The New Diplomatist

In this episode, Garrison is joined by Dr. Wess Mitchell, who serves as cofounder and principal at The Marathon Initiative, and who also served as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs during the first Trump administration. The two discuss Mitchell's brand new book "Great Power Diplomacy: The Skill of Statecraft from Attila the Hun to Kissinger." They discuss the historic scope, perennial meaning, and vital importance of rediscovering the great tradition of statecraft, and deep dive the example of Otto von Bismarck. They also discuss the efforts of the current Trump administration to serve as peacemakers in this era of great power rivalry. You can purchase Great Power Diplomacy from Princeton University Press, or wherever books are sold.Dr. A. Wess Mitchell is a principal and co-founder at The Marathon Initiative, which he created in 2019 with Elbridge Colby. He previously served as Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs under the first Trump administration. In this role, he was responsible for diplomatic relations with the 50 countries of Europe and Eurasia and played a principal role in formulating Europe strategy in support of the 2017 National Security Strategy and 2018 National Defense Strategy.Mitchell is the author of four books, including Great Power Diplomacy: The Skill of Statecraft from Attila the Hun to Kissinger (Princeton Press, 2025), The Grand Strategy of the Habsburg Empire (Princeton Press, 2018), and Unquiet Frontier: Rising Rivals, Vulnerable Allies and the Crisis of American Power (Princeton Press, 2016 – co-authored with Jakub Grygiel). His articles and interviews have appeared in major publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, National Interest and National Review.Prior to the State Department, Mitchell served as President and CEO of the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), which he co-founded in 2005 with Larry Hirsch. In 2020, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg appointed Mitchell to co-chair, with former German Minister of Defense Thomas de Maizière, the NATO 2030 Reflection Group, a ten-member consultative body charged with providing recommendations on the future of NATO.Mitchell is a Non-Resident Fellow in the Applied History Project at Harvard University Kennedy School of Government’s Belfer Center, a member of the International Security and Foreign Policy Grants Advisory Committee at the Smith Richardson Foundation, a member of the International Advisory Council at Cambridge University’s Centre for Geopolitics, and a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.Mitchell holds a doctorate in political science from the Otto Suhr Institut für Politikwissenschaft at Freie Universität in Berlin, a master’s degree in German and European Studies from Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, and a bachelor’s degree in history from Texas Tech University. He received a 2020 prize from the Stanton Foundation for writing in Applied History (with Charles Ingrao) and the 2004 Hopper Award at Georgetown University. He is the recipient of the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland, the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of Hungary, and the Gold Medal of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic. He is a sixth-generation Texan. Garrison Moratto is the founder and host of The New Diplomatist Podcast; he earned a M.S. of International Relations as well as a B.S. in Government: Public Administration (Summa Cum Laude) at Liberty University in the United States. He has been published in RealClearDefense, and Pacific Forum International's "Issues & Insights", among other publications. He is the author of Distant Shores on Substack.Guest opinions are their own.All music licensed via UppBeat.

Greg Lawson is a realist thinker, a history buff, and a geopolitical analyst. He joins the podcast to discuss the legacy and meaning of former Secretary of State, the late Dr. Henry Kissinger, as well as the problem of Russia, and the urgency of China. There has never been a more urgent time for prioritization in American foreign policy; Greg lays out a clear vision on what he sees as the realist way forward. Greg R. Lawson is a Contributing Analyst at WikiStrat and a Research Fellow at the Buckeye Institute. His opinions have been widely circulated in the foreign policy community amongst thought leaders in the field; his 2014 article "Avoiding America's Ultimate Geopolitical Nightmare" published in The National Interest was an insightful and landmark text on the burgeoning Sino-Russian axis. He is a graduate of Ohio State University. Garrison Moratto is the founder and host of The New Diplomatist Podcast; he earned a M.S. of International Relations as well as a B.S. in Government: Public Administration (Summa Cum Laude) at Liberty University in the United States. He has been published in RealClearDefense, and Pacific Forum International's "Issues & Insights", among other publications. Guest opinions are their own. All music licensed via UppBeat.

