In December 2010, a fruit vendor’s act of protest sparked a revolution. Weeks later, Tunisia’s longtime dictator fled the country—and at the center of it all was Gordon Gray, the U.S. ambassador whose private cables pulled no punches about what was really happening on the ground.

In this third episode of The Diplomat, Gray reflects on the moment when honesty turned explosive, what it means to listen instead of impose, and why diplomats today should be more careful with words like “red line” than ever before.

• Joe Kawly brings extensive experience from conflict zones in the Middle East to the power corridors of Washington. As a journalist, he’s seen how words can escalate a crisis or open the door to peace. A Georgetown graduate and former CNN Journalism Fellow, he’s known for connecting the dots others miss, so people don’t just hear what happened, they understand why it matters. As producer and host of The Diplomat, Joe brings clarity to diplomacy and politics, one conversation at a time.

When former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Francis Ricciardone spoke up about freedom of expression in 2013, it wasn’t meant to ignite a firestorm. But the backlash was swift, and the accusations - explosive. In this premiere episode of The Diplomat, we explore the thin line between diplomacy and provocation, and how one sentence turned into a geopolitical flashpoint. Amb. Ricciardone opens up about Gezi Park, the weight of words, and why empathy, not just strategy, might be diplomacy’s most underused tool.

• Joe Kawly brings extensive experience from conflict zones in the Middle East to the power corridors of Washington. As a journalist, he’s seen how words can escalate a crisis or open the door to peace. A Georgetown graduate and former CNN Journalism Fellow, he’s known for connecting the dots others miss, so people don’t just hear what happened, they understand why it matters. As producer and host of The Diplomat, Joe brings clarity to diplomacy and politics, one conversation at a time.

From the Israeli withdrawal from South Lebanon in 2000 to the looming famine in Gaza in 2024, Ambassador David Satterfield has been in the room where decisions are made—but rarely discussed. In this first episode of The Diplomat, Satterfield reveals how Hafez al-Assad tried to sabotage Israel’s withdrawal by leveraging Hezbollah, how Syria blocked Lebanese cooperation with the UN, and why the crisis in Gaza is not just humanitarian—but political.

• Joe Kawly brings extensive experience from conflict zones in the Middle East to the power corridors of Washington. As a journalist, he’s seen how words can escalate a crisis or open the door to peace. A Georgetown graduate and former CNN Journalism Fellow, he’s known for connecting the dots others miss, so people don’t just hear what happened, they understand why it matters. As producer and host of The Diplomat, Joe brings clarity to diplomacy and politics, one conversation at a time.