Episode 111: Jennifer Harris, Why the US Needs to Learn How to Use its “Geo-economic” Muscle

Jennifer Harris has devoted much of her career to studying what she calls “geo-economics” — the  ability of countries to shape world politics, diplomacy, and global affairs more broadly through the deployment of economic means. She’s a Council on Foreign Relations Fellow and co-author, with Robert Blackwill, of the new book War By Other Means: Geoeconomics and Statecraft.

Jennifer grew up near an artillery range in Oklahoma and became fascinated with economics from a young age. She was a Rhodes Scholar and worked in the State Department under both Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton. It was working in the Clinton State Department that Jennifer lead the development of Secretary Clinton’s Economics and Statecraft agenda, which was rolled out in 2011. Towards the end of the interview we discuss what it was like working with Hillary Clinton, who more likely than not will be the next US president. And we also have an illuminating conversation about the bureaucratic politics that goes into crafting a new kind of foreign policy agenda.