The World Unpacked

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

Jen Psaki and the New Yorker’s Evan Osnos discuss the U.S. midterm elections, how the new Congress will affect U.S. policy abroad, and what the results suggest about the 2020 presidential contest. 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 Evan Osnos: https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/evan-osnos

Jen’s former boss John Kerry joins her to talk about his time as Secretary of State, and his new memoir, Every Day is Extra. They discuss the future of an Israel-Palestine peace deal, his disagreement with President Obama over Syria, and the U.S.-Russia relationship. John Kerry is a visiting distinguished statesman at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. 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 John Kerry: http://carnegieendowment.org/experts/1364 More about Every Day is Extra: http://carnegieendowment.org/2018/09/04/every-day-is-extra-pub-77124

President Trump surprised foreign policy experts when he pulled out of the INF Treaty last week, raising the prospect of a new nuclear arms race. Jen talks to Russian nuclear policy expert Alexey Arbatov and Carnegie’s Eugene Rumer to explain what’s at stake. Eugene Rumer is a senior fellow and the director of Carnegie’s Russia and Eurasia Program. Alexey Arbatov is the head of the Center for International Security at the Primakov National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations. 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 Alexey’s take on the danger of withdrawing from the INF Treaty: https://carnegie.ru/commentary/77589 Read Carnegie experts on the prospect of an arms race: https://carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/77575 Read Carnegie expert Dmitri Trenin on INF withdrawal: https://carnegie.ru/commentary/77568 More about Eugene Rumer: http://carnegieendowment.org/experts/917 More about Alexei Arbatov: https://carnegie.ru/commentary/experts/367

Former UN high commissioner for human rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein has been an outspoken critic of human rights abusers, including of those in power. He sat down with guest host Jarrett Blanc to talk about the death of Jamal Khashoggi, the war in Yemen, the future of the Middle East, and the false promise that undemocratic leaders will bring about lasting freedom for their people. Jarrett Blanc is a senior fellow in the Geoeconomics and Strategy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein served as United Nations high commissioner for human rights from 2014 to 2018. He is the sixth high commissioner to lead the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the first Asian, Muslim, and Arab to do so. 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 Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/AboutUs/Pages/Zeid.aspx Follow him on Twitter: twitter.com/Raad_Zeid More about Jarrett Blanc: http://carnegieendowment.org/experts/1343 Follow Jarrett on Twitter: twitter.com/JarrettBlanc