Guest: Charles A. Ray, former U.S. ambassador to Cambodia and Zimbabwe and former deputy assistant secretary of defense.

The U.S. military and the Foreign Service are two parts of the same national-security apparatus, but that may be where their similarities end. Their cultures, missions and approaches to those missions are very different — and often exactly the opposite.

On this episode of “The Diplomacy Podcast,” we discuss those differences with someone who has experienced both — first as a soldier in the U.S. Army for 20 years, and then as a career diplomat for three decades.

My guest is Charles A. Ray, a former U.S. ambassador to Cambodia and Zimbabwe, and former deputy assistant secretary of defense. He now teaches at the Washington International Diplomatic Academy and chairs the Africa program of the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

Ray also talks about the U.S. strikes that have killed dozens of civilians on boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific, which the Trump administration claims are smuggling drugs to the United States, though it hasn’t provided proof.

As always, my guest’s opinions don’t necessarily represent my own views.

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Guest: Tom Countryman, former U.S. assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation

The Trump administration has done an excellent job inundating us with all kinds of news, pronouncements and orders. But lately, I’ve found myself wondering what sleeper threats to U.S. and global security are not making headlines. So I asked an expert.

On this episode of “The Diplomacy Podcast,” we discuss hidden risks for both the United States and the world. My guest is Tom Countryman, former U.S. assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation. He spent 34 years in the Foreign Service and currently chairs the board of the Arms Control Association, a Washington think tank.

Countryman worries that we are not practicing the diplomacy necessary to avert an armed conflict with China, and to preempt an erratic reaction by Russian President Vladimir Putin should he lose his war against Ukraine. Countryman is also concerned about the Trump administration’s air strikes on boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific without evidence to back its claim that they were smuggling drugs.

As always, my guest’s opinions don’t necessarily represent my own views.

Watch or listen to the episode above, or on one of these platforms: YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nicholaskralev.substack.com

The Trump administration has won much praise for brokering a deal between Israel and Hamas to stop the war in Gaza. The ceasefire has proven very fragile, and three senior U.S. officials are currently in Israel to bolster it, following Trump’s visit there last week.

On this episode of “The Diplomacy Podcast,” we discuss the deal’s chances of full success, and what it means for the future of the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. My guest is Danielle Pletka, distinguished senior fellow in foreign policy and defense studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank.

“By itself, architecturally, it’s a great deal,” Pletka says. “Execution-wise, there is nothing to it. But of course, that’s not Donald Trump’s problem. That’s the problem with every single deal that’s ever taken place in the Middle East that has involved the Palestinians, that has involved terrorist organizations, which is, execution doesn’t happen. The ceasefire is already falling apart. I suspect that the rest of this goes in fits and starts — fundamentally nowhere.”

She also believes that the deal would not have happened had Israel not bombed a site in Qatar where it thought Hamas leaders had gathered.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nicholaskralev.substack.com

Educated everyday people, not members of the elite or foreign-policy experts, share their views.

The United States still receives more attention by the world’s media than any other country, and the average citizen on every continent is fairly well informed about what happens in Washington. What do they think about the Trump administration’s actions in the last nine months, and how are they affected by those actions?

During a recent trip to Europe, I posed these questions to people in several countries, and you can hear the responses of some of them on this episode of “The Diplomacy Podcast.” Not everyone I spoke with agreed to go on the record, and those interviews weren’t recorded.

My conversations took place before Trump announced on Oct. 9 that Israel and Hamas had accepted the first phase of his proposed deal to end the war in Gaza, for which he has won much praise. The Europeans — and one American who has made Austria his home for the last quarter-century — focused on developments in the United States and Trump’s handling of Europe, and didn’t discuss his Middle East policies.

I plan to travel to the Middle East and other parts of the world in the coming months, as I wrote in September, so you will hear from people there as well on future episodes.

Watch or listen to this episode above, or on one of these platforms: YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nicholaskralev.substack.com

Guest: Michael O'Hanlon, chair in defense and strategy at the Brookings Institution.

