Statecraft

How Diplomacy Works in Africa

Today we’re joined by Judd Devermont [https://www.linkedin.com/in/judd-devermont-24296611a], one of the most experienced Africa policy hands in Washington. He spent 16 years as an intelligence analyst, serving in both the Obama and Biden administrations. Most recently, he was Senior Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council. He authored the Biden administration’s Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa [https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/U.S.-Strategy-Toward-Sub-Saharan-Africa-FINAL.pdf]. Since leaving government in early 2024, he writes a newsletter called Post Strategy [https://poststrategy.substack.com/], reflecting on what works and what doesn’t in US policy toward Africa. We discuss * What “care and feeding” means in diplomacy * What went wrong with the relationships with Niger * The problem with envoys * Whether the NSC has been neutered under Trump * Why most intelligence analysis doesn’t cut it anymore The full transcript for this conversation is at www.statecraft.pub [http://www.statecraft.pub]. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.statecraft.pub [https://www.statecraft.pub?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

How to Run New York City

You can find the full transcript of this conversation at www.statecraft.pub [http://www.statecraft.pub]. The likely next mayor of New York City is Zohran Mamdani, if polling is anywhere close to being correct. Much of the conversation has revolved around the day-to-day administration of City Hall. If Mamdani wins, does he have what it takes to run the city’s government? Today’s guest is still active in NYC political life, and it was clear I would not get an answer to that particular question. Instead, I took this opportunity to investigate how City Hall actually runs, and how the past three mayors have structured their administrations. But if you read between the lines, you can treat this conversation as a guide about what has worked in New York’s governance over the last 20 years, and the likely stumbling blocks for an ambitious new administration. Maria Torres-Springer [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Torres-Springer] moved to New York City a week before 9/11, and spent most of the following 20 years in city government — first as a top appointee in the Bloomberg administration, then in several high-powered roles under Bill de Blasio, and eventually as second-in-command for Eric Adams. Her most recent role was as first deputy mayor: functionally the Chief Operating Officer of New York City. Torres-Springer resigned in February 2025 (she was not implicated in the overlapping Eric Adams corruption scandals). To put it lightly, Torres-Springer has fans. In November 2024, City & State New York wrote a cover story [https://www.cityandstateny.com/personality/2024/11/vibe-city-hall-thank-god-maria-torres-springer/400730/] titled, “The Vibe at City Hall is Thank God for Maria Torres-Springer.” It quotes political figures from the far left, center left, and right, calling Torres-Springer “a phenomenal leader,” “a very classy, charismatic, knowledgeable individual,” and, “a serial overachiever in a good way.” When Adams appointed her as first deputy mayor, he said, “She has the ability of landing the plane.” Torres-Springer is widely described as one of the most effective political operators in New York City, and she’s been linked [https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/13/de-blasio-sets-an-example-as-mamdani-thinks-about-staffing-up-00449610] in media stories as a potential official in the next mayoral administration (although she recently took a role [https://revsonfoundation.org/news-article/maria-torres-springer-appointed-president-of-the-charles-h-revson-foundation/] as President of the Revson Foundation, a NYC-based philanthropic organization). She’s maybe the best possible guest to talk about steering City Hall. Given constraints on what Torres-Springer could discuss, I wanted to get into two big topics. One is process. What does it take to run City Hall? How have different mayors done it differently? The other is outcomes. Torres-Springer was one of the champions of City of Yes [https://www.nyc.gov/content/planning/pages/our-work/plans/citywide/city-of-yes-housing-opportunity], the Adams-backed initiative to build 500,000 new housing units in the city over the next 10 years. I wanted to better understand City of Yes, what she’s most excited about, what didn’t make the cut, and how it all came together politically. We discuss: * What it takes to succeed working for three very different mayors * How Bloomberg, de Blasio, and Adams governed differently * How to work effectively under constant pressure * The political coalitions that made City of Yes possible * Why it takes over a year to turn over a NYCHA apartment * How to fix the plumbing of government * What the next mayor should prioritize to keep New York thriving Thanks to Harry Fletcher-Wood, Eamonn Ives, and Katerina Barton for their judicious audio and transcript edits for length and clarity. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.statecraft.pub [https://www.statecraft.pub?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

A Statecraft Fall Roundup

This episode was originally recorded on October 18th at the Progress Conference [https://rootsofprogress.org/conference/] in Berkeley. Because of the federal shutdown, Director Kratsios called in virtually. Michael Kratsios is Director of the https://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/White House Office of Science and Technology Policy [https://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/], and the president’s top science and technology advisor. In the first Trump administration, Kratsios was US Chief Technology Officer, and later acting Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, where he championed emerging tech like AI, quantum, and autonomous systems in defense. Given constraints in the topics Kratsios could speak on, my questions focused on understanding the administration’s AI and science policy. We talked about the recent AI Action Plan [https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Americas-AI-Action-Plan.pdf]: what AI can do for America and the world, and how the administration plans to ensure US leadership. We discuss the administration’s vision for gold standard science, and whether the structures we use to fund science need to change. We also touched on how the second Trump administration differs from the first, and Kratsios’s take on AI safety. Thanks to Harry Fletcher-Wood and Katerina Barton for their light edits for length and clarity in the transcript and audio, respectively, and for a tight turnaround. The White House has not yet cleared the full video for publication, but we’ll share it here if it is cleared. The full transcript for this conversation and many others is available at www.statecraft.pub [http://www.statecraft.pub]. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.statecraft.pub [https://www.statecraft.pub?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Is the Senate Fixing Housing Policy?

