American Diplomat

Trump has led a relentless attack on Diversity Equity and Inclusion, saying it undermines a meritocracy. Former State DEI chief Ambassador Gina Abercrombie Winstanley asserts that equity and inclusion are simply effective management tools for molding smart teams. You be the judge.

And why does it matter how regular South Africans feel about US behavior toward their country?  Ambassador Charlie Ray untangles the powerful dynamics within South Africa domestically and vis-a-vis the United States, and helps us understand what this means for our present and future.  Plus:  It's up to us to create our world and it all starts with voting.  Always vote!

What happens when the US washes its hands of its international obligations?  Ambassador Mike Polt, Co-Founder of ASU’s Leadership, Diplomacy and National Security Lab, views our president as our chief diplomat and calls the Zelensky-Trump Oval Office meeting a pivotal moment.  We have humiliated the rest of the world, including our friends.  Now what?

A foreign policy grandmaster strategist? Or is our president guided simply by whim and spite, without a cohesive plan? Pete and Laura break it down. You be the judge.

Tony Wayne, former Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs and US Ambassador to Mexico, pulls apart the strands.  First, what is an import?  How many times would you guess a raw material or auto part crosses a Canadian or Mexican border in the process of making and assembling a car?  4?  5? Each crossing carries a 25% tariff.  That’s a lot of crossings!  And a whole lot of tariffs!  And the point?  To make our neighbors tougher on smuggling into the US things we don’t want such as fentanyl.  But the drug trade runs two ways, depending largely on American-made guns that cross into Mexico.  All three countries must work together or everyone loses.  And what’s this about an external revenue service?

Diplomat and Author Edward Fishman reveals how globalization is giving way to zero-sum self-interest. Can we win the emerging economic warfare?  Listen, and read his new book Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare.  

Peace in the Middle East starts in Gaza and the West Bank.  But beautiful parks and fountains and casinos…the Riviera of the Middle East, a beautiful vacation spot in what is now rubble?  And somehow the US would own it.  But what about all those Gazans, walking home along a highway, carrying all of their belongings, some with donkeys, on their way back to rubble.  Enter USAID.  In asymmetric warfare nothing, absolutely nothing, can defeat hearts and minds, and no one can impact those more effectively than USAID, at a minute financial cost.  And this is how you neutralize the seduction of bad actors.

How many "Mar-a-" conquests will there be?  US Ambassador (ret) to Panama John Feeley breaks it all down, with a quick review of the relevant past, and substantive, yet richly candid view of Trump’s foray into the Canal Zone today.  Get smart on what is true and what is not true at all.  

The Arctic is a serious US national security issue. NATO, particularly Denmark, agree and have offered significant resources to better secure the area from China and Russia.  Will Trump accept these or hold out for Mar-a-Greenland?  Can we divide the policy rhetoric from the policy outcomes?  Luke Coffey, former adviser to the British defense minister and prior to that a US service member, now a fellow at the Hudson Institute, knows his brief!  Bonus: Who was Eric the Red?

Was Trump’s big showdown with President Petro of Colombia a show of might and power, or was there another reality behind the smoke and mirrors?  Pete has a thing or two to say about optics, policy and human lives, from the standpoint of the practice of diplomacy.