Glenn and Paul, thank you for taking time to talk through another hot spot in the world,

this time, Africa, first time for us, Glenn, of course. And for those who are listening,

obviously, you know me, Ryan, spent time in the Army and the CIA, but I have to say we've got

two folks on the call. I wouldn't even say that I was in the same

agency as them, given their backgrounds. But you're well acquainted with Glenn. We've talked

Middle East. We've talked Syria, expert on Russia, has been a multi-time COS over three decades

in the agency, State Department, and of course the military storied career.

And Glenn would love to just pass it over to you as we tee up who our new guest is.

Hey, Ryan, it's great to see you and thanks for having us on.

As you mentioned, this is another hot spot which has emerged, not surprising.

I think when we kind of talked about the plan

for some of these podcasts, it was to make sure that we paid attention to areas of the world that

were important geopolitically for the U.S., but maybe don't always get the attention they should.

And this is definitely an example, what's happening in the DRC right now. So I'm glad that you

came to me to ask me about this because geopolitically,

with what's going on with Russia and China and the competition for minerals, supply chain issues

for the United States, I can't stress how important this is. And when you asked me to do the podcast,

I said, I'd love to, but I don't really know that much about Africa. But I know

someone that does. I know someone that knows Africa inside and out, a true expert, and that is

Mr. Paul Kep, Professor Paul Kep, who, by the way, just started teaching here at the Institute of

World Politics with us. So we're love to have them here. We're very happy about that. And before we go any further, I do want to thank the team here at IWP for allowing us to use the campus for this great podcast.

So Paul, I'll let Paul talk a little bit about his background and delve into the issue, but we couldn't have anybody better to talk about the issue right now in Africa.

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