Network 20/20 - A Foreign Policy Community

10/07/2026

We were pleased to welcome Mitchell A. Silk, former Assistant Secretary for International Markets at the U.S. Department of the Treasury during the first Trump administration, one of the primary architects of the U.S.-China Phase One trade agreement, and author of A Seat at the Table: An Inside Account of Trump’s Global Economic Revolution, for our in-person, members-only discussion, Trade Policy in Trump’s First Treasury.

Drawing on his experience in Chinese law and finance and as a senior Treasury negotiator, Mitchell offered an inside look at the pressures that shape major economic decisions.

The wide-ranging conversation explored U.S. economic policy and relations with China, offering an insider’s perspective on the challenges, decisions, and negotiations that shaped the first Trump administration. Mitchell reflected on the economic landscape the administration inherited, its approach to addressing longstanding challenges, and what those experiences can tell us about U.S.-China relations today.

We are grateful to Mitchell for sharing his expertise and to our members for contributing to a thoughtful and engaging discussion.

Network 20/20’s members-only briefings provide exclusive access to candid conversations with leading experts on today’s most pressing foreign policy and national security issues.

Learn more about membership: https://network2020.org/benefits/

10/07/2026

🛰️ WHEN ANYONE CAN GATHER INTELLIGENCE, WHO CAN WE TRUST?

Artificial intelligence, commercial satellites, and open-source information are changing who can collect intelligence—and who can become a target. Tools once largely reserved for governments are increasingly available to companies and citizens, creating new opportunities alongside challenges around verification, privacy, and security.

In the newest episode of the Global Insights Podcast, Dr. Eliot Jardines, Founder and Executive Director of the OSINT Foundation, and Dr. Anthony Vinci, Adjunct Senior Fellow at the(Center for a New American Security - CNAS) and former Chief Technology Officer and Associate Director for Capabilities at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, join Network 20/20 President Courtney Doggart to examine the changing intelligence landscape.

From AI-generated disinformation and the risks of untrained online research to economic espionage and cooperation between governments and businesses, the discussion explores how intelligence professionals can balance speed with verification—and why human expertise remains essential as automation expands.

🎧 Listen to the newest episode of the Podcast:
https://network2020.org/spies-satellites-startups-intel-in-the-digital-age/

10/01/2026

🇺🇸 WHAT CAN AMERICA’S FIRST DIPLOMATS TEACH US TODAY?

As the United States marks 250 years as a nation, Network 20/20 looks back to Benjamin Franklin’s mission to France and asks what that history can tell us about American diplomacy today. What happens when alliance-building and career diplomatic expertise are sidelined as foreign policy becomes more concentrated in the White House and carried out through special envoys?

In Network 20/20’s Virtual Briefing, The State of Diplomacy at America 250, president Courtney Doggart speaks with John Dinkelman of the American Foreign Service Association, Jessica Tuchman Mathews of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Professor Jay Sexton of the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy at Mizzou about the consequences for relations with allies and adversaries—and what it may take to rebuild diplomatic capacity.

Watch the full conversation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdLbrbpb3pc

09/29/2026

AMERICAN DIPLOMACY AT 250: WHAT IS CHANGING—AND WHAT COMES NEXT?

Watch Now at: https://youtu.be/NdLbrbpb3pc

As the United States marks 250 years, American diplomacy is entering a period of significant change. Longstanding assumptions about how the U.S. engages with allies, uses economic power, conducts negotiations, and relies on professional diplomatic expertise are being reconsidered in real time.

John Dinkelman, President of the American Foreign Service Association; Dr. Jessica Tuchman Mathews, Distinguished Fellow and former President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; and Professor Jay Sexton, Director of the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy at Mizzou, bring historical, institutional, and geopolitical perspectives to this changing landscape.

Their conversation connects today’s shifts in U.S. foreign policy to earlier moments in American history, while examining what changes inside the Foreign Service, evolving alliances, and new approaches to economic and executive power could mean for the country’s role abroad.

Looking beyond the current moment, the discussion also considers the longer-term challenge of rebuilding diplomatic capacity and shaping a model of American diplomacy that can respond to a very different international environment.

The world has changed dramatically in the 250 years since Benjamin ...

09/28/2026

“I always tell students they’re like a tin of Pringles. When you reach in, you have that first tariff, you’re not gonna stop.” — Professor Jay Sexton

In this highlight from our Virtual Salon Series, Jay Sexton, Director of the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy at Mizzou, explains how tariffs have historically fueled instability—creating and exacerbating the very disorder they claimed to manage.

He traces tariffs to programs of imperial expansion and closed trading systems, links them to domestic corruption through the picking of economic favorites, and warns that they can become self-perpetuating. Once you start, like a tin of Pringles, you’re not going to stop.

