WCAPS Podcast

When foreign policy ignores women, conflict gets harder to prevent, recovery gets harder to sustain, and entire systems get weaker. Bonnie Jenkins sits down with Tazreen Hussain, the former Women, Peace and Security Advisor at USAID, for a candid conversation about what the work actually looks like - and why losing it matters far beyond Washington.
Tazreen shares how a childhood shaped by Bangladesh, Dallas, Florida, and 9/11 led her into public service, international development, and a career focused on gender equality, women's empowerment, and conflict prevention.

Diplomacy is not soft power fluff - it is how countries win without fighting, and this conversation shows exactly what happens when that expertise disappears. Bonnie Jenkins talks with Jimmy Wang, a former military officer and State Department foreign affairs specialist about multilateralism, the South China Sea, ASEAN, and why losing seasoned public servants creates real-world consequences for America. He explains how he moved from the Navy to diplomacy after realizing preventing wars is cheaper and smarter than fighting them, and why international institutions like ASEAN, NATO, the EU, and the UN give smaller countries a voice while exposing bullying from larger powers.

What happens when the State Department’s expertise is pushed out the door? Dan Murphy shares the inside story of being RIFed from public service, why that loss matters far beyond Washington, and how the ripple effects show up in everything from debt negotiations to U.S. credibility abroad.

Foreign policy fails when it forgets its basic, and that mistake has real consequences at home. Former State Department official Amanda Van Dort reveals how women's security, migration, fentanyl, democracy, and U.S global influence are all connected, and why the American talks about foreign policy may be part of the problem.

Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins sits down with Matthew Sharp, a physicist turned diplomat who spent about 16 years in the State Department navigating some of the toughest nuclear and nonproliferation issues in government. From graduate school physics at the University of Chicago to the Belfer Center, from AAAS fellowships to Vienna, Washington, and the NSC, Matthew traces the path that took him from the lab into the rooms where U.S. policy gets made and defended.