Diplomatic Immunity Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Georgetown University

Season 5, episode 6: Blue helmets have become one of the most visible signs of the UN in the world. These peacekeepers are sent where often nobody else wants to go and asked to accomplish what nobody else often will. After 70 years of service, UN peacekeeping has seen its successes and its well-publicized failures. So in this episode, we took a more thematic approach to multilateralism to look at the role that peacekeeping plays. When did it begin and why? How has it evolved over the years and how effective has it been? How might it change still to meet today's challenges? We discussed these questions and more with peacekeeping expert and Georgetown colleague, Dr. Lise Howard.
Lise Morjé Howard is Professor of Government and Foreign Service at Georgetown University and President of the Academic Council on the United Nations System. Her research and teaching interests span the fields of international relations, comparative politics, and conflict resolution. She has published articles and book chapters about civil wars, peacekeeping, and American foreign policy in many leading journals such as International Organization, International Security, International Studies Quarterly, International Peacekeeping, Global Governance, Foreign Affairs, and Oxford University Press. Her book UN Peacekeeping in Civil Wars (Cambridge University Press 2008), about organizational learning, won the 2010 book award from the Academic Council on the UN System. Her recent book, Power in Peacekeeping (Cambridge University Press 2019) is based on field research in the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lebanon, and Namibia. It won the 2021 book award from the International Security Studies Section of the International Studies Association. 
Dr. Howard earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from UC, Berkeley, and her A.B. in Soviet Studies from Barnard College, Columbia University. She has held yearlong fellowships at Stanford University, Harvard University, and the U.S. Institute of Peace. Dr. Howard is fluent in French and Russian, and speaks some Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, Spanish, and German. Prior to her career in academia, she served as Acting Director of UN Affairs for the New York City Commission for the United Nations.
 
More of Dr. Howard's recent Work:
Power in Peacekeeping (Cambridge University Press 2019)
"The Extraordinary Relationship between Peacekeeping and Peace," Cambridge University Press, November 2020
"The Astonishing Success of Peacekeeping," Foreign Affairs, November 2021.
"The Case for a Security Guarantee for Ukraine," Foreign Affairs, March 2023
 
Episode recorded: December 12, 2022
 
Produced by Daniel Henderson
 
Episode Image: Simulation exercise of a team of Egyptian blue helmets entirely composed of women in Douentza, in the Mopti region. UN Mission in Mali on Flickr
 
Diplomatic Immunity: Frank and candid conversations about diplomacy and foreign affairs
 
Diplomatic Immunity, a podcast from the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, brings you frank and candid conversations with experts on the issues facing diplomats and national security decision-makers around the world. 
 
Funding support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. 
 
For more, visit our website, and follow us on Twitter @GUDiplomacy. Send any feedback to diplomacy@georgetown.edu.
 

Bonus: What, exactly, is AI? What are its applications? Why does it matter for national security and geopolitics? Will machines rise up and destroy us all?! Fellow Hoya Andrew Imbrie discussed these questions and more in a fascinating conversation on his new book, co-authored with Ben Buchannon, titled The New Fire: War, Peace, and Democracy in the Age of AI. Come for the Terminator and Matthew Broderick references, but stay for the essential information Imbrie provides on the future of AI and national security! 
 
Andrew Imbrie is an Associate Professor of the Practice and the Gracias Chair in Security and Emerging Technology at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He is also an Affiliate at Georgetown's Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET). Prior to his current role, he served as a senior advisor on cyber and emerging technology policy at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. He worked previously as a Senior Fellow at CSET, where he focused on issues at the intersection of artificial intelligence and international security and served as an advisor to the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence. From 2013 to 2017, he served as a member of the policy planning staff and speechwriter to Secretary John Kerry at the U.S. Department of State. He has also worked as a professional staff member on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and as a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
He received his B.A. in the humanities from Connecticut College and his M.A. from the Walsh School of Foreign Service. He holds a Ph.D. in international relations from Georgetown University. His writings have appeared in such outlets as Foreign Affairs, War on the Rocks, Lawfare, Survival, Defense One, and On Being. His first book is Power on the Precipice: The Six Choices America Faces in a Turbulent World (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2020). Andrew grew up as the son of a U.S. Foreign Service officer and now resides in Maryland with his wife Teresa Eder, a foreign policy analyst, journalist, and producer.
 
