaration of Human Rights with its own unique young persons and Scottish Borders twist.

Featuring:

Jim Naughtie Steve Crawshaw Derek Goldman Noor Al-Naser Irina Kruzhilina

Beyond Borders Scotland: https://www.beyondbordersscotland.com

Audio Editor: Aedan Wilson

Join Ambassador Nirupama Rao and Ambassador Riffat Masood alongside senior journalists Maya Mirchandani and Nasim Zehra as they discuss Indo-Pak relations after the recent escalation, the role of women in the peace process, and the space for peace in the changing global environment.

Featuring:

Ambassador Nirupama Rao Ambassador Riffat Masood Maya Mirchandani Nasim Zehra Allan Little

Beyond Borders Scotland: https://www.beyondbordersscotland.com

Audio Editor: Aedan Wilson

Listen as former First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon talks to Sigrid Van Aken, CEO the Postcode Lottery Group, about it's remarkable rise to become the world’s third biggest philanthropic funder of good causes and Chris Lockyear, the Médecins Sans Frontières Supremo, as he reveals the truth about the humanitarian crisis in Sudan, Gaza and beyond. Together they consider the impact of recent US and UK aid cuts and what we can all do to help relieve the suffering of civilians as well as to build a more peaceful, vibrant and less afflicted world.

Featuring:

Nicola Sturgeon Sigrid Van Aken Chris Lockyear

Beyond Borders Scotland: https://www.beyondbordersscotland.com

More From Post Code Lottery Group:

https://www.postcodelottery.co.uk/

More From Médecins Sans Frontières:

https://www.msf.org/

Audio Editor: Aedan Wilson

Listen as Former First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, lifts the lid on her remarkable life as one of Scotland’s leading politicians in the 21st century as she recounts her journey from working-class Ayrshire to Bute House, in her candid memoir, Frankly.

Featuring:

Nicola Sturgeon Allan Little

Beyond Borders Scotland: https://www.beyondbordersscotland.com

More From Nicola Sturgeon:

(2025) Frankly (Pan Macmillan) at: https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/nicola-sturgeon/frankly/9781035040216

Audio Editor: Aedan Wilson

Listen to legendary literary agent, Clare Conville, as she talks to novelist and journalist, Phoebe Greenwood, about her recent novel, Vulture, a fast pace, darkly funny heart wrenching satire that tears through the guts of the war-news industry.

Featuring:

Phoebe Greenwood Clare Conville

Beyond Borders Scotland: https://www.beyondbordersscotland.com

More From Phoebe Greenwood:

(2025) Vulture (Europa Editions UK) at: https://www.europaeditions.co.uk/book/9781787705791/vulture

More From Clare Conville:

https://cwagency.co.uk/agent/clare-conville

Audio Editor: Aedan Wilson

Join Field Marshall Lord Richards as he talks to military historian Hew Strahan his book ‘Retreat from Strategy’, the recent UK Defence Review, the conflict in Ukraine, and success of British and western military interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria, since his own victorious one into Sierre Leone in 2000.

Featuring:

Field Marshall Lord Richards Hew Strahan

Beyond Borders Scotland: https://www.beyondbordersscotland.com

More From Field Marshal Richards:

David Richards, Julian Lindley-French (2024) The Retreat from Strategy (Hurst) at: https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/the-retreat-from-strategy/

Audio Editor: Aedan Wilson