The World Unpacked

After the historic defeat of Theresa May’s Brexit deal, Jen talks to Carnegie expert Peter Kellner about what happened and what’s next for the United Kingdom. Peter Kellner is a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe, where his research focuses on Brexit, populism, and electoral democracy. Go Deeper: Read Peter's take on what's coming next for Theresa May. Learn more about Peter Kellner.

As the United States adopts an increasingly confrontational international posture, the ties between Russia and China are deepening. Should the West be concerned? Jen talks to Carnegie Moscow expert Alexander Gabuev about what’s bringing them together, and the consequences for the United States. Go Deeper: Read Sasha's piece on how U.S. policies are pushing Russia and China closer together.

Jen talks to Jake Sullivan about why he wants to reclaim the idea of American exceptionalism and how the next president can restore American global influence. Jake Sullivan is a nonresident senior fellow in Carnegie's Geoeconomics and Strategy Program. Read his piece in the Atlantic, "What Donald Trump and Dick Cheney Got Wrong About America."

Jen talks to Carnegie experts Jarrett Blanc, Kate Charlet, and Karim Sadjadpour about the most important events of 2018 and what to look for in the year ahead. Jarrett Blanc is a senior fellow in the Geoeconomics and Strategy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is an expert on sanctions, as well as Afghanistan. Katherine Charlet is the inaugural director of Carnegie’s Technology and International Affairs Program. She works primarily on the security and international implications of evolving technologies, with a focus on cybersecurity and cyber conflict, biotechnology, and artificial intelligence. Karim Sadjadpour is a senior fellow at Carnegie, where he focuses on Iran and U.S. foreign policy toward the Middle East. We want to hear from you! Write to us at diplopod@ceip.org, or call us at 202-939-2247. Leave us a voicemail and we might use your question on a future episode. You can also talk to us on Twitter using #DiploPod. And follow Jen on Twitter.

After the 2016 election, there are significant questions about whether America’s role in the world and our foreign policy are helping the American middle class. Carnegie expert Salman Ahmed has spent the last year focusing on how American foreign policy decisions on trade, defense, and more impacts Ohio. Today, Jen talks with him about his work, what he learned, and how his views have changed. Salman Ahmed is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he focuses on the future of U.S. national security strategy and its role in promoting national economic interests. Read his report on how foreign policy decisions impact the middle class in Ohio. We want to hear from you! Write to us at diplopod@ceip.org, or call us at 202-939-2247. Leave us a voicemail and we might use your question on a future episode. You can also talk to us on Twitter using #DiploPod. And follow Jen on Twitter. Go Deeper: Watch former White House chiefs of staff Joshua Bolten and Denis McDonough discuss how U.S. foreign policymakers can do better for the middle class

This week we’re digging into NATO—what it is, how it’s changed, and where it’s headed. Today, Jen talks to Simon Gass, who served as NATO’s senior civilian representative to Afghanistan. They discuss what NATO brings to an operation like Afghanistan, and what it would take to mobilize the alliance again. Don’t miss the first two episodes in this series, and stay tuned for more 101 series in the coming months. Simon Gass is the commandant of the UK's Royal College of Defense Studies, and served as NATO’s senior civilian representative to Afghanistan from 2011 to 2012. We want to hear from you! Write to us at diplopod@ceip.org, or call us at 202-939-2247. Leave us a voicemail and we might use your question on a future episode. You can also talk to us on Twitter using #DiploPod. And follow Jen on Twitter: twitter.com/JRPsaki Go Deeper: More about Simon Gass: https://www.da.mod.uk/about-us/management-team/sir-simon-gass-biography

This week we’re digging into NATO—what it is, how it’s changed, and where it’s headed. Today, Jen talks to Carnegie expert and former Slovak ambassador to NATO, Tomáš Valášek, about how NATO looks from Europe. They discuss Trump’s complaints about NATO funding, what to make of talk of an EU army, and how Russia’s renewed aggression is challenging the alliance. Don’t miss yesterday’s episode on how NATO works, and tune in tomorrow for a conversation about NATO in Afghanistan. Tomáš Valášek is the director of Carnegie Europe, and previously served as permanent representative of the Slovak Republic to NATO. We want to hear from you! Write to us at diplopod@ceip.org, or call us at 202-939-2247. Leave us a voicemail and we might use your question on a future episode. You can also talk to us on Twitter using #DiploPod. And follow Jen on Twitter: twitter.com/JRPsaki Go Deeper: More about Tomáš Valášek: https://carnegieeurope.eu/experts/1336 Read Tomáš‘s take on Trump’s approach to NATO: https://carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/76814

This week we’re digging into NATO—what it is, how it’s changed, and where it’s headed. Today, Jen talks to the former U.S. ambassador to NATO, Doug Lute, about how NATO works, how it changed after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and what it would take to mobilize the alliance again. Tune in over the next two days for the rest of our NATO 101 series. Douglas Lute served as the U.S. permanent representative to the North Atlantic Council, NATO’s standing political body, from 2013 to 2017. We want to hear from you! Write to us at diplopod@ceip.org, or call us at 202-939-2247. Leave us a voicemail and we might use your question on a future episode. You can also talk to us on Twitter using #DiploPod. And follow Jen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/JRPsaki Go Deeper: More about Douglas Lute: https://www.cambridgeglobal.com/douglas-lute/ Read Carnegie expert Judy Dempsey's take on the call for an EU army: https://carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/77703

Indian women are slowly changing the country’s patriarchal political system, starting at the voting booth -- they now turn out to vote at a higher rate than men. What does that mean for next year’s Indian general election? Jen talks to Carnegie expert Milan Vaishnav about women’s growing political power in India. Milan Vaishnav is the director of Carnegie’s South Asia Program. We want to hear from you! Write to us at diplopod@ceip.org, or call us at 202-939-2247. Leave us a voicemail and we might use your question on a future episode. You can also talk to us on Twitter using #DiploPod. And follow Jen on Twitter: twitter.com/JRPsaki Go Deeper: Read Milan’s Q&A on women’s voter turnout in India: http://carnegieendowment.org/p-77677 Read Milan’s article on women’s electoral trends in India: http://carnegieendowment.org/p-77689 More about Milan Vaishnav: http://carnegieendowment.org/experts/714 Follow him on Twitter: twitter.com/MilanV

Trade tensions between Washington and Beijing have escalated throughout 2018. As Trump plans to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 meetings in Argentina this month, Jen talks to Carnegie expert Michael Pettis to sort fact from fiction. Michael Pettis is an expert on China’s economy and a nonresident senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace based in Beijing. We want to hear from you! Write to us at diplopod@ceip.org, or call us at 202-939-2247. Leave us a voicemail and we might use your question on a future episode. You can also talk to us on Twitter using #DiploPod. And follow Jen on Twitter: twitter.com/JRPsaki Go Deeper: Read Michael’s take on China’s best option for responding to a trade war: ceip.org/p-77039 More about Michael Pettis: https://carnegieendowment.org/experts/444