This week on The Diplomat, we look at how some democracies are quietly reshaping themselves under pressure. Jonathan Katz, an anti-corruption and democracy expert, from the Brookings Institution explains why Moldova is moving forward while Ukraine, Tunisia, and others are struggling to keep reform alive. From strategic corruption to AI-fueled disinformation, this episode reveals how democracy can slip away in silence, and why that matters now more than ever.
In this episode of The Diplomat, Dr. Kenneth Pollack joins Joe Kawly to map what comes next:
Iran is retrenching, Israel is recalibrating, and Gulf capitals are quietly rewriting the rules of power?
Pollack has been inside the CIA, briefed U.S. presidents, and watched the Middle East reinvent itself through war, diplomacy, and everything in between.
From Tehran’s post-war caution to Washington’s search for deals, and Saudi Arabia’s strategic flexibility between the U.S., China, and Iran, this is a rare look inside how power is being redistributed across the Middle East. A must-listen for anyone trying to understand where this region is heading after Gaza, after the Iran war, and before whatever comes next.
He served under three U.S. presidents, shaped policy on the Middle East and Latin America, and was America’s special envoy for both Iran and Venezuela.
In this episode of The Diplomat, Elliott Abrams joins Joe Kawly to assess whether Iran’s influence across the region is truly weakening or if that is just an illusion. From Hezbollah’s arsenal in Lebanon to Gaza’s uncertain future and the so-called Iran Russia China axis, Abrams explains where U.S. strategy meets Middle East reality.
A must-listen for anyone interested in U.S. foreign policy, Iran’s regional network, and the future of diplomacy in a fractured Middle East.
Elliott Abrams has spent decades inside the highest levels of U.S. foreign policy. In this conversation, he delivers an unfiltered take on Iran’s vulnerabilities, Hezbollah’s weapons, and the political choices facing Washington in Gaza and beyond.
In this episode, Abrams and host Joe Kawly explore:
• Whether Hezbollah is truly weakening under pressure
• Why the Iran Russia China axis is more illusion than alliance
• The political future of Gaza and the risks of displacement
• Why U.S. credibility still hinges on human rights
This episode reveals the opportunities and dangers that could define America’s role in the Middle East for years to come.
He warned NATO about Russia long before the tanks rolled into Ukraine and built one of the world’s most advanced digital societies from a country once dismissed as a “former Soviet republic.”
In this episode of The Diplomat, former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves joins Joe Kawly to reveal how ignorance, prejudice, and misplaced faith in dialogue left NATO exposed and how Estonia turned technology into a tool of national survival.
From cyberattacks that shut down his country to diplomatic battles over language and perception, Ilves offers a rare inside look at how small states survive in a world shaped by bigger powers’ blind spots.
A must-listen for anyone interested in NATO, Russia, cybersecurity, and the hidden rules of diplomacy in dangerous times.
He advised U.S. presidents, negotiated peace deals, and shaped Washington's Middle East policy from the inside.
In this episode of The Diplomat, veteran peace negotiator Aaron David Miller joins Joe Kawly to explain how domestic politics, evangelical support, and deep-rooted alliances continue to shape America’s policy on Israel and Gaza. From the Trump-Netanyahu partnership to the silence on civilian suffering, this conversation breaks down what drives U.S. diplomacy today.
A must-listen for anyone interested in U.S. foreign policy, Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, and the political dynamics influencing American decisions in the Middle East.
What happens when the truth comes too early, and no one listens?
He wrote the memo that warned the Iraq war could ignite a regional storm. Then he was sent into the storm.
In this episode of The Diplomat, Ambassador James Jeffrey reflects on what Washington refused to see, from Iraq’s fragile sovereignty to the myth of unlimited U.S. support. Joe Kawly pulls back the curtain on the delicate line between blunt honesty and diplomatic risk.
This is not a history lesson. It’s what happens when diplomacy runs up against denial.
Perfect for listeners who follow geopolitics, U.S. foreign policy, or still ask: how did we get here?
