Vox Atlas Season 5
Senior producer Sam Ellis demonstrates where conflicts occur on a map and the ways in which foreign policy shapes a region.
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Vox Atlas
2017Senior producer Sam Ellis demonstrates where conflicts occur on a map and the ways in which foreign policy shapes a region.
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Vox Atlas Season 5 Full Episode Guide
A crisis has been escalating along the border that divides Belarus and the European Union. For several weeks, thousands of migrants looking to reach the EU were trapped between Poland and Belarus, living in freezing camps with no humanitarian aid. Today, the migrants have been moved to warehouses for shelter, but this crisis isn’t over. Since 2015, Europe has experienced several migration waves, but this one was different: This one was manufactured. Belarus lured migrants to the border to pressure the EU to lift sanctions. And while this particular crisis has started to die down, the problem isn’t going away. It’s the result of a complex EU migration policy that has opened the door to the exploitation of migrants, and until that policy is fixed, Belarus or other bordering nations could create a crisis all over again.
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The roots of the Taliban movement go back to 1979, when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. They were there to prop up a communist Afghan government that was supported by a minority of urban residents. But the vast majority of Afghans lived in rural areas. Here, authority came from tribal and ethnic groups, and life revolved around conservative practices of Islam. Rural Afghans formed militias called mujahideen and drove out the Soviets. But then they fell into a civil war with each other. Out of this chaos emerged a group of Islamic teachers and students called the Taliban. They swept through the country, destroying mujahideen groups and imposing a strict order. In 1996, they took the capital city of Kabul. The Taliban ruled Afghanistan until 2001, when the US invaded. In a sense, the cycle of invasion and rebellion began again. Urban areas were reformed while rural areas suffered, allowing the Taliban to resurge. In 2021, the Taliban took back Kabul and the country.
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In 2019, after ending Ethiopia’s decades-long war with its neighbor, Eritrea, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. It seemed like a new beginning for Ethiopia. After decades of dictatorships and oppressive regimes, he appeared to finally be putting the country on a new path. But less than a year later, Abiy had already launched a military attack — on Tigray, a regional state in his own country. When Abiy became prime minister in 2018, he had largely supplanted Tigray’s main political party, the TPLF, as the country’s center of power. Since then, tensions between Abiy and the TPLF had escalated quickly. The political rivalry led to a dispute over an election, which led to an alleged attack on a military base — and finally to Abiy’s deployment of the military.
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Monaco is the world’s second-smallest country, spanning only 2.2 square kilometers. Yet it's the capital of the wide world of car racing. For more than 70 years, the country has hosted the Monaco Grand Prix. It’s one of the world’s most unusual racecourses, running through the city streets of Monte Carlo. The course goes through a tunnel, up a cliff, and passes just feet from the harbor; it's earned the nickname “the race of a thousand corners.” Because of its design, the Monaco Grand Prix has produced some of the most memorable moments in car racing history. But that's not the only reason the race is so prestigious. Monaco is a tax haven, and for decades has been a favorite place for the rich and famous to stash their wealth. The Grand Prix weekend is the country's biggest weekend of the year, and the combination of a unique course and the world’s most famous people make the Grand Prix the world’s most prestigious car race.
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