There are a lot of interesting things to hear in this Forbes.com Video interview with Robert and Lucia Duvall. They are talking about the Latin American microfinance institution Pro Mujer. As their name suggests, Pro Mujer is specifically aimed at providing loans to women entrepreneurs. They also provide business training and healthcare. Neither of those […]
Somewhat in the spirit of the "Step It Up 2007" campaign from last April in which events all over the country focused on climate change and getting Congress to act, this week a group called Focus the Nation has organized thousands of teach-ins at schools and other entities like churches and businesses. Here are links […]
Monday's State of the Union Address was heavy on the economy and ideological posturing. However, foreign policy issues were addressed, and this blog would like to touch upon what was said. Stepping back and taking a macro-viewpoint of the speech, Bush did not provide new policy initiatives, which we had wondered about on this blog […]
When the President spoke last night he categorized most foreign aid under the heading “compassion”. He specifically mentioned 1) Food Aid Reform, 2) HIV and Malaria Control and Prevention, 3) Basic Education Assistance, and 4) the Millenium Challenge Account. Compassion was also mentioned briefly as a side note to “Keeping America Safe by Fostering the […]
The UN Process , As you know, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), located in Bonn, is the governing body for the Kyoto Protocol, its Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), and much of the work that the UN does on climate change. Its executive secretary, Yvo de Boer, has this perspective on the […]
Recently Uzbekistan has begun to receive some scrutiny over the use of forced child labor in the cotton fields, however for many its long over due. The use of children in the cotton fields dates back to the Soviet era, and as a signatory of The Convention on the Rights of the Child, Uzbekistan has […]
The Gates Foundation got some more insults today. It's a little depressing that something as fundamentally positive as the world's richest man giving away billions of dollars to benefit the world's poor gets so much negative press and so little positive. All the positive articles I turn up for Gates Foundation are obvious press releases, and […]
Over at the Election 2008 blog, Mark Dillen discusses Madeleine Albright's book "Memo to the Next President Elect: How We Can Restore America's Reputation and Leadership." His post also contains a good soundbite from Albright in which she clarifies a common misunderstanding about diplomatic efforts: "Diplomacy is not appeasement. You can deliver tough messages as […]
Afghanistan has fallen off the radar for many in the wake of the ongoing war in Iraq, however the struggle in Afghanistan is far from over. Rebuilding after a war, and years of repression, is never easy, especially for the children. The children of Afghanistan have been born into hardship, they dream of prosperity, and […]
A study has shown that there is only a small correlation between corporate social responsibility practices and profitability. Particularly scandalous corporate behavior brings poor profits, though. The study authors interpret (and admit they are being cynical with this) that it pays to be good, but not too good. Put another way, profit should not be the […]
A 2006 assessment of the State Department's Public Diplomacy (PD) program conducted by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB, a Cabinet-level office run out the White House) ranks the program's overall performance "adequate," (as opposed to "effective, moderately effective, or ineffective"). The more abbreviated "assessment summary" can be found here. The State Department describes […]
Soft balancing against the United States is on the rise and the next President will face a myriad of challenges in asserting American influence, so argues Parag Khanna. His article in the New York Time Magazine this week encapsulates a vast swath of recent history and developments in geopolitics, particularly across the second world. In […]
America is already operating in Pakistan covertly, with CIA and Special Forces on the ground and Predator drones in the air. However, whether the US Army itself will cross the border and cut off the insurgent sanctuary as it did in Cambodia in 1970, remains to be seen. President Musharraf has repeatedly warned Bush about the consequences […]
Pranay Gupte isn't so impressed with Bill Gates's “creative capitalism. He rightly points out that Gates isn't being quite so creative as the press corps thinks. But I’m personally not convinced by the reductio ad absurdum that Gupte uses to imagine corporate CEOs tromping through the “mud of Madagasgar” with tins of foie gras strapped […]