What happens when war creeps to your doorstep, and you’re the one sent to hold the line?
In this episode of The Diplomat, Ambassador Douglas Silliman tells the untold stories of his time in Kuwait and Iraq. From covert smuggling routes to tense backroom talks, this is the kind of diplomacy that never makes the news, but changes everything.
Host and Producer Joe Kawly brings you into the conversations that happened off-mic.
Perfect for listeners who follow geopolitics, foreign policy, or just want to know what really happened after Mosul.
Former U.S. Ambassador David Shinn offers rare insights into the shifting dynamics of the Horn of Africa.
In this exclusive podcast interview, he unpacks U.S. policy, regional rivalries, and the road ahead.
From nuclear red lines to backchannel diplomacy, Eyal Hulata was at the heart of Israel’s national security strategy during some of its most delicate moments.
In this episode of The Diplomat, Hulata speaks openly about covert strikes on Iran, the maritime deal with Lebanon, and the sentence that made him a political target. From secret mediation between Moscow and Kyiv to standing in Bahrain and reciting “Women. Life. Freedom.” in three languages—this isn’t just a conversation about security. It’s about message discipline in a region where silence is sometimes the loudest statement. Joe Kawly pulls back the curtain on the hidden messages behind official statements—and what it means when Israel chooses to speak first.
“We were not careful in Lebanon.” With that quiet indictment, former U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker begins a story that doesn’t read like memoirs, but like real lessons from the heart of war.
In this episode of The Diplomat, Crocker recounts surviving the 1983 U.S. Embassy bombing in Beirut, exposing how Syria used terror as a foreign policy tool, and warning why Bashar al-Assad was never the reformer the West wanted to believe.
From the disillusionment in Iraq—“We weren’t seen as liberators”—to the chaos of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, Crocker draws a map of where American strategy unraveled. His lesson? Wars begin in politics. And they end in politics.
This is a story about what it means to stay when others leave, speak when others fall silent, and learn from failure without flinching.
Behind every nuclear crisis is a pattern of overlooked loopholes, ignored warnings, and political blind spots. From civilian cover stories to strategic exceptions, Henry Sokolski has spent four decades warning about the cracks in the global nonproliferation system.
In this episode of The Diplomat, Sokolski explains how enrichment and reprocessing became normalized under the guise of peaceful energy, and why those loopholes remain the greatest threat to nuclear restraint today. He challenges the double standards applied to Israel and Iran, dissects the illusions of deterrence in a multipolar world, and warns what it would really mean for the Middle East to go nuclear.
This episode doesn’t predict war… it warns of the quiet road that leads to it.
In December 2010, a fruit vendor’s act of protest sparked a revolution. Weeks later, Tunisia’s longtime dictator fled the country—and at the center of it all was Gordon Gray, the U.S. ambassador whose private cables pulled no punches about what was really happening on the ground.
In this third episode of The Diplomat, Gray reflects on the moment when honesty turned explosive, what it means to listen instead of impose, and why diplomats today should be more careful with words like “red line” than ever before.
When former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Francis Ricciardone spoke up about freedom of expression in 2013, it wasn’t meant to ignite a firestorm. But the backlash was swift, and the accusations - explosive. In this premiere episode of The Diplomat, we explore the thin line between diplomacy and provocation, and how one sentence turned into a geopolitical flashpoint. Amb. Ricciardone opens up about Gezi Park, the weight of words, and why empathy, not just strategy, might be diplomacy’s most underused tool.
From the Israeli withdrawal from South Lebanon in 2000 to the looming famine in Gaza in 2024, Ambassador David Satterfield has been in the room where decisions are made—but rarely discussed. In this first episode of The Diplomat, Satterfield reveals how Hafez al-Assad tried to sabotage Israel’s withdrawal by leveraging Hezbollah, how Syria blocked Lebanese cooperation with the UN, and why the crisis in Gaza is not just humanitarian—but political.