
Diplomatic Immunity
Diplomatic Immunity: Frank and candid conversations about diplomacy and foreign affairs
Diplomatic Immunity is a podcast from the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University. We bring you "frank and candid" conversations on the issues facing diplomats and national security decision makers globally. We talk to current and former diplomatic officials, scholars, and analysts and seek to understand how best to foster international cooperation in an age of global crises.
Hosted by Dr. Kelly McFarland
Produced by Freddie Mallinson and Jarrett Dang
Design by Rebecca McFarland and Alistair Somerville
Music by Gabe Swarts
This podcast is supported by funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York's Bridging the Gap Initiative.
Latest episodes

May 5, 2021 • 59min
Part 3: Revolution, Transition, and Collapse in Yemen - Diplomacy and the Arab Spring at 10
Yemen: A conversation about the Arab Spring and its aftermath between Ambassador Jerry Feierstein and Yemeni scholar Ibrahim Jalal. Presented by Kelly McFarland and Alistair Somerville. Additional commentary from Ambassador Barbara Bodine, Tamara Cofman Wittes, and Rita Stephan. Part 3 of a Diplomatic Immunity mini-series, Diplomacy and the Arab Spring at 10 - Origins and Legacies of Revolution Listen to Part 2, Egypt: https://diplomaticimmunity.libsyn.com/part-2-tahrir-square-and-beyond Listen to Part 1, Tunisia: https://diplomaticimmunity.libsyn.com/part-1-the-tunisian-people-have-spoken-diplomacy-and-the-arab-spring-at-10 Diplomatic Immunity, a podcast from the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, brings you frank and candid conversations with experts on the issues facing diplomats and national security decision makers around the world. Produced by Alistair Somerville and Kelly McFarland Production assistance by Jonas Heering Design by Rebecca McFarland, Jonas Heering, and Alistair Somerville Additional audio from Julius H on Pixabay, the Free Music Archive, and Surhofi Rita Stephan's new co-edited volume, Women Rising: In and Beyond the Arab Spring, is available here: https://nyupress.org/9781479846641/women-rising/

Apr 28, 2021 • 42min
Part 2: Tahrir Square and Beyond - Diplomacy and the Arab Spring at 10
Egypt: A conversation about the Arab Spring and its aftermath between Ambassador Anne Patterson and Mohammed Soliman. Presented by Kelly McFarland and Alistair Somerville. Additional commentary from Tamara Cofman Wittes and Rita Stephan. Part 2 of a Diplomatic Immunity mini-series, Diplomacy and the Arab Spring at 10 - Origins and Legacies of Revolution Diplomatic Immunity, a podcast from the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, brings you frank and candid conversations with experts on the issues facing diplomats and national security decision makers around the world. Listen to Part 1, Tunisia: https://diplomaticimmunity.libsyn.com/part-1-the-tunisian-people-have-spoken-diplomacy-and-the-arab-spring-at-10 Produced by Alistair Somerville and Kelly McFarland Production assistance by Jonas Heering Design by Rebecca McFarland, Jonas Heering, and Alistair Somerville Additional audio from Voice of America, Julius H on Pixabay, the Free Music Archive, and Surhofi Rita Stephan's new co-edited volume, Women Rising: In and Beyond the Arab Spring, is available here: https://nyupress.org/9781479846641/women-rising/

Apr 21, 2021 • 46min
Part 1: "The Tunisian People Have Spoken" - Diplomacy and the Arab Spring at 10
Tunisia: A conversation between Ambassador Gordon Gray and Youssef Cherif. Presented by Kelly McFarland and Alistair Somerville. Additional commentary from Tamara Cofman Wittes. Part 1 of a Diplomatic Immunity mini-series, Diplomacy and the Arab Spring at 10 - Origins and Legacies of Revolution Diplomatic Immunity, a podcast from the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, brings you frank and candid conversations with experts on the issues facing diplomats and national security decision makers around the world. Produced by Alistair Somerville and Kelly McFarland Production assistance by Jonas Heering Design by Rebecca McFarland, Jonas Heering, and Alistair Somerville Additional audio from Voice of America, the Obama White House, Julius H on Pixabay, the Free Music Archive, and Soft and Furious

