American Diplomacy - a podcast by Justin Ahn

A world tour of problems, and America's role in causing and resolving them.

• An incoherent strategy of navigating rivalries in the Middle East, in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan, as a war on terror overlaps with allegiances to governments like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan


• China's internal oppression and consolidation of power in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong; as well as a hunger for international influence, through an investment plan called the Belt and Road initiative that builds soft power


• A rise of far right-wing authoritarianism in Poland, Hungary, Germany, and the UK; the continuation of such a regime in Putin's Russia, where the Alexei Navalny controversy continues.

America, despite many mistakes, is holding the global liberal democratic order together. America cannot give up on diplomacy, and must be a problem solver with a broad reach. For this, the Foreign Service and State Department must be valued and listened to in government, as Ronan Farrow's book "War on Peace" argues.

Further episodes of Between the Headlines

Further podcasts by Justin Ahn

Website of Justin Ahn