Is International Diplomacy Dead? With Stephanie Williams; Some stories about Prigozhin, Libya, and the inner workings of the UN

And more Summer memes

We have recently seen the ascendency of a new kind of bilateralism and unilateralism: both vis-a-vis Iran/Ukraine and vis-a-vis trade/tariffs. Even Trump’s tariff threats have failed to occasion genuine multilateralism to oppose them.

In this week’s Disorder episode we delve deeper into what can still be achieved via Multilateral diplomacy with a real superstar of multilateral diplomacy and someone I admire greatly Stephanie Williams.

The UN is demonstrably powerless in Gaza; unable to facilitate elections in Libya; and blocked by Russia from doing anything meaningful on many critical issues: such as Ukraine, Climate Change, Tariffs, or the Arctic.

So we ask: Is International Diplomacy Dead? Where is the UN in pushing back against Trump? Is there any way that countries can finally put their differences aside on major divisive issues -- like Ukraine and Gaza -- but work together on other more unifying ones – like kleptocracy and climate change – and finally Order the Disorder?

To find out, Jason is joined by Stephanie Williams – Former top United Nations mediator and a senior American diplomat. Stephanie served as the Special Adviser to the Secretary General on Libya, as well as acting UN SRSG/Special Envoy to Libya. She is the author of an excellent and highly detailed new book on international diplomacy, ‘Libya Since Qaddafi: Chaos and the Search for Peace’. As with Jason’s own book, Stephanie’s book is with Hurst/OUP, by far the best publishers of cutting edge books on Libya.

The duo delve into the effectiveness of the UN and the international community in addressing global conflicts, particularly focusing on Libya. Plus they tackle: the complexities of state building, the Disordering influence of Russia on the administrative operations of the UN, the impact of US foreign policy on Libya, and why incoherence and coordination complexities within the West makes it nearly impossible to do ‘proper diplomacy’ anymore.

And as they Order the Disorder, Jason and Stephanie propose genuine things Steve Witkoff and others can do to formulate a more unified approach to major issues of the day.

Disorder on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@DisorderShow

Show Notes Links:

Get Stephanie Williams’ book, Libya Since Qaddafi: Chaos and the Search for Peace - https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/libya-since-qaddafi/

Get Jason’s book Libya and the Global Enduring Disorder - https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/libya-and-the-global-enduring-disorder/

Listen back to Ep4. Who is leading the disorder? https://pod.link/1706818264/episode/9ebdc18174d18cb019d148053a98e287

Get Libya-Analysis Substack -

Key Quotes from Stephanie Williams

How do you see the role of Russia in limiting what the UN can accomplish, can't accomplish? How do the Russians play their game in the un? Uh, well, they play it very well. They're extremely adept at, uh, spoiling and obfuscating, or really making the life of the envoy extremely difficult. In my case. Of course they were quite unhappy and so they complained, uh, bitterly and publicly about me. Uh, and of course when I visited Moscow, my last visit there in 2022, I was visited at my hotel by Mr. Prigozhin or it could have been a doppelganger. It was unclear. And they, they ran a whole op on me.

The thing that worries me is, you know, I always, I say I, I thought for many years working on Libya, working in the Middle East, that, you know, a country like Libya could start to look more like the United States, and unfortunately now I think it's the United States that is starting to look like Libya. [Jason] Wait, you stole my line. I did. That's a very good line. Uh,because of this now very transactional approach to foreign policy. And so if you have, you know, Trump's in-law essentially as the envoy, that is not harnessed.To any kind of comprehensive foreign policy that protects the United States, then it is random and can easily be exploited by the most cynical actors who are only interested in kleptocracy and self preservation.

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NOW SOME SUMMER MEMES:

And for Paid for Substack People… some rather more biting memes and content after the paywall