Apr 14, 2021 • 2min
Diplomacy and the Arab Spring at 10 - Trailer
A new mini-series from Diplomatic Immunity: Diplomacy and the Arab Spring at 10 - Origins and Legacies of Revolution, launching April 21st. Diplomatic Immunity, a new podcast from the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, brings you frank and candid conversations with experts on the issues facing diplomats and national security decision makers around the world. Produced by Alistair Somerville and Kelly McFarland Production assistance by Jonas Heering Design by Rebecca McFarland, Jonas Heering, and Alistair Somerville Music by Julius H/Pixabay

Mar 24, 2021 • 23min
The Power of Inclusion with Mirembe Nantongo
Diplomatic Immunity: Frank and candid conversations about diplomacy and foreign affairs Diplomatic Immunity, a podcast from the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, brings you frank and candid conversations with experts on the issues facing diplomats and national security decision-makers around the world. For more, visit our website, follow us on Twitter @GUDiplomacy or send us an email to diplomacy@georgetown.edu. Season 2, Episode 5: Mirembe Nantongo, who recently retired from the Foreign Service as a deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of Global Talent Management, spoke with ISD Rusk Fellow Heera Kamboj, as part of ISD's Diverse Diplomacy Series, to discuss her Foreign Service career and her perspective on diversity and inclusion at the State Department. Episode recorded: March 4th, 2020. Watch the full event video and learn more about the series: https://www.diversediplomacy.com/

Mar 10, 2021 • 36min
Time, Space, Plus: Applied Diplomatic History with Susie Colbourn and Simon Miles
Diplomatic Immunity: Frank and candid conversations about diplomacy and foreign affairs Diplomatic Immunity, a podcast from the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, brings you frank and candid conversations with experts on the issues facing diplomats and national security decision-makers around the world. For more, visit our website, and follow us on Twitter @GUDiplomacy. Send any feedback to diplomacy@georgetown.edu. Season 2, Episode 4: Kelly McFarland talks to Dr. Susie Colbourn and Dr. Simon Miles about applied history and lessons from diplomacy past. A husband and wife diplomatic historian duo from Canada, Simon and Susie are both astute observers of Cold War history. They also have an eye toward the present in their work, and the lessons citizens and policymakers can draw from history. Simon is an assistant professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy, and the Departments of History and Slavic & Eurasian Studies at Duke University and author of Engaging the Evil Empire: Washington, Moscow, and the Beginning of the End of the Cold War. Susie is a DAAD post-doctoral fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute of Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. She is co-editor with Timothy Andrews Sayle of The Nuclear North: Histories of Canada in the Atomic Age and author of the forthcoming Euromissiles: A Transatlantic History. In the episode, among other topics, we discussed about the overlooked history of the early Reagan administration, cycles of NATO history, and Simon's concept of "time, space, plus," which he uses to to engage his students to help them think historically. We also talked about Susie's current research and her work as editor of the "Lessons of History" section in International Journal. Featured books and articles: Margaret MacMillan, The Uses and Abuses of History Barbara Tuchman, The Guns of August Alexandra Evans, "Thinking in Napoleonic Times: Historical Warnings for an Era of Great-Power Competition," War on the Rocks Episode recorded: Friday, January 29th, 2021.

