If you are a member of Senator McCain or Senator Obama's cadre of campaign advisers, a former US Ambassador, or even a mere foreign policy expert, you are one busy guy/gal right now. Washington is brimming with events with titles like "US Foreign Policy in the Next Presidential Administration: What Will Go Down?" or "President […]
(Secretary Rice at a press conference in June in Lebanon, courtesy of the State Department) Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke at the Council on Foreign Relations’ International Affairs Fellows Conference last week. An edited video of her remarks can be viewed here. The thrust of Rice's speech centered on the “elements of continuity” thatthe Bush administration's […]
On Thursday night the House of Representatives passed a vast supplemental spending bill (HR 2642), which would provide $161.8 billion in war funding, an expanded veterans' education benefit, an extension of unemployment insurance and money to deal with flooding in the Midwest. The bill now goes to the Senate for approval, where Democratic leaders have […]
(US Embassy photo) The US Center for Global Engagement reports that Congress has been making headway in a discussion about how improving how to improve the process by which the US doles out aid money to foreign countries. The Center recently published this review noting Congress's recent action. The review states: “A wide range of national security and foreign […]
Career Foreign Service Officer James DeHart discusses whether the diplomatic corps have become too militarized in an op-ed in the Washington Posttoday. Noting the large numbers of diplomats who have volunteered for war-zone appointments in Afghanistan and Iraq, DeHart says: “This surge in war-zone assignments is an extension of the “transformational diplomacy” for which Secretary […]
The Pew Global Attitudes Project released today a large global public opinion poll that ties in nicely with my post yesterday about the House Foreign Relations Subcommittee report on views of the US. Here's a chart that shows the decline in favorable views of the US around the world since 1999:
Today the House Foreign Affairs Committee's Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight released the culmination of ten hearings all based on global views of the US. The report, titled "The Decline in America's Reputation: Why?” explores this important issue, thoroughly-documented with testimony from some of the country's brightest public opinion and regional experts. The report identifies […]
President Bush began a five-country European tour on Monday, his last trip to Europe as President. The pre-take-off remarks he made to the Washington press corps on what he hopes to acheive there can be read here and watched here. Bush kicked off the trip with an annual European Council summit in Slovenia. While the subject of the […]
The Center for U.S. Global Engagement, a Washington-based group that seeks to strengthen America's commitment to global engagement, has launched a new web-based talk show about global issues called “The Global Wire.” So far the show has hosted Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE), member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and former Secretary of State Madeleine […]
Andy Semmel of the Paternship for a Secure America gives some suggestions on how the U.S. Government could ramp up its global efforts to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction. His suggestions are entirely focused on improvements that could be made at the State Department. This is not surprising, considering Semmel served for more […]
The Washington Post reports: “More than 100 countries reached agreement Wednesday to ban cluster bombs, controversial weