American Diplomat

Most of us are not born with leadership skills, explains Marc Grossman, one of the highest-ranking career Foreign Service Officers ever. We learn to become leaders. We fail a lot, we pick ourselves up and knock on more doors, and we learn. (Laura loves this episode and is now ready to take over the world.)

In helping stabilize failing states, what do you do about disaffected, potentially dangerous citizens? How do you help citizens own their country's peace? Keith Mines, now with the U.S. Institute of Peace, is back with more on nation building. Laura's favorite takeaway: A good leader is empathetic.

Eric Rubin, President of the Foreign Service Officers' "union", compares the treatment of Foreign Service Officers during the McCarthy era and support that is available today, during "the biggest political battle of a generation."

And why is it a bad word? How could Thailand kill 40 million chickens without a state? Former Foreign Service Officer Keith Mines, now with the U.S. Institute of Peace, explains all of this and why we care, drawing on his vast political, military, economic, and humanitarian nation-building experience.

Laura's Foreign Service Test, finally. Did she pass? Did she live? Were the questions fair? Were the examiners fair? Pete and Dave Rabadan are tough. Was Laura tough enough?

Pete sends Phil Chicola to guerrilla country to investigate the deaths of American linguist missionaries, and both Pete and Phil are accused of negotiating with the FARC. All of this concurrent with the Clinton impeachment, and as Pete explains, it got ugly. Especially with Baby Huey.

It is the 1950s. Senator Joseph McCarthy and his henchman Roy Cohn target and humiliate our diplomats for accurately reporting an eventual Mao victory in China. Jack Service and his family are at the center of the storm. How are things different today?

Shari Villarosa, Chargé in Myanmar, helps us understand why the leader of Myanmar, Aung Sun Suu Kyi, who was once awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, did not stop the genocide of the resident minority group Rohingya.

Pete quickly parses recent events in Iran for Laura. (Please note that we recorded this the day before the Ukrainian jet went down). As international news gets weirder and weirder, Pete and Laura will offer brief breakdowns of events in our new bonus series called The Sidebar, in addition to our usual weekly discussions with diplomats. Cheers!

Why is public diplomacy especially important in Mexico? Mi casa es su casa, or put another way, we have 35 million US citizens of Mexican heritage, a 2000 mile border, 1 million people going in both directions over the border every day, and billions of dollars in trade annually. So you'd better get it right. And what about all those tweets? Tony Wayne illuminates, and offers the best music Laura thinks we've ever had on the show!