Feb 24, 2021 • 30min
Diplomacy and Global Health with Claire Standley
Diplomatic Immunity: Frank and candid conversations about diplomacy and foreign affairs Diplomatic Immunity, a podcast from the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, brings you frank and candid conversations with experts on the issues facing diplomats and national security decision-makers around the world. For more, visit our website, and follow us on Twitter @GUDiplomacy. Send any feedback to diplomacy@georgetown.edu. Season 2, Episode 3: Kelly McFarland and Alistair Somerville talk to Dr. Claire Standley, Assistant Research Professor at Georgetown's Center for Global Health Science and Security and the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, about the need building local and international health systems, lessons from Ebola, and the nexus between theory and practice in global health security and diplomacy. Claire also reflects on her experience as a Science & Technology Policy Fellow at the State Department. Claire's ISD case study, The 2014-2015 West Africa Ebola Outbreak: The Diplomacy of Response and Recovery in Guinea. More from the Georgetown Center for Global Health Science and Security: https://ghss.georgetown.edu/covid19/ Episode recorded: February 4th, 2021. Update recorded: February 18th, 2021.

Feb 10, 2021 • 39min
U.S.-Iran Relations with Ambassador Stephen Mull
Diplomatic Immunity: Frank and candid conversations about diplomacy and foreign affairs Diplomatic Immunity, a podcast from the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, brings you frank and candid conversations with experts on the issues facing diplomats and national security decision-makers around the world. For more, visit our website, and follow us on Twitter @GUDiplomacy. Send any feedback to diplomacy@georgetown.edu. Season 2, Episode 2: Kelly McFarland and ISD Rusk Fellow Heera Kamboj talk to Ambassador Stephen Mull, Vice Provost for Global Affairs at the University of Virginia, who served as Coordinator for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) at the State Department from 2015 to 2017. He was also a career Foreign Service Officer. They discuss next steps for U.S.-Iran policy, State Department reform, and the bridge between the academic and policy worlds. Featured articles: James Jeffrey, "Biden Doesn't Need a New Middle East Policy," Foreign Affairs, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/middle-east/2021-01-15/biden-doesnt-need-new-middle-east-policy William J. Burns and Linda Thomas-Greenfield, "The Transformation of Diplomacy," Foreign Affairs, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2020-09-23/diplomacy-transformation Episode recorded: January 21st, 2021.

Jan 27, 2021 • 32min
An End to Empty Seat Diplomacy? with Arsalan Suleman
Diplomatic Immunity: Frank and candid conversations about diplomacy and foreign affairs Diplomatic Immunity, a podcast from the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, brings you frank and candid conversations with experts on the issues facing diplomats and national security decision-makers around the world. For more, visit our website, and follow us on Twitter @GUDiplomacy. Send any feedback to diplomacy@georgetown.edu. Season 2, Episode 1: Kelly McFarland talks to Arsalan Suleman, ISD non-resident fellow, international lawyer at Foley Hoag, and former acting U.S. special envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation during the Obama administration. They discuss prospects for State Department reform, the role of political appointees at the State Department, U.S. abdication of global leadership under President Trump, and Arsalan's human rights work representing the Gambia in the International Court of Justice. Read Arsalan's piece in the SAIS Review of International Affairs, "Empty Seat Diplomacy: How America Surrendered Its Diplomatic Advantage, and How It Can Bounce Back": https://muse.jhu.edu/article/763652/summary Also featured: A recent Council on Foreign Relations report, "Revitalizing the State Department and American Diplomacy": https://www.cfr.org/report/revitalizing-state-department-and-american-diplomacy Episode recorded: December 18th, 2020.

Dec 16, 2020 • 35min
Power on the Precipice with Andrew Imbrie
Diplomatic Immunity: Frank and candid conversations about diplomacy and foreign affairs Diplomatic Immunity, a podcast from the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, brings you frank and candid conversations with experts on the issues facing diplomats and national security decision-makers around the world. For more, visit our website, follow us on Twitter @GUDiplomacy. Send any feedback to diplomacy@georgetown.edu. Episode 7: Kelly McFarland talks to Andrew Imbrie, senior fellow at the Center for Security and Emerging Technology at Georgetown University, about his new book, Power on the Precipice: The Six Choices America Faces in a Turbulent World and the future of U.S. grand strategy in historical perspective. Power on the Precipice: The Six Choices America Faces in a Turbulent World: https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300243505/power-precipice Episode recorded: December 4th, 2020.