Understanding the African Union with Ambassador Jessica Lapenn
Release Date: 01/04/2023
Diplomatic Immunity
13:10 - Interview with Chris Tuttle This week, Kelly and Freddie talk through Secretary of State Blinken's recent visit to China, U.S. troops leaving Niger, and an election in Maldives that saw the country move closer to China. Kelly then talks with Chris Tuttle, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, about recent Congressional action on Ukraine and TikTok. Chris Tuttle is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who focuses on the politics and process behind U.S. foreign policy. He previously directed CFR’s Renewing America Initiative and served from 2015 to 2019 as...
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10:40 - Interview with Yuki Tatsumi. This week, Kelly and Freddie talk through Iran's Strike on Israel, Ecudaro's raid on the Mexican embassy in Quito, and the losses for President Erdogan's party in recent Turkish municipal elections. Kelly then talks with the Stimson Center's Yuki Tatsumi about the recent summit between the US, Japan, and the Philippines held in Washington last week. Yuki Tatsumi is a senior fellow and co-director of the East Asia Program at the Stimson Center and the director of Stimson's Japan program. Prior to her current role, Tatsumi worked as a research associate...
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Kelly speaks with Lt. Gen (ret.) Ben Hodges, former Commanding General of U.S. Army Europe, about the effect of the Ukraine War on military tactics and strategy. Prior to retiring from the armed forces in 2018, Lieutenant General (ret.) Ben Hodges served as Commanding General of the U.S. Army in Europe. He consults for several companies on Europe, NATO, and the European Union, and he is co-author of the book Future War and the Defence of Europe, published by Oxford University Press. General Hodges was most recently Senior Advisor to Human Rights First, a non-profit, and was also the...
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10:25 - Interview with Dr. Ken Opalo This week, Kelly and Freddie provide updates on the humanitarian situation in Gaza and the evolving crisis in Haiti, and Kelly talks with Georgetown Professor Ken Opalo for a deep dive into Sudan's civil war. Dr. Opalo is an associate professor at the Georgetown University Walsh School of Foreign Service, where he focuses his research and teaching on political economy in Africa. He is also the author of the blog An Africanist Perspective, where he writes on African politics, economics, and history. The opinions expressed in this...
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Season 6 Episode 6. This week, Kelly talks with retired army officer and National Defense University research fellow Dr. Tom Lynch about the impact of Ukraine's war on great power conflict and US-China competition. Dr. Thomas Lynch is an adjunct professor of Security Studies at Georgetown University and distinguished research fellow for South Asia and the Near East at National Defense University. Dr. Lynch is also a retired U.S. Army officer who served for 28 years in a variety of command and staff positions including as a Special Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and...
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10:40 - Interview with Jacqueline Charles In our seventh episode of Headlines and History, we discuss the recent political crisis in Haiti with Miami Herald report Jacqueline Charles, and Kelly covers the EU's Net-Zero Industry Act and reports of Russia's new space-based nuclear capabilities. Jacqueline Charles is the Haiti and Caribbean correspondent for the Miami Herald, where she has been covering the region for over a decade. She has won numerous awards for her reporting and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for her coverage of the aftermath of the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti....
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11:50 - Interview with Beverly Ocheing on Senegal In our sixth episode of Headlines and History, we discuss the recent crisis in Senegal and its implications for West Africa with Beverly Ochieng, and Kelly covers recent news out of El Salvador, Sweden & NATO, and the 2026 Soccer World Cup. Beverly Ochieng is a senior digital journalist and Africa specialist at BBC Monitoring and an expert on African power politics, security, and governance. She’s also a non-resident senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Africa Program. She has a background in...
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Season 6, Episode 5. Today, we’ll be covering the effects of the War in Ukraine on supply chains, the defense-industrial base, and the private sector. Kelly McFarland talks to Christine Micheinzi, a former senior executive at the U.S. Department of Defense, about how the global economy and defense industry are trying to deal with the knock-on effects of Putin’s War. Dr. Christine Micheinzi is the Founder and CEO of the consultancy group MMR Defense Solutions. She is also a non-resident Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Defense-Industrial...
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In our fifth episode of Headlines and History, we discuss the outcome of the COP28 conference in Dubai with Joanna Lewis, the fallout from Taiwan's Presidential election, the new deal between Ethiopia and Somaliland, and give an update on the status of military aid to Ukraine currently stalled in Congress. Joanna Lewis is a distinguished associate professor at Georgetown University and director of the Science, Technology and International Affairs Program at the School of Foreign Service. At Georgetown, she also runs the Clean Energy and Climate Research Group and leads several dialogues...
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Season 6 Bonus Episode. Today, we’ll be talking about basketball and the power of sports diplomacy as we celebrate World Basketball Day – the first sport ever to receive the honor from the United Nations – which now takes place every year on December 21st. Today, Kelly talks with Lindsay Krasnoff about basketball and the history of sports diplomacy. Just in time for World Basketball Day, Lindsay has published a case study with ISD on the fascinating history of basketball diplomacy between France and China during the cold war, which we encourage listeners to check out via our case...
info_outlineSeason 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.
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