Today we’re talking about housing. The ROAD to Housing Act passed the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee 24-0 in late July. Last week — despite the shutdown — it cleared the Senate. It’s a package of 27 pieces of legislation to boost housing supply, improve affordability, reduce regulatory roadblocks, and reduce homelessness. When you zoom out a bit, what’s happened here is pretty surprising. The chair of the committee, Republican Tim Scott, and the Ranking Member, Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, co-sponsored the bill. The bill is the committee’s first bipartisan housing markup in over a decade. Passing through committee unanimously doesn’t happen often for serious bills of this sort. I wanted to understand how this bill happened, and came to have a serious shot at passing. And I also wanted to get a better sense of what’s actually in the bill, and why it matters for housing. If you’re like me, most of the debates you hear about housing policy focus on zoning, which is a local issue — very little federal say. So what are all these pieces of legislation? Do they matter? Joining me is an unorthodox trio: * Will Poff-Webster [https://www.linkedin.com/in/will-poff-webster-a235964b/] was legislative counsel for Senator Brian Schatz, a Democrat from Hawaii. He’s our inside guy today: he worked on the bill within the Senate. And today, he covers housing policy here at IFP. * Alex Armlovich [https://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=AwrIfneyce9oEQIADoEM34lQ;_ylu=Y29sbwNpcjIEcG9zAzIEdnRpZAMEc2VjA3Ny/RV=2/RE=1761732274/RO=10/RU=https%3a%2f%2fwww.linkedin.com%2fin%2falex-armlovich-4b0a9b29/RK=2/RS=wgABtknzqzaz_6uBz7JArACHwu0-] is Senior Housing Policy Analyst at the Niskanen Center [https://www.niskanencenter.org/]. He has been working on housing issues for a long time, and his fingerprints are on parts of this bill package. He’s my advocate from the outside. * Brian Potter [https://ifp.org/author/brian-potter/] is Senior Infrastructure Fellow at https://www.ifp.org/IFP [https://www.ifp.org/] and author of Construction Physics [https://www.construction-physics.com/], which I very much enjoy editing. If I can make one newsletter recommendation to you besides Statecraft, it’s Construction Physics. He has a background in private-sector home building. And has written about several of the proposals in this package. Table of contents: * What’s the federal role in housing policy? [https://www.statecraft.pub/i/176260848/whats-the-federal-role-in-housing-policy] * What’s in the bill? [https://www.statecraft.pub/i/176260848/whats-in-the-bill] * Regulatory reform * Technical assistance plus incentives * Funding and financing reform * A brief sidebar on manufactured home chassis [https://www.statecraft.pub/i/176260848/a-sidebar-on-manufactured-chassis] * Will the bill matter? [https://www.statecraft.pub/i/176260848/will-the-bill-matter] * How did the bill happen, politically speaking? [https://www.statecraft.pub/i/176260848/howd-the-bill-happen-politically] * The policy wonk success story [https://www.statecraft.pub/i/176260848/the-policy-wonk-success-story] Thank you to Harry Fletcher-Wood and Katerina Barton for their judicious transcript and audio edits. For the full transcript of this conversation, go to www.statecraft.pub [http://www.statecraft.pub]. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.statecraft.pub [https://www.statecraft.pub?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Why We Don't Build Apartments for Families

Today, we’re joined by Bobby Fijan [https://x.com/bobbyfijan]. He’s a co-founder of the American Housing Corporation, a startup building housing for families in cities. A burning question motivates his work: How do you make cities places where families can live and thrive? He has a new report [https://ifstudies.org/report-brief/homes-for-young-families-part-2] out with the Institute of Family Studies [https://ifstudies.org/] looking at what families really want from their apartments. This is a pretty self-indulgent episode for me. I live in Brooklyn with my wife and two-year-old, and we’re expecting our second kid. We want to stay in the city — it’s where our life and community are, and where we’ve put down roots. But the classic route for people like us is to move out to the suburbs once the family grows. I hoped talking to Bobby would help me avoid that fate. Bobby argues that the best ideas for family-friendly housing aren’t new. Pre-war apartments in American cities look a lot like what he’s advocating for. We’ve done this before, and we could do it again. We discuss: * How the financial crisis fuelled a boom in studio apartments * Why did apartments get so much smaller after 2008? * Why are most two-bedroom apartments designed for roommates? * What do families actually want in a floor plan, and why don’t developers build it? * Whether upzoning can help Thanks to Harry Fletcher-Wood and Katerina Barton for their judicious transcript and audio edits. The full transcript to this conversation and many others is available at www.statecraft.pub [http://www.statecraft.pub]. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.statecraft.pub [https://www.statecraft.pub?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]