In this episode of Lawyering Peace, Dr. Paul Williams speaks with Kat Fotovat, a global expert on gender, artificial intelligence, and international security, to explore how technological disruption and shifting power structures are reshaping the role of women in peacebuilding.

Drawing on two decades of experience across conflict and post conflict settings, Kat reflects on the evolution of gender policy within international institutions and the growing challenges facing women peacebuilders today. She outlines the core dimensions of gender work, including prevention of violence, protection of rights, and the promotion of women’s participation across political and economic life.

The conversation then turns to the accelerating impact of artificial intelligence. Kat explains how AI is already being used both to empower and to target women, from enhancing advocacy and early warning systems to enabling harassment through deepfakes and disinformation. She shares how her organization, Peace Pays, is working to equip women peacebuilders with the tools, training, and safeguards needed to operate effectively in this new environment.

Looking ahead, Kat examines the broader paradigm shift underway in the global order, including the growing influence of private technology companies and the implications for international norms and governance. She introduces the concept of embedding a “maternal instinct” into AI systems as a way to promote empathy, safety, and human centered outcomes.

This episode offers a forward looking perspective on the intersection of gender, technology, and power, and what it will take to ensure that the next generation of global systems remains inclusive, effective, and grounded in human rights.

In this episode of Lawyering Peace, Dr. Paul Williams sits down with Dr. Łukasz Adamski, historian, political scientist, and Deputy Director of the Mieroszewski Dialogue Centre, to discuss the profound historical and political shifts redefining Eastern Europe’s role in the global order.

They discuss why 70 to 80 percent of modern politics is actually a discussion about history, how Poland’s "deep trauma" of 1939 shapes its current skepticism toward international security guarantees, and whether the European Union can ever truly function as a global superpower without a unified public opinion or a federalized military. Dr. Adamski also reflects on his work advising President Zelenskyy’s team and why the current paradigm shift is moving the region away from a reliance on law toward a necessary focus on military self-reliance.

In this episode of Lawyering Peace, Dr. Paul Williams sits down with two prominent former senior Mexican diplomats, Ambassador Rubén Beltrán and Ambassador Jorge Lomónaco, to examine Mexico's place in the shifting global order and the difficult choices it faces as a rising middle power caught between geography, history, and a transforming international system.

They discuss why Mexico sits between a rock and a hard place in its relationship with the United States, how Latin America's deep fragmentation limits Mexico's regional ambitions, and whether the window for meaningful diversification is already closing or just beginning to open.