The General and The Ambassador Podcast
The General and the Ambassador is a project on national security from the American Academy of Diplomacy, produced and hosted by Academy Board Member, Ambassador (ret) Deborah McCarthy.
Our mission is two-fold: to explain how the US uses its diplomatic and military tools overseas and to show why US leadership in global affairs is vital to peace and security.
Launched in 2018, the podcast is a unique series of 80 conversations between Senior US Defense Officials and US Ambassadors and Senior diplomats which capture their partnerships and friendships and show how they worked together to manage a global crisis and/or national security challenge. Episodes cover wars, pandemics, natural disasters, political upheavals and other foreign policy challenges and review major bilateral security relationships. Countries covered include Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya, Liberia, Somalia, West Africa, Russia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, North Macedonia, Cyprus, Greece, Turkey, NATO, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Haiti, India, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines.
The series has been sponsored by the Fletcher School Global Master of Arts Program, The Una Chapman Cox Foundation, UNC Global at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Dataminr.
Diplomacy, Defense and National Security
Latest Episode
General Tod Wolters and Ambassador David Satterfield talk about the key elements of their successful partnership in managing the US-Turkey security relationship (2019-2022): having a clear strategy, relying on the strong US/NATO/Turkey mil to mil relationship and holding frank talks. Topics: Turkey’s strong commitment to NATO; US Turkish differences over the US partnership with the SDF in Syria; Turkey’s purchase of a Russian missile defense systems; Greek/Turkish clashes & Turkey’s relationship with Russia.
The Host
Ambassador Deborah McCarthy
Ambassador (ret) Deborah A. McCarthy is an expert on U.S. foreign and national security policy. Currently, she is a non-resident Fellow at the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security at the Atlantic Council. Most recently, she was a Senior Fellow at Harvard University. She served as the U.S. Ambassador to Lithuania (2013-2016) and Deputy Ambassador at the U.S. Embassies in Greece and in Nicaragua. In Washington, she was the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Narcotics and Law Enforcement and Special Coordinator for Venezuela. She is a Trustee of the Command and General Staff College Foundation and serves on the Board of the Academy of Diplomacy and on the Advisory Council for the MSFS program at Georgetown University.
Current and Past Partners and Sponsors
The General and the Ambassador Podcast is a project of the American Academy of Diplomacy produced with support of these generous and dedicated partners. For additional information about how to become a sponsor, visit the Sponsors page.
