A Conversation with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell

12/26/24 • 50 min

Beyond Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, the Biden administration has faced significant international challenges over the president’s four years in office. President Biden and his team have contended with a range of issues including strategic competition, growing threats to democracies, climate change, critical minerals supply chains, and shaping the transformative potential of emerging tech to solve global problems without exacerbating regional economic inequality. When it comes to foreign policy, as George Will quipped, the American public wants as little of it as possible, but that hasn’t been the case over the last four years.

What are the key principles and assumptions that have underscored its approach to foreign policy? And what kind of world does it leave for its successors?

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell has served in the Biden administration from the beginning, first at the White House and more recently at the State Department. Join Aaron David Miller as he sits down with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell to discuss these and other issues.

What are the key principles and assumptions that have underscored its approach to foreign policy? And what kind of world does it leave for its successors?

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Covering Conflict: A Conversation With Clarissa Ward of CNN

With no shortage of conflicts in today’s world, journalists covering war zones provide indispensable reporting and analysis, often at great personal risk. Few war correspondents have more experience covering conflict than CNN’S Clarissa Ward, who has covered conflicts from Afghanistan to Ukraine, to Syria and Gaza, reporting from the world’s hot spots providing first-hand accounts of violent conflicts and their impact on civilians. Most recently, Clarissa and her crew were detained by an armed militia in Darfur.

What does it take to cover conflict? How does reporting on one conflict differ from another? And how do journalists witnessing the horrors of violent conflict keep their own emotions and feelings out of the story?

Join Aaron David Miller as he sits down with Clarissa Ward to discuss the challenges and travails of reporting from some of the world’s most dangerous conflict areas.

Next Episode

A Conversation with Efraim Halevy and Ami Ayalon

More than a year into the Israel-Hamas war, the Middle East remains mired in conflict. The war in Gaza drags on with no end in sight; the West Bank continues to seethe; the collapse of the Assad regime has activated Israeli forces along the Syrian border; and while a cease-fire deal has calmed the Israel-Lebanon border, the possibility of a serious escalation between Israel and Iran remains all too real. Meanwhile, uncertainties about U.S. policy abound as the Biden Administration gives way to one headed by President Donald Trump.

Will Israel be able to translate its recent military wins into stable security and political arrangements? What does the future hold for the hostages and the people of Gaza? Is there a diplomatic off-ramp that might preempt or prevent an Iran-Israel confrontation? And what of the future of Iran’s nuclear program?

Join Aaron David Miller as he sits down with Ami Ayalon, the former head of Shin Bet, and Efraim Halevy, the former head of Mossad, to discuss these and other issues on Carnegie Connects.