Buy The New Fire: War, Peace, and Democracy in the Age of AI here. (https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262046541/the-new-fire/)
 
Episode recorded: December 2, 2022
 
Produced by Daniel Henderson
 
Episode Image: The New Fire: War, Peace, and Democracy in the Age of AI cover [MIT Press]
 
Diplomatic Immunity: Frank and candid conversations about diplomacy and foreign affairs
 
Diplomatic Immunity, a podcast from the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, brings you frank and candid conversations with experts on the issues facing diplomats and national security decision-makers around the world. 
 
Funding support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. 

Season 5, episode 5. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has posed an existential crisis for numerous multilateral institutions, worsening several ongoing global issues such as food insecurity while also upending the architecture of European Security. Few organizations understand that or deal with that more than the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. For this week's episode, we chatted with Allison Hart, Senior Advisor and Chief of Staff to the OSCE Secretary General, Helga Maria Schmid. She shared how the organization operates, the unique challenge of having one of its member states upend the issue they are most focused on, how they worked to ease tensions between Russia and Ukraine before the invasion, and how they can be part of the solution to the current crisis. 
 
Allison Hart is the Senior Advisor and Chief of Staff to the OSCE Secretary General, Helga Maria Schmid. She took up this role in Vienna in February 2022. Prior to joining the OSCE, Allison served in a number of roles at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, including as Special Advisor to the Deputy Secretary General, Executive Officer of NATO’s Public Diplomacy Division, and most recently as Head of the Human Security Unit. Allison began her career as an entrepreneur in Chicago where she launched and managed two successful businesses before pursuing international relations. In Washington, she coordinated a foreign policy team for a major political campaign and spent several years at The Brookings Institution on projects related to national security and transatlantic relations. 
 
Allison holds a Bachelor of Arts in Middle East Language & Civilization from Northwestern University and a Master of Arts in European Studies & International Economics from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
 
NOTE: Any views expressed are strictly her own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OSCE or any member state.
 
And as a special treat for this episode, the interview was conducted by ISD Dean and Virginia Rusk Fellow Nathanial Haft. Nate Haft is a career Foreign Service Officer. He most recently served as a senior policy advisor on the U.S. delegation to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague. Nate's prior overseas assignments include covering rule of law and counternarcotics issues in Pakistan, human rights in Albania, and consular affairs in Taiwan. In Washington, he served as a multilateral affairs officer in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs. Nate is a recipient of the Thomas R. Pickering Fellowship in Foreign Affairs. Prior to joining the State Department, he was a Peace Corps volunteer in Peru as well as a research assistant at the Brookings Institution. Mr. Haft graduated summa cum laude from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and earned an MPP from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
 
NOTE: While Nate is a career U.S. diplomat, his views are also his own and do not reflect the view of the U.S. State Department or the U.S. government.
 
Episode recorded: March 3, 2023
 
Produced by Daniel Henderson
 
Episode Image: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry sits among his counterparts on December 8, 2016, as he attends a meeting of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. U.S. State Department on Wikimedia Commons
 
Diplomatic Immunity: Frank and candid conversations about diplomacy and foreign affairs
 
Diplomatic Immunity, a podcast from the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, brings you frank and candid conversations with experts on the issues facing diplomats and national security decision-makers around the world. 
 
Funding support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. 
 
For more, visit our website, and follow us on Twitter @GUDiplomacy. Send any feedback to diplomacy@georgetown.edu.

Season 5, Episode 4: How does one tell the story of multilateralism in times rife with conflict, misinformation, and mistrust? How does one communicate with a world as vast and diverse as our own? What's it like to advocate for the United Nations on the global stage?
 
We here at Diplomatic Immunity don't have the answers to those important questions, so for this episode, we sat down with the man who does. The chief spokesperson for the Secretary General of the United Nations Stéphane Dujarric joined Dr. Kelly McFarland to discuss these questions as well as the secretary-general's priorities for 2023 and his personal outlook for multilateralism in a world defined by great power rivalry. 
 