🎧 Full discussion coming soon to Network 20/20’s YouTube channel. Explore more conversations on global affairs in the meantime: https://www.youtube.com/c/network2020

🔗 Join Network 20/20 for access to intimate Salon Series conversations with leading foreign-affairs experts: https://network2020.org/benefits/

09/28/2026

“Special advisors or envoys chosen by the president because of personal friendship or acquaintance really isn’t something new to our diplomatic structure.” — John Dinkelman

In this highlight from our Virtual Salon Series, John Dinkelman, President of the American Foreign Service Association, explains that presidential envoys chosen because of personal relationships are nothing new in American diplomacy.

What concerns him is the absence of the diplomatic corps and professional expertise that traditionally support these envoys. When that institutional knowledge is not in the room, Dinkelman argues, it becomes much harder to understand what is taking place behind closed doors.

🎧 Full discussion coming soon to Network 20/20’s YouTube channel. Explore more conversations on global affairs in the meantime: https://www.youtube.com/

🔗 Join Network 20/20 for access to intimate Salon Series conversations with leading foreign-affairs experts: https://network2020.org/benefits/

09/28/2026

“Traditional allies are hedging against us. Countries that were flourishing under a U.S.-led global economy are now building relationships that look away from the United States. And boy, that is going to cost us in a very big way over time.” — Dr. Jessica Tuchman Mathews

In this highlight from our Virtual Salon Series, Jessica Tuchman Mathews, Distinguished Fellow and former President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, discusses how traditional U.S. allies are increasingly building relationships that look beyond the United States.

She points to Canada as a major example and notes similar shifts across Europe and Asia. Countries that once flourished within a U.S.-led global economy are increasingly developing alternative economic relationships, a shift Mathews argues could carry significant long-term costs for the United States.

🎧 Full discussion coming soon to Network 20/20’s YouTube channel. Explore more conversations on global affairs in the meantime: https://www.youtube.com/

🔗 Join Network 20/20 for access to intimate Salon Series conversations with leading foreign-affairs experts: https://network2020.org/benefits/

09/24/2026

🇺🇸 WHAT DOES AMERICAN DIPLOMACY LOOK LIKE AT 250?

As the United States marks 250 years, American diplomacy is confronting major questions about the role of career diplomats, relations with allies and adversaries, economic statecraft, and how the U.S. engages with a changing world.

In the newest episode of the Global Insights Podcast, John Dinkelman, President of the American Foreign Service Association; Dr. Jessica Tuchman Mathews, Distinguished Fellow and former President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace ; and Professor Jay Sexton, Director of the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy , join Network 20/20 President Courtney Doggart for a conversation on the current state and future of American diplomacy.

The discussion explores the changing role of the Foreign Service and special envoys, U.S. alliances, economic leverage, lessons from American history, and the pressures shaping the future of U.S. diplomacy.

🎧 Listen to The State of Diplomacy at America 250:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2HI84kpfBYIpFxhNIOousg?si=NkOnF8-fSCada69nIOOd2A


Physically tag: American Foreign Service Association, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy

09/24/2026

We were pleased to welcome Karim Haggag, Director of SIPRI, former Egyptian diplomat, and member of the United Nations Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters, for our in-person, members-only discussion, Searching for Stability in a Rearranged Middle East.

Karim reflected on the ripple effects of ongoing conflicts across the Middle East and the changing security landscape in the region. The discussion explored the evolving role of the United States—traditionally viewed as both a source of regional security as well as an actor that contributes to instability—and the continued importance of U.S. involvement in shaping a future regional security structure.

He also discussed the growing influence of other regional and global actors, Middle Eastern countries’ search for alternative security partnerships beyond the United States, and the implications of an expanding regional arms race.

We are grateful to Karim for sharing his expertise and to our members for contributing to a thoughtful and engaging discussion.

Network 20/20’s members-only briefings provide exclusive access to candid conversations with leading experts on today’s most pressing foreign policy and national security issues.

Learn more: https://network2020.org/benefits/

09/24/2026

Thank you to Taufiq Rahim, Senior Fellow at New America; Ambassador Chris Lu, former U.S. Representative to the United Nations for Management and Reform and distinguished professor at Miller Center of Public Affairs; moderator Rekha Shanmugam of AJ+; and Subhah Agarwal for joining Network 20/20 and UNMUTED for United We Fall: Should the U.S. Leave the UN?

The debate examined competing perspectives on whether the United States should leave the United Nations, including U.S. financial contributions, the effectiveness of UN institutions, efforts toward reform, and the potential consequences of withdrawing.

Taufiq Rahim presented the case for investing U.S. resources elsewhere, while Ambassador Lu drew on his experience negotiating UN budgets and pursuing reform from within the organization.

We are grateful to our speakers, moderator, partners at UNMUTED, and everyone who joined us for a lively and thoughtful exchange on the future of U.S. engagement with the United Nations.