Two former State Department officials, Tom Malinowski and Amb. Victoria Nuland join Jen to discuss the loss of an entire generation of diplomatic leadership under Trump.
What lies ahead for the United States’ role in international democracy? How does the State Department operate anymore when all decision making processes have seemingly ended? Why is our foreign policy being mediated via blackmail with the veneer of tariff deals? Watch the interview to find out.
Tom P. Malinowski is a former U.S. Congressman from New Jersey from 2019 to 2023. A Democrat, he served as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor in the Obama administration. Before that, he worked with the National Security Council to help end some of the 20th Century’s bloodiest humanitarian crises, and as the chief advocate for Human Rights Watch, leading a bipartisan effort to end the Bush Administration’s use of torture.
Ambassador Victoria Nuland is a Shelby Cullom Davis Professor in the Practice of International Diplomacy and Director of the International Fellows Program at SIPA. She is also a Member of the Board of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). A U.S. diplomat for 35 years, she served six U.S. Presidents and 10 Secretaries of State of both political parties and holds the rank of Career Ambassador. She was Acting Deputy Secretary of State from July 2023 until March 2024, and served concurrently as Under Secretary for Political Affairs.
