Deep in the Hermit Kingdom
Former Assistant Secretary of State Susan Thornton joins us with tales of negotiations to disarm North Korea's nuclear arsenal – What could...
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American Diplomat
American Diplomat goes behind the scenes to hear real stories from diplomats who lived newsworthy events overseas. Experience the Cuban revolution, Central American insurgencies, the end of...
Episodes
20 of 479 episodesLast Officer at Abbey Gate (Encore)
In our third of three episodes honoring the lives impacted by the US departure from Afghanistan in 2021, we repost one of our most moving ep...
Civil Servant Dons Body Armor
In the second of our short series on Afghanistan five years after the US exit, Ken Handelman, former senior civil servant in the Department...
Bill Burns on Public Service (Encore)
Bill Burns says it best: "This is exactly the moment when you need to attract the best in our society to lives in public service, whether it...
High School Reunion in Kabul
How did Soviet-era bureaucratic stamps and a personal relationship between highly placed Afghan frenemies impact the outcome of US involveme...
AI Diplomacy: Dueling Banjos?
Its economic potential is huge, but AI also brings serious national security threats. How exactly do diplomats work to create global standar...
And in Other News…The Western Sahara
Ever wonder what it's really like to move policy along as a diplomat? Join Ed Gabriel and Bob Holley as they chronicle the progress of polic...
My Romance With Romania
Why is Romania so important for US interests? Hint: The Black Sea, and a very long border with Ukraine. Amb. Kathy Kavalec shares insights o...
Diplomacy is Empathy
How does empathy help create a more peaceful world, whether we are a first-year diplomat or Secretary of State? Amb. Kathy Kavalec (one of D...
Crisis Du Jour
Public Diplomacy – Journalists have tough questions. What if you just don't have the answers? How do you prepare? Get inside the machinery w...
What They Don't Want You to Know
Gotcha, right? Or, "Click before it's too late!" Or even, "Hey, kid. You're pretty good at this. Want a real gun?" Career public diplomacy o...
Y2K to H1B?
When did the US first warm to India and why? Why did Pakistan nominate Trump for a Nobel? And what does the Y2K bug have to do with US-India...
Politics by Other Means?
Why can't we just bomb our way to victory in Iran? Listen to Lt. General Karen Gibson, former Director of Intelligence for U.S. Central Comm...
Persona No Deseada
Former Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Todd Robinson spent much of his career under fire, of on...
"This Golden Land"
Is it Burma, or is it Myanmar? Did its former leader Aung San Suu Kyi bring democratic reform or did she commit genocide? Both? Chris Millig...
USAID: Into The Wood Chipper
What was USAID? How did DOGE destroy it, and with what impacts to global health and stability? Nick Enrich's book "Into the Wood Chipper" de...
The Case of the Powdered Orange Drink
What is "dumping"? How does it hurt us? Who comes to the rescue? The Foreign Commercial Service! Judy Reinke, after leading the FCS, became...
Loose Nukes
How to get bomb-ready uranium out of the wrong hands? It's the mid-90s. The Soviet Union just fell. Andrew Weber, former Assistant Secretary...
Diplomat Lounge: Iran, A Way Out of the Mess
Can the US get out of its own way and turn this into a win? Ambassador Gary Grappo tells us how to do that, in a conversation with Pete and...
Remember the Old Days (Say, 2020)?
By what dirty tricks exactly did Orban seize control of his country? And how then did his rival Magyar beat him? And between those bookends,...