Bill Burns on the Practice and Strategic Value of American Diplomacy

Intelligence Matters

CBS News

Politics, News, Government

4.7 • 3.3K Ratings

🗓️ 12 March 2019

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode of Intelligence Matters, host Michael Morell speaks with William Burns, career diplomat, former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State and current president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Burns shares concerns about a decades-long drift in American diplomacy, which he says began after the Cold War, intensified in the years following 9/11, and has been accelerated during the Trump administration. He tells Morell why American engagement abroad remains crucial and how it could make a meaningful difference in confronting geopolitical challenges from the likes of China, Russia, North Korea and Iran. Burns also shares anecdotes from his new book, The Back Channel, about engaging directly with Vladimir Putin during his time as U.S. Ambassador to Russia and about the backroom meetings that preceded the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime members, you can listen to Intelligence Matters Add Free on Amazon Music.
0:05.6	Download the app today.
0:07.4	Hi, I'm Lindsay Graham, the host of Wondries Podcast American Scandal.
0:11.6	Our newest series looks at the Kids for Cash Scandal, a story about two judges who stood
0:16.5	accused of making millions of dollars in a brazen scheme that shattered the lives of countless
0:21.4	children.
0:22.4	Listen to American Scandal on Amazon Music or wherever you catch your podcasts.
0:28.4	This is the Intelligence Matters Podcast with former acting director of the CIA, Michael
0:33.4	Morel.
0:34.4	I think diplomacy may be one of the world's oldest professions, but it's also one of the
0:40.8	most misunderstood.
0:42.0	It oftentimes is a quiet endeavor.
0:44.6	But the argument in the book is that at this, in this era, when the United States is no
0:48.9	longer the only big kid on the geopolitical block, diplomacy matters more than ever is our
0:54.4	tour for us to resort.
0:58.7	The subtitle of your book I found really interesting.
1:01.1	So it's a memoir of American diplomacy and the case for its renewal and it's that word
1:05.9	renewal.
1:06.9	What are we trying to get out there?
1:08.8	President Trump didn't invent some of the drift in American diplomacy that we were
1:13.8	lulled a little bit after the end of the Cold War a moment when the United States was
1:18.0	the singular dominant player.
	...

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