Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at background briefing.

I'm Ian Masters, and today we'll look into a number of stories and issues in the news.

We'll begin with the death of Henry Kissinger at the age of 100 and get an appraisal of his life

and legacy, which is clearly controversial since Kissinger is being hailed as a great

elder statesman by some and a war criminal by others.

Joining us at Jeremy Surrey, who holds the Mac Brown distinguished chair in leadership

in Global Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, where he's a professor of history

in public affairs.

He's the co-host of the podcast, This Is Democracy, and the author and editor of a number of books,

including The Impossible Presidency, The Rise and Fall of America's Highest Office,

Henry Kissinger and the American Century, and most recently Civil War by other means,

America's long and unfinished fight for democracy.

Then we'll examine the Canadian connection to the foiled assassination plot on American soil

by a, quote, senior field officer with Indian intelligence

revealed on Wednesday in a detailed indictment in federal court in Manhattan.

Joining us from Canada is Stephanie Carbon, a professor of international relations at the Norman

Patterson School of International Affairs at Carlton University in Ontario, whose research

focuses on national security, international security, and international law. Her most recent book

is Stand on Guard, reassessing threats to Canada's national security, and from 2012 to 2015,

she was a national security analyst with the government of Canada.

Then finally, we'll get an assessment of why Modi's government in India took such a risk

to plan to conduct a brazen act of terrorism on U.S. soil and speak with Dr. Daniel Markey,

...