Statecraft

Santi Ruiz

Booking Overview

An interview series focused on how public policy, executive power, national security, and state capacity are developed, typically featuring senior government officials, political scientists, authors, and policy experts. Credible pitches include former or current policymakers, national security strategists, scholars of government and authoritarianism, and authors with original policy analysis; booking difficulty is high because recent guests hold prominent academic, governmental, and think-tank positions.

Metrics

Episodes: 79

Frequency: Irregular

Rating: 4.8/5.0

Estimated listeners: 1,000 - 10,000

Listener location: USA

Contact Information

Publicly listed emails

santi@ifp.org

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Host

Santi Ruiz - Host and publisher of Statecraft, focused on interviewing policymakers, scholars, and other experts about how policy is made.

Booking Intelligence

Booking Requirements

high

Typical Credentials:

Senior government officials, former policymakers, political scientists, national security specialists, authors, and think-tank experts with direct experience or original scholarship in public policy and statecraft.

Required Achievements:

Senior government service, Authorship of influential books or policy documents, University professorship or academic leadership, Fellowship at a prominent policy institute, Original research on government, national security, or executive power

Recent Guest Discussions

Julian Waller - Authoritarian Regimes, Military Juntas, Party States, Iran, North Korea, The Papacy, Russia, Venezuela, And U.s. Concerns About Authoritarianism.

Dan Wang - James C. Scott’s Scholarship, Peasant Life, State Capacity, Geography And Authority, Resistance To Government, And Career Principles In The Era Of Large Language Models.

Scott Kupor - Veterans Preference In Federal Hiring, Reductions In Force, Performance-based Firing, And Recruiting Early-career And Technology Talent Into Government.

Terry Moe - Presidential Control Of The Administrative State, Executive Power, Federal Agencies, And The Strongman Presidency.

William Howell - Presidential Control Of The Administrative State, The Historical Development Of The Administrative Presidency, And Executive Power.

Recent Topics

Politics, Public Policy, Government, National Security, Presidential Power

Episodes

Here's the recent few episodes on

Statecraft

How to Build a Policy School

September 29, 2026

My guest today is Will Howell, the inaugural dean of the School of Government & Policy at Johns Hopkins, which welcomes its first class in fall 2028. His argument is that the standard policy masters degree is no longer fit for purpose. I happen to agree.Two disclaimers: I took Will’s class as an undergraduate at the University of Chicago, and I’m a Journalist-in-Residence at his school now.Thanks to Harry Fletcher-Wood and Shadrach Strehle for their support in producing this episode. This is ...

How to Build an Authoritarian Regime

September 10, 2026

A while back, Edward Luttwak explained to us how to stage a coup. Julian Waller focuses on the next step: how authoritarian regimes are built and maintained. We discuss:* Authoritarian regimes as the historical norm* Why military juntas don’t last and party states do* Autocracies: Iran, North Korea, and the Papacy* How the Kremlin has reacted to the Wagner mutiny* What a “pacted transition” looks like in Venezuela* Why the US shouldn’t worry about authoritarianism This is a public episode. If...

The James C. Scott Memorial Episode

July 30, 2026

Today, my guest is writer, thinker, and friend Dan Wang. He was on Statecraft a year ago, but this time, we're talking about a scholar who has shaped both of our thinking: the late great James C. Scott, author of (among many other classics) Seeing Like a State.We discuss:* How Scott’s fieldwork helped him understand peasant life and state capacity* How mountains impede state power, in Southeast Asia and the USA* How peasants and civil servants resist authority* The advantages of tubers over r...

Publicly listed emails

santi@ifp.org

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