The Art of Diplomacy

In this episode of The Art of Diplomacy, Florence Gaub speaks with former Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin.

Leading a country through a pandemic, an energy crisis, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and Finland’s historic accession to NATO, Marin faced a series of decisions that challenged long-held assumptions about security, leadership, and political strategy.

In this conversation, she reflects on the role of trust in resilient societies, the importance of listening in negotiation, and why effective leaders must be willing to change course when circumstances shift. Drawing on her experience steering Finland through one of the most consequential periods in...

In this episode, Joshua Yaffa speaks with Prince Zeid bin Ra’ad Zeid al-Hussein, one of the central architects of the modern international human rights system. From helping to establish the International Criminal Court to serving as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Prince Zeid has spent decades confronting the tension between moral ideals and political power.
At a moment when international law, human rights, and multilateral institutions appear increasingly fragile, he reflects on what these systems were actually built to do—and why they were never guaranteed to survive. The conversation explores fear, nationalism, authoritarianism, and the recurring cycles of...

In this third episode of The Art of Diplomacy, co-host Florence Gaub travels to Paris to talk to Benjamin Haddad, French Minister Delegate for European Affairs. Haddad is one of the key figures shaping France’s role in Europe at a moment of geopolitical upheaval. He describes a role that sits at the intersection of European politics, security, and economic strategy, where building coalitions and moving quickly are often more important than perfect processes. Drawing on his path from think tank analyst to government diplomat, he reflects on the shift from observing decisions to taking responsibility for them. At the heart...

In this second episode of "The Art of Diplomacy", Florence Gaub is joined by journalist and New Yorker writer Joshua Yaffa to explore diplomacy as it unfolds in real time—at the Munich Security Conference.
Together, they reflect on the unique nature of the conference itself: a space where global politics is not only discussed on stage, but shaped and processed in hallways, over coffee, and in countless informal encounters.
Through two conversations recorded in Munich, Yaffa examines how this process works from different angles. With political scientist Ian Bremmer, he explores how diplomacy adapts to a moment of geopolitical rupture—when...