Understanding the relationship between diplomacy and military force is essential in designing and implementing national security policy. At a time of domestic deployments of armed service members and a breakdown of the traditional interagency policy process created after World War II, what are the dynamics in that relationship?

On this episode of “The Diplomacy Podcast,” we discuss the state of the U.S. defense posture more than seven months into the second Trump administration. My guest is Michael O’Hanlon, director of foreign policy research and chair in defense and strategy at the Brookings Institution.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nicholaskralev.substack.com

Guest: Gabrielius Landsbergis, former foreign minister of Lithuania.

The relationship between the United States and Europe has been quite shaken in the last seven month — from diverging worldviews to disagreements about Russia to punishing tariffs. How do things look from Europe?

On this episode of “The Diplomacy Podcast,” we discuss the impact of the Trump administration’s policies and actions on transatlantic relations. My guest is Gabrielius Landsbergis, who served as Lithuania’s foreign minister from 2020 to 2024.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nicholaskralev.substack.com

Guest: Elizabeth Saunders, professor of political science at Columbia University.

The U.S. Supreme Court surprised many constitutional lawyers last summer, when it granted presidents “absolute immunity” for their official acts. How has that ruling affected foreign-policy decisions in the first six months of the second Trump administration?

On this episode of “The Diplomacy Podcast,” we discuss the impact of the high court’s decision on the checks and constraints on executive power that have long existed in the U.S. democratic system.

My guest is Elizabeth Saunders, professor of political science at Columbia University. Having studied the gradual weakening of those checks over decades, she concludes that the 2024 ruling “essentially unbounds the presidency from the constraints of the law.”

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nicholaskralev.substack.com

Guest: Chas Freeman, former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia and assistant secretary of defense.

No other country in history has achieved the level of soft power the United States enjoyed for decades, with a peak in the early 1990s. Even more significant was the potent combination of military, economic and soft power, as I noted last month. That combination enabled Washington to organize and manage the world to its own liking.

On this episode of “The Diplomacy Podcast,” we discuss the factors that helped the United States become the world’s undisputed hegemon and consider the future of its role on the global stage. My guest is Ambassador Chas Freeman, a former career diplomat for three decades.

Freeman, who also served as deputy chief of mission in China and Thailand, says that U.S. diplomacy has been replaced by “outright bullying.”

He also argues that the Trump administration’s policies are quickly killing U.S. economic power, and military power will soon be the only one of three left. Soft power predisposes others to follow your lead and “inculcates trust,” he says. “We had that for much of the Cold War, and even our adversaries admired our diplomacy.”

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nicholaskralev.substack.com

What do the collapse of U.S. policymaking and gutting the NSC mean for Americans' safety?

The Trump White House has slashed the staff of the National Security Council, whose role is to coordinate policymaking, by more than half. Deliberation of policy options barely exists, and it’s not clear who — if anyone — advises the president.

On this episode of "The Diplomacy Podcast," we discuss the recent NSC purge and its implications for Americans’ safety and security, with Ambassador Cindy Courville, a former NSC senior director for African affairs. She was also the first U.S. ambassador to the African Union.

She offers insight into how the "interagency process," which is essential in a democracy but has been largely abandoned, helped presidents make difficult and highly consequential decisions for decades.

Courville, who worked in the George W. Bush White House as a civil servant detailed from the Defense Intelligence Agency, also talks about what the loss of significant national security expertise means in practice.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nicholaskralev.substack.com

Rare insight from one of the architects of U.S. post-Cold War policy in Europe.

As the Russia-Ukraine conflict risks becoming the latest forgotten war, a major reason is the deadlock in diplomatic efforts to end it. On this episode of "The Diplomacy Podcast," we discuss the state of diplomacy five months into the second Trump administration with Ambassador Daniel Fried, a 40-year Foreign Service veteran.

With expert insight and a rare ability to explain complex matters in plain English, Fried assesses Trump's attempt to "stop the killing" so far. Fried is a former assistant U.S. secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs and former senior director for Europe at the National Security Council.

Drawing on his decades of experience working with both Russian and Ukrainian officials, Fried shares some of the rules he developed when dealing with them. He also reflects on the war's origins and evaluates the prospects for diplomatic success.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nicholaskralev.substack.com