During Monday night’s town hall style debate between President Obama and Governor Mitt Romney, the domestic issues once again seem poised to take the spotlight until one Mr. Kerry Ladka took to the microphone. Asking President Obama about the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Ladka said:
This question actually comes from a brain trust of my friends at Global Telecom Supply in Minneola yesterday. We were sitting around, talking about Libya, and we were reading and became aware of reports that the State Department refused extra security for our embassy in Benghazi, Libya, prior to the attacks that killed four Americans. Who was it that denied enhanced security and why?
Ladka’s question raised many questions (i.e. exactly is in this “brain trust” of friends at Global Telecom Supply?) the most frequently asked one was, “Who really sits around just casually talking about Libya?”
*For the less eloquent phrasing, see the thoughts of comedian Aziz Ansari here and here.
While it is fair enough to say that foreign policy is not what many consider the sexiest topic of conversation, there are plenty of interesting people (namely, contributors to and readers of foreignpolicyblogs.com) who often find themselves “sitting around talking about Libya” and other topics of conversation that are not exactly shoe ins for the “Hot Topics” segment on The View. In defense of those folks, here is a list of ten conversationalists who talk foreign policy and make for great follows.
@Max_Fisher Foreign affairs blogger at The Washington Post
@AzmatZahra Digital producer for Frontline on PBS
@blakehounshell Managing editor of Foreign Policy
@ianbremmer President of Eurasia Group
@columlynch UN reporter for The Washington Post, Turtle Bay blogger at Foreign Policy
@mbesheer Voice of America UN Correspondent.
@dandrezner International Politics professor – Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, Senior editor – The National Interest, Contributing editor – Foreign Policy
@robert_nolan Editor, Producer at Foreign Policy Association
@jeremyscahill National Security Correspondent for The Nation
@dpletka Vice President, Foreign and Defense Policy Studies, American Enterprise Institute
Know someone that you think should be added to the list? Let us know your top picks in the comment section below.