Mr. Dujarric became Spokesperson for the Secretary-General on March 10, 2014. Prior to his appointment, he served as Spokesperson for United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan from 2005 to 2006 and then as Deputy Communications Director for Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon from 2006 to 2007.  Immediately prior to his current appointment, Mr. Dujarric was the Director of News and Media for the United Nations Department of Public Information and he also served as Director of Communications for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
 
 
Episode recorded: February 8, 2023
 
Produced by Daniel Henderson
 
Episode Image: Stéphane Dujarric (left), Spokesperson of the Secretary-General, opens the floor to questions from journalists during a press conference by Secretary-General António Guterres on the occasion of World Refugee Day. United Nations Photo on Flickr
 
Diplomatic Immunity: Frank and candid conversations about diplomacy and foreign affairs
 
Diplomatic Immunity, a podcast from the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, brings you frank and candid conversations with experts on the issues facing diplomats and national security decision-makers around the world. 
 
Funding support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. 
 
For more, visit our website, and follow us on Twitter @GUDiplomacy. Send any feedback to diplomacy@georgetown.edu.

Season 5, Episode 3: Multilateralism is so often thought of as a means and method for groups of states to tackle common issues or resolve disputes. But what happens when a multilateral institution is called on to help support sub-national issues within states? That's precisely what we wanted to know when we chatted with Gerardo de Icaza, the director of of the Department of Electoral Cooperation and Observation at the OAS. Gerardo chats with Dr. Kelly McFarland about the issues that the OAS and his department handle, the challenges and opportunities of election support from a multilateral institution, partnerships with other organizations and civil society, and the future of multilateralism in the Americas.
Gerardo has been the director of the Department of Electoral Cooperation and Observation since March 1, 2014. In his years as director, he has led more than 80 electoral observation missions in more than 27 countries. In 2018, he served as acting secretary for strengthening democracy from February to July. Previously, at the National Electoral Institute of Mexico (INE) he served as deputy legal director for overseas voting and as coordinator of the technical committee of specialists on overseas voting. He was a law clerk, and then head of the International Affairs Unit in the Electoral Tribunal of Mexico. His most recent publication "International Law of Democracy" coordinated with Luis Almagro, is one of his numerous publications on democracy and electoral systems.
If you enjoy this podcast, check out the recently released working group report from the institute for the study of diplomacy. Working group members analyzed the threat corruption and kleptocracy pose to democracy around the world and provide recommendations for the United States to begin cleansing this dark and festering underbelly of global politics. Read the report here.
 
Episode recorded: December 19, 2022
Produced by Daniel Henderson
Episode Image: The front facade of the Organization of American States in Washington, DC. Ian Hutchinson on Unsplash
Diplomatic Immunity: Frank and candid conversations about diplomacy and foreign affairs
Diplomatic Immunity, a podcast from the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, brings you frank and candid conversations with experts on the issues facing diplomats and national security decision-makers around the world. 
Funding support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. 
For more, visit our website, and follow us on Twitter @GUDiplomacy. Send any feedback to diplomacy@georgetown.edu.

Season 5, Episode 2: This season we are talking about multilateralism. What it is, what it's good for, and also what it's not. After looking at the big picture through the lens of the United Nations in episode one, this episode takes us to the regional level. U.S. Ambassador to the African Union Jessica Lapenn joined Dr. Kelly McFarland to explain how the African Union (AU) functions, why the U.S. was the first non-African nation to establish a permanent mission to the AU, how the AU tackles issues of peace and security differently than the UN, and where regional institutions and the United Nations can best work together. 
 
Ambassador Lapenn was sworn-in as the U.S. Ambassador to the African Union and the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa on August 27, 2019. She most recently served as the Chargé d’Affaires at the U.S. Mission in South Africa. Prior to this, she served as the Chief of Staff to the Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights at the Department of State in Washington, D.C. She was Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Kigali from 2012-2014. Ambassador Lapenn entered the U.S. Foreign Service in October 1994. Her overseas tours have included Jeddah, Riyadh, Paris, Tbilisi, Baghdad, and Jerusalem. In Jerusalem, she was the Chief of the Political Section at the U.S. Consulate General, and at the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi, she was responsible for regional refugee assistance and policy in the South Caucuses and Central Asia.
 
Episode recorded: November 16, 2022
Produced by Daniel Henderson and Kelly McFarland. 
Episode Image: African Union Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Solen Feyissa on Unsplash
Diplomatic Immunity: Frank and candid conversations about diplomacy and foreign affairs
Diplomatic Immunity, a podcast from the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, brings you frank and candid conversations with experts on the issues facing diplomats and national security decision-makers around the world. 
Funding support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. 
For more, visit our website, and follow us on Twitter @GUDiplomacy. Send any feedback to diplomacy@georgetown.edu.