Corridors of Power: Should America Police the World?

Synopsis

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?

First Air Date: 2024-06-26

Last Air Date: 2024-08-21

Number of Seasons: 1

Number of Episodes: 8

Created By: Dror Moreh

Networks: BBC Four

View Technical Specifications on IMDb

Top Cast

Meryl Streep as Narrator (voice)
Tony Lake as Self
Colin Powell as Self
James A. Baker as Self
Madeleine Albright as Self
Sandy Berger as Self
Mikhail Gorbachev as Self (archive footage)
Hillary Clinton as Self (archive footage)
Dan Rather as Self (archive footage)
Paul Wolfowitz as Self

Seasons

Series 1 (2024)

No overview available for this season.

Episodes:

Ep. 1: Iraq: For Every Insect There is an Insecticide (2024-06-26)

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.
Ep. 2: Bosnia: Our Soldiers Are Not Toy Soldiers (2024-07-03)

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.
Ep. 3: Rwanda – That Was a Local Thing (2024-07-10)

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.
Ep. 4: Kosovo – In the Name of Our Future (2024-07-24)

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.
Ep. 5: Darfur – Carrots for a War Criminal (2024-07-31)

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?
Ep. 6: Libya – If You Break It You Own It (2024-08-07)

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.
Ep. 7: Syria – The Risk of Doing Nothing (2024-08-14)

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.
Ep. 8: Syria – A Loop of Imperfection (2024-08-21)

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.