American Diplomat

Nadya Bliss, the executive director of ASU’s Global Security Initiative, helps us understand disinformation from the ground up.  What is the algorithmification of information and what are the technological incentives for its distribution?  When is AI just fine, when is it a problem, how do we detect it and what should we do?  What is the power of diplomats working together with technologists to keep us safe?

We all recognize the intractability and tragedy of the Arab/Israeli conflict but what are the dynamics of Iran’s proxy forces, separately fighting Israel, working together?  What is each of their relationship with Iran?  And what will be the Trump impact?  Ambassadors Jeffrey Feltman and Jake Walles, who spent decades in the Middle East, share stories.

Campaign promises - repatriating the undocumented, Mexico’s role in securing the border, tariff quid pro quos and NATO’s role in a Russian/Ukraine peace - will require expert diplomacy.  Will the new administration be up to it?  Secretary Tom Shannon, who led State in the first Trump administration, is here to tell us what Trump’s early days will look like.

Oh, the stress of the election!  We're feeling the strain!  So we thought we could all use a little break.  Here's one of our earliest, most fun episodes.  Larry Dinger regales us with tales of tires on fire, pollution, trekking, and one of the most bizarre episodes in monarchy in the world.  Now Laura wants to join the Foreign Service and all of us want to go to Kathmandu.  

David Scheffer, our country's foremost diplomat on war crimes, reveals the unstoppable forces seeking justice.  The bad get badder and the good get better.  

An inspirational story of personal redlines and resilience that has stuck with us:  Ambassador John Feeley left a beloved job as US Ambassador to Panama, at the pinnacle of his career. Why?  He could in good conscience act as the personal representative of a particular US President.  John Feeley shares candidly the painful but surmountable experience of depression and recovery upon departure from the Foreign Service. May we all share as generously as our friend John. There is always hope.

Soviet occupation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania ended 30 years ago but to many, it could have been yesterday.  How secure are these states, and what will happen to them if Ukraine falls?  Is there any change in security policy, in case of a Trump victory in the US? 

Out with the old, in with the new?  Will Claudia Sheinbaum, new (and first female) President of Mexico, allow the departing leader AMLO to control her presidency, as designated successors of autocrats often do, or will she govern on her own terms?  What will happen with all of those door-to-door check giveaways?  Sheinbaum does not tip her hand.  Amb. (Ret.) John Feeley guides us through Mexico’s new frontier.  We watch with interest.

And what does Behghazi have to do with our withdrawal from Afghanistan, and why are people investigating our exit from that country on the third anniversary of the withdrawal, not, say, on the first or second anniversary?  Ambassador Dennis Jett has a thing or two to say about this. 

Prominent Brazilian journalist Cecilia Tornaghi shares the major struggle between Elon Musk and Brazilian Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes, after the judge shut down X.  The episode begs the question: Since these platforms have become a public service, do they bear responsibility for who uses them?  Who decides what is truth, disinformation, or that which is likely to incite?