The World Unpacked

In the latest episode of DiploPod, Jen Psaki sits down with Julia Gurganus to discuss the re-election of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Gurganus is a visiting scholar with the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Program. She has spent the past two decades working in the U.S. intelligence community on issues related to Russia and Eurasia. From 2014 to 2017, she was a national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia, the senior subject matter expert on Eurasia for the director of national intelligence. She is a CIA employee and is at the Carnegie Endowment on a CIA-sponsored sabbatical. The views she expressed are her own and do not reflect the official position or view of the U.S. government or an official release of U.S. government information. (More on Gurganus - http://carnegieendowment.org/experts/1424)

In the latest episode of DiploPod, Jen Psaki sits down with Douglas Paal to discuss the upcoming meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un. They examine what the North Koreans might want from talks, what expectations and concerns regional actors including China, Japan, and South Korea may have, and how Trump’s decision on whether to stick with the Iran nuclear deal could complicate possible diplomacy with Pyongyang. Douglas H. Paal is vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He was an unofficial U.S. representative to Taiwan as director of the American Institute in Taiwan (2002–2006) and on the National Security Council staffs of presidents Reagan and George H. W. Bush between 1986 and 1993 as director of Asian affairs and then as senior director and special assistant to the president. (More on Paal - https://carnegieendowment.org/experts/397)

Jen Psaki sat down this week with Andrei Kolesnikov, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Moscow Center, and Andrew Weiss, the vice president for studies overseeing the Carnegie’s Russia and Eurasia program for the latest episode of DiploPod. They discussed what to expect from the upcoming Russian elections, how President Putin has changed, and the surprising results from a new poll conducted by the Carnegie Moscow Center, in partnership with the Levada Center, about the desire for reform within Russia. Andrei Kolesnikov is a senior fellow and the chair of the Russian Domestic Politics and Political Institutions Program at the Carnegie Moscow Center. His research focuses on the major trends shaping Russian domestic politics, with particular focus on the fallout from the Ukraine crisis and ideological shifts inside Russian society. (More on Kolesnikov - http://carnegie.ru/experts/?fa=1015) Andrew S. Weiss is the James Family Chair and vice president for studies at the Carnegie, where he oversees research in Washington and Moscow on Russia and Eurasia. Prior to joining Carnegie, he was director of the RAND Corporation’s Center for Russia and Eurasia and executive director of the RAND Business Leaders Forum. (More on Weiss - http://carnegieendowment.org/experts/824)

For the first episode of DiploPod this year, Jen Psaki sat down with Jeffrey Feltman, the United Nations under-secretary-general for political affairs, to discuss his December 2017 trip to North Korea, the upcoming talks between North and South Korea, and the role of the United States in those talks. Feltman was the highest level official from the United Nations to meet with officials in North Korea since 2010.

Jen Psaki sat down with Carnegie’s Jake Sullivan and Jarrett Blanc for the final episode of DiploPod of 2017. They discussed the status of the Iran deal, including what U.S. President Donald Trump may do next year, what is happening in Congress, and how U.S. global partners are reacting to the uncertainty over the future of the deal. Jake Sullivan is a senior fellow in Carnegie’s Geoeconomics and Strategy Program and a Martin R. Flug Visiting lecturer in law at Yale Law School. Sullivan served in the Obama administration as national security adviser to Vice President Joe Biden and director of policy planning at the U.S. Department of State, as well as deputy chief of staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. (More on Sullivan - http://carnegieendowment.org/experts/1335) Jarrett Blanc is a senior fellow in Carnegie's Geoeconomics and Strategy Program. Blanc was previously the deputy lead coordinator and State Department coordinator for Iran nuclear implementation at the U.S. Department of State under President Obama, responsible for the full and effective implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Iran’s nuclear program, including Iranian and U.S. commitments on sanctions. (More on Blanc - http://carnegieendowment.org/experts/1343)​​

In a special episode of Diplopod, Jen Psaki sat down with the outgoing Director of the National Counterterrorism Center and former Carnegie junior fellow Nick Rasmussen. They discussed how the threats facing the United States have changed since September 11th, whether the U.S. government is the most effective voice for combatting extremism online, and what social media companies should do to address the threat of terrorism.

Earlier this week Jen Psaki sat down with the former acting director of the CIA, Michael Morell, for a conversation about North Korea and the nuclear threat. Tune in to hear their discussion on what Morell would recommend to U.S. President Donald Trump, why he thinks we the United States should consider options that take into account the possibility that North Korea’s has the capacity to reach the U.S. mainland with a nuclear weapon, and whether or not he agrees with U.S. National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster that deterrence won’t work with North Korea.

In the second episode of DiploPod, Jen Psaki spoke with Paul Haenle¸ the director of the Carnegie–Tsinghua Center. The wide ranging conversation, coming on the heels of President Trump’s trip to Asia, focused on the view from Beijing of the North Korean nuclear threat including what actions would constitute a red line for the Chinese government, whether the United States and China are aligned on their objectives on the Korean peninsula, and how the approach of the current North Korean leadership has dramatically changed from the past leaders. Paul previously served as the White House representative to the U.S. negotiating team at the six-party-talks nuclear negotiations during the end of the Bush Administration, and he had been assigned twice to the U.S. embassy in Beijing while serving as a U.S. Army company commander. (More on Haenle - http://carnegietsinghua.org/experts/?fa=490)

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has relaunched our podcast—newly titled “DiploPod”—with the first interview in a series that will run through the end of the year. The series will focus on the dual nuclear threats posed by Iran and North Korea. Dmitri Trenin joins Jen Psaki for a candid discussion about the fallout from Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election, why North Korea may prefer Russia over China as an interlocutor, the view from the Kremlin of President Trump’s threats of military action, and how Russia may benefit from the end of U.S. rapprochement with Iran. Dmitri Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, has been with the center since its inception. He also chairs the research council and the Foreign and Security Policy Program. (More on Trenin - http://carnegie.ru/experts/?fa=287)

Carnegie Visiting Senior Fellow and former White House chief of staff Denis McDonough joined Tom Carver for a wide-ranging conversation, including reflections on his time as White House chief of staff during U.S. President Barack Obama, his views on the future of U.S. leadership in the world, and his thoughts on addressing the skills gap in the U.S. workforce, particularly in the face of rapidly advancing technological innovation. Denis McDonough is a visiting senior fellow in Carnegie’s Technology and International Affairs Program. Previously, he served as White House chief of staff for President Obama’s second term, managing the four thousand member White House staff, as well as cabinet secretaries and agency leaders. - http://carnegieendowment.org/experts/1329