On this episode, Garrison is joined by Mohammed Soliman of the Middle East Institute to discuss his vision for the Middle East. Or more specifically, why he has argued that the Middle East as an American strategic concept should be replaced with his concept of "West Asia". The two discuss the intellectual origins and foundations of West Asia as a historically relevant framework built on Indo-Abrahamic transregional order. Mohammed further explained how this new order is being developed and deployed into the new "I2U2" group of nations, how the Abraham Accords paved the way for these ideas, and what Iran and China, respectively, will do about these developments (and what could happen next). Mohammed's two landmark publications outlining his vision for West Asia and Indo-Abrahamic relations can be found here at the MEI, and in National Interest. Mohammed Soliman is a Non-Resident Scholar with MEI's Cyber Program and Egypt Program, and a Senior Associate at McLarty Associates’ Middle East and North Africa Practice. His work focuses on the intersection of technology, geopolitics, and business in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Mohammed frequently appears on Arabic- and English-language television to provide commentary on unfolding events in the Middle East. A native of Cairo, Mohammed started his career as an engineer and worked as a consultant, providing strategic advisory services for local and international businesses. In Washington, DC, he has also served as a country analyst for the Peace Tech Lab at the US Institute of Peace, as a Huffington Fellow at Georgetown’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, and as a Junior Centennial Fellow at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service. Mohammed is a 2017 recipient of the Open Society Foundation's Civil Society Leadership Award. In 2021, he was selected by the Middle East Policy Council (MEPC) as one of their 40 Under 40 Professionals Making a Difference in US-Middle East Relations. That same year, Mohammed was named to the Center for Strategic and International Studies' (CSIS) 2021 U.S. National Security & Foreign Affairs Leadership List, which honors the contributions of diverse practitioners in U.S. national security and foreign policy. Garrison Moratto is the founder and host of The New Diplomatist Podcast; he earned a M.S. of International Relations as well as a B.S. in Government: Public Administration (Summa Cum Laude) at Liberty University in the United States. He has had the privilege of interviewing some of the leading policymakers and experts of our time, including Robert B. Zoellick, Elbridge Colby, Richard Fontaine, Andrew Roberts, Ivan Briscoe, Vishnu Prakash, Rajiv Bhatia, Aparne Pande, and many others. Guest opinions are their own. Originally recorded Aug. 8, 2022.

In this episode, Garrison was joined by Elbridge Colby, author of The Strategy of Denial and key architect of the 2018 U.S. National Defense Strategy.They discuss an overview of Colby’s landmark book and its strategic approach to the rise of China and maintenance of U.S. national defense. In light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the two discuss the return of military hard power to European security and world order, including the drastic shift in Berlin and other European capitols towards enhanced defense, and implications for the idea of increased burden sharing. The position of denial is contrasted to the historic trend towards neo-conservative posture on one side or neo-isolationism on the other.The two discuss the hypothetical fait accompli strategy of Beijing towards a war with Taiwan, and whether or not this describes Vladimir Putin’s intended plan for Ukraine (and lessons that holds for the PRC). Their discussion also focuses on potential pitfalls for US deterrence of a potential conflict in Taiwan given China's greater economic strength vis a vis Russia; the need to balance support for Europe while maintaining a clear higher priority for Washington to focus on China as the biggest national security challenge. The role of scarcity in defense strategy is discussed, with a key focus on the need to differentiate responses based on region, and to accommodate various allied and partner responses based on the immediacy of the respective regional threats. Further discussion focuses on the nature of the Russian military power in a ‘limited war’ and its implications for Moscow’s power projection capabilities; the warning the present crisis presents to Taipei (and questions surrounding stirring Taiwanese commitment to defense); whether taking Taiwan would be harder or easier based on geography when compared to Ukraine; and they close out the discussion on the Biden Administration's response and what must be improved towards both China and Russia.Colby’s article from TIME Magazine can be found here:https://tinyurl.com/colbyTIMEElbridge Colby is co-founder and principal of The Marathon Initiative, a policy initiative focused on developing strategies to prepare the United States for an era of sustained great power competition. He is the author of The Strategy of Denial: American Defense in an Age of Great Power Conflict (Yale University Press), which The Wall Street Journal selected as one of the top ten books of 2021.Previously, Colby was from 2018-2019 the Director of the Defense Program at the Center for a New American Security. Before that, he served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy and Force Development from 2017-2018. In that role, he served as the lead official in the development and rollout of the Department’s preeminent strategic planning guidance, the 2018 National Defense Strategy (NDS) which shifted the DoD’s focus to the challenges to U.S. military superiority and interests posed by China in particular followed by Russia, prioritizing restoring the Joint Force’s warfighting edge against these major power competitors.Prior to this, Colby was from 2014 to 2017 the Robert M. Gates Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security and held numerous roles across the federal government. Colby is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School.Garrison Moratto is the founder and host of The New Diplomatist Podcast; he earned a M.S. of International Relations as well as a B.S. in Government: Public Administration (Summa Cum Laude) at Liberty University in the United States.Guest opinions are their own. Originally recorded 2/28/22

On this episode, Garrison takes a deep dive into the view from Venezuela with the deeply knowledgable Ivan Briscoe, Program Director for Latin America and the Caribbean from the International Crisis Group. The two discuss the current state of Venezuelan affairs, tracing the counters of the rivalry between Nicolas Maduro and Juan Guaido with their respective claims to the Presidency. Is Juan Guaido losing his sense of legitimacy in the eyes of the opposition forces and the general public? They discuss the failed effort by the Trump administration to topple the Maduro regime, the after-effects of that attempt, and the present outlook for the Venezuelan economy, particular its oil economy and its interactions with China and Iran. They discuss the declining influence of American sanctions, and the condition of the multi-million Venezuelan refugee community inside neighboring Columbia. Briscoe considers the possibility of a Russian build up in the Latin American region with Venezuela as a possible area of focus. And they close by talking through what policies the United States should change in relation to the regional situation in both Columbia and Venezuela.Ivan Briscoe joined Crisis Group in June 2016 as Program Director for Latin America and the Caribbean. He has worked on Latin American politics, conflict and crime since 1996. Before joining Crisis Group, Ivan worked as a senior research fellow in the Clingendael Institute of the Netherlands and in the Foundation for International Relations and Foreign Dialogue (FRIDE) in Spain, where he specialized in the study of illicit networks in Latin America, new forms of armed violence and the effects of inequality.Prior to that, he worked for over a decade as a journalist and editor in Argentina, France and Spain, where he edited the English edition of El Paнs. He has carried out fieldwork-based research in various Latin American countries, including Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Peru and Venezuela, and has written for numerous media in the region and in Europe. He graduated from Oxford University with a First Class Honour’s Degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, studied as a Frank Knox Fellow at Harvard University, and also holds a Master’s Degree in Development from the Complutense University of Madrid.Garrison Moratto is the founder and host of The New Diplomatist Podcast; he earned a M.S. of International Relations as well as a B.S. in Government: Public Administration (Summa Cum Laude) at Liberty University in the United States.All guest opinions are their own and not that of The New Diplomatist podcast formally.If you enjoyed the episode please subscribe and leave a review for feedback.Follow The New Diplomatist on social media for latest updates. Thank you for listening.

In this sweeping interview, Garrison had the pleasure of interviewing former India Ambassador Vishnu Prakash who brought his in-depth regional insights to the discussion of Afghanistan and beyond. The two discuss India’s view on the aftermath of The Afghanistan War, the humanitarian concerns, the potential challenges of dealing with a possible Taliban takeover of Kabul, the China-Taliban relationship in light of the Uyghurs situation in Xinjiang, and the influence of Pakistan on the Taliban during the war with the U.S. They further discuss the recent attitudes of Beijing and Islamabad (particularly Prime Minister Imran Khan) in the region during U.S. withdrawal, the potential of a “China Quintuple” to counter “The Quad”, and the priorities of Prime Minister Modi ahead of “The Quad” in-person summit in D.C. this fall. Vishnu Prakash, has served as High Commissioner to Ottawa, Ambassador to Seoul, as well as the Official Spokesperson of India’s Foreign Office, and Consul General to Shanghai. He has also done postings in Moscow, New York, Vladivostok, Tokyo, Islamabad and Cairo. Since retirement in Nov. 2016, he has turned to being a foreign affairs analyst & commentator, with special focus on the Indo-Pacific region. Garrison Moratto is the founder and host of The New Diplomatist Podcast; he holds a M.S. of International Relations as well as a B.S. in Government: Public Administration (Summa Cum Laude) from Liberty University in the U.S. He is a Ph.D. candidate in Public Policy - Foreign Policy at Liberty University, focusing on U.S.-Portuguese relations. All guest opinions are their own and not that of The New Diplomatist podcast formally. Join us on social media especially Twitter, for the latest updates, read our blog on Medium and be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review on your favorite podcast app. Thank you for listening. Episode originally recorded: August 4th, 2021. Published: August 11th, 2021

In this episode, Garrison is joined once again by returning guest Dr. Patrick Holden of the University of Plymouth to discuss the state of Brexit as the West begins to try and plan for life beyond the pandemic. In particular, the two focus on the state of the Northern Ireland Protocol, including its continuing impact on the trading relations between the U.K. and the EU, as well as the disruption to internal British flow of goods. They also discuss the potential impacts of the announcement of a global minimum tax on corporations first presented at the G7 Cornwall Summit, including how that program might highlight and fuel populist views within the EU.  They close by gauging the success of how the U.K.’s first domestically hosted post-Brexit, in-person major international summit reflected on the newly-minted status of “Global Britain”. Dr. Patrick Holden is an Associate Professor (Reader) of the School of Law, Criminology and Government (Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business) at the University of Plymouth, U.K.  He is the author of numerous academic articles, and conducts research and teaching in relation to International Political Economy, the European Union in the World, International Development Policy, Global Governance and Regional Integration, as well as the Brexit process. Garrison Moratto is the founder and host of The New Diplomatist Podcast; he holds a M.S. of International Relations as well as a B.S. in Government: Public Administration (Summa Cum Laude) from Liberty University in the United States. He will be a Ph.D. candidate in Public Policy - Foreign Policy at Liberty University beginning August 2021, focusing on U.S.-Portuguese relations. All guest opinions are their own and not that of The New Diplomatist podcast formally.  Join us on social media, and be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review on your favorite podcast app. Thank you for listening. Episode originally recorded: June 29th, 2021. Published: July 8th, 2021

In this special bonus episode of The New Diplomatist, Garrison interviews Michael Sekora regarding American competitive edge in both the Cold War and the modern era, and his role in directing the Reagan administration's Project Socrates.  Mr. Sekora was the Founding Director of the project: The Socrates Project was initiated to address America's declining economic and military competitiveness. Socrates had a two-fold mission. Utilize all-source intelligence to determine the true underlying cause of U.S. decline, and develop the required solution. Socrates was fully successful in both aspects of its mission. Socrates determined that the underlying cause of the decline was the U.S. shift from technology-based to finance-based planning that began at the end of World War II. To rebuild U.S. competitiveness the country needed to re-adopt technology-based planning. To rebuild U.S. competitiveness that would endure for generations, Socrates developed the means to enable the U.S. to generate and lead the next evolutionary leap of technology-based planning -- the Automated Innovation Revolution. (The most recent previous evolutionary leaps being the scientific revolution, and the industrial revolution). In Automated Innovation the process for developing, acquiring and utilizing technology is executed with unprecedented speed, efficiency and agility. To prove the viability and impact of the Socrates Automated Innovation System, it provided support to various high priority White House initiatives to include: Star Wars, stealth and the dismemberment of the Soviet Union. As a result, President Reagan had an Executive Order drafted establishing a new federal agency with the mandate of deploying the Socrates System as a national asset for use by all U.S. private and public organizations. Before the Executive Order could be pre-coordinated for official coordination and signature, President Reagan's term came to an and. Upon taking office, President Bush defunded Socrates for political reasons. Mr. Sekora is President of Quadrigy systems, and a former member of the intelligence community in various capacities.  He holds a B.S. in Physics from the University of Michigan and a M.S. in Physics from Miami University. Garrison Moratto is the host of The New Diplomatist Podcast; he graduated Summa Cum Laude with a B.Sc. in Government: Public Administration from Liberty University, where he is studying for a M.Sc. in International Affairs.   All guest opinions are their own and not that of The New Diplomatist podcast formally.  Please subscribe and leave a review for feedback.  Thank you for listening.

This week, Garrison begins a new series of episodes that will be hosted from time to time taking a closer look at a single country, Deep Dive.  This episode is focused on Portugal: its foreign policy, how it is shaped by history and what its three main priorities are for the future in a chaotic world.  Joining Garrison as a guest is Pedro Sousa, A researcher at IPRI-NOVA: the Portuguese Institute of International Relations Research Centre.  As always, opinions of the guest are their own and not that of the podcast formally.  Thank you for subscribing, and please leave a review with your thoughts.

On this episode, Garrison is joined by Dan Haverty, an editorial fellow for the prestigious Foreign Policy magazine, and an expert on the Irish peace process.  They discuss the overlapping impacts on the prospects for Irish reunification of Brexit, COVID, and the respective rises of Boris Johnson and Sinn Fein in recent elections.  Dan Haverty is an editorial fellow at Foreign Policy. He received his bachelor’s degree in political science from the College of the Holy Cross. He also holds a master’s in international relations from University College Cork, where he conducted research on the peace process in Northern Ireland.  Garrison Moratto is a member of Chatham House: Royal Institute of International Affairs, the American Political Science Association, and the Heritage Foundation.   He holds a B.Sc. from Liberty University in Government: Public Administration, and is currently studying for a M.S. of International Affairs.  He is the author of numerous published op-eds as well.

On this special episode, Garrison had the honor of interviewing former India Ambassador Rajiv Bhatia on a discussion of India's international leadership during the pandemic.  Mr. Bhatia is a Distinguished Fellow, Foreign Policy Studies Programme at the prestigious India think tank Gateway House. He is Chair of FICCI’s Core Group of Experts on BIMSTEC and its Task Force on the Blue Economy. He is a founding member of the Kalinga International Foundation.  As Director General of the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) from 2012-15, he played a key role in strengthening India's Track-II research and outreach activities. During a 37-year innings in the Indian Foreign Service (IFS), he served as Ambassador to Myanmar and Mexico and as High Commissioner to Kenya and South Africa. He dealt with a part of South Asia, while posted as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs. A prolific columnist, who has also written a critically acclaimed book, India-Myanmar Relations: Changing Contours (Routledge), he is a frequent speaker on foreign policy issues in India and abroad. He was Senior Visiting Research Fellow during 2011-13 at the Institute of South East Asian Studies (ISEAS), Singapore. He holds a master’s degree in political science from Allahabad University.