Foreign Policy Blogs

U.S. Diplomacy

America’s Diplomats: Film Review by Scott Bleiweis

America’s Diplomats: Film Review by Scott Bleiweis

Diplomacy today is changing, especially with regard to technology and the availability of instant communication. Imagine how the Cuban Missile Crisis might have unfolded differently in our time.

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America’s Diplomats: Film Review by Neil Thompson

America’s Diplomats: Film Review by Neil Thompson

Many of the diplomats interviewed seem to feel they do a better job of representing America abroad than they do of representing the diplomatic profession to their fellow Americans back home.

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Dayton Accords at 20

Dayton Accords at 20

The Dayton Accords ended the war, but with what kind of peace?

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The NSC and Foreign Policy Management: A Role for Diplomats?

The NSC and Foreign Policy Management: A Role for Diplomats?

Department of State: Role player under NSC or manager of foreign policy?

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Candid Discussions: Mohsen Milani on Iran and the Middle East Crisis

Candid Discussions: Mohsen Milani on Iran and the Middle East Crisis

Mohsen Milani is the Executive Director of the Center for Strategic and Diplomatic Studies at the University of South Florida, where he is a professor of international relations.

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Candid Discussions: Mark Dubowitz on Iranian Nuclear Negotiations

Candid Discussions: Mark Dubowitz on Iranian Nuclear Negotiations

Mark Dubowitz is executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington, D.C.-based nonpartisan policy institute, where he leads projects on Iran, sanctions, nonproliferation, and countering electronic repression.

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Book Review: Iran’s Historic Distrust of Foreign Powers

Book Review: Iran’s Historic Distrust of Foreign Powers

  Editor’s Note: The following is a book review by Reza Varjavand, associate professor of economics and finance at the Graham School of management, Saint Xavier University by Reza Varjavand Even though we still do not know for sure how we got to be on this planet, we have a long history of living on […]

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A Candid Discussion with Gareth Porter

A Candid Discussion with Gareth Porter

Gareth Porter, author of Manufactured Crisis: The Untold History of the Iranian Nuclear Scare, is a renowned investigative journalist and historian on U.S. national security policy. Porter was the 2012 winner of the Gellhorn Prize for journalism awarded by the Gellhorn Trust in the U.K.  His previous book was Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and […]

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The Indian Diplomat and Her Domestic: Beyond the Diplomatic Snafu

The Indian Diplomat and Her Domestic:  Beyond the Diplomatic Snafu

The snafu over Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade’s employment of household servant Sangeeta Richard has subsided.  But the incident raises a strategic issue, which goes beyond the question of whether the U.S.  treats India, in the words of the Economist, like a domestic servant.  There is a tension between developed American freedom and the views of freedom that […]

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Gates Sheds New Light on Obama’s Afghan Dysfunctions

Gates Sheds New Light on Obama’s Afghan Dysfunctions

My last post noted how the blockbuster memoir by Robert M. Gates reinforces the points many observers have made about the defects of the Obama administration’s national security process.  The revelations also bolster my own argument that President Obama and his team share a good deal of the responsibility for the ongoing crisis in relations between Washington and Hamid Karzai’s government […]

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Senators Should Let Negotiators Negotiate

Senators Should Let Negotiators Negotiate

As regular readers know, the United States and five other countries (P5+1) concluded an interim nuclear agreement (the Joint Plan of Action) with Iran, setting the conditions that will hold during negotiations on a final agreement concerning the Iranian nuclear program and the international economic sanctions imposed on that country and also outlining some aspects […]

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A Wide Ocean, Difficult Days & Ties that Bind: Morocco-U.S. Relations 50 Years after JFK’s Assassination

A Wide Ocean, Difficult Days & Ties that Bind: Morocco-U.S. Relations 50 Years after JFK’s Assassination

On Friday, we will look back on the 50 years since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and how that tragic event in Dallas changed history. Also, on Friday, Morocco’s King Mohammed VI will pay a state visit to Washington, D.C. and meet with President Barack Obama to look forward at how both our nations […]

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Common Problems Subverting Obamacare and U.S. Foreign Policy

Common Problems Subverting Obamacare and U.S. Foreign Policy

The management flaws now coming to light in the implementation of the president’s signature domestic achievement have long been evident in the foreign policy realm.  As I argue in a new essay on Fair Observer’s website, the White House’s policymaking machinery is overly insular, centralized and politicized. Dana Milbank, the Washington Post columnist who is generally supportive of Mr. […]

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U.S. Smart Power is Taking a Beating

U.S. Smart Power is Taking a Beating

In his journey to the White House, Barack Obama made much hay railing against his predecessor’s supposedly go-it-alone mindset and penchant for foreign policy unilateralism.  With memories still fresh of the spectacular rupture between Washington and its traditional European allies over the Iraq war, Obama’s claim to be the “anti-Bush” garnered him a euphoric welcome […]

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Obama in the Middle East: Fading Red Lines and Eroding Credibility

Obama in the Middle East: Fading Red Lines and Eroding Credibility

A post last month argued that President Obama was fast approaching a defining moment for his foreign policy in view of the mounting evidence that the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria used sarin, a lethal nerve gas, in violation of Mr. Obama’s numerous warnings not to do so.  The day of reckoning has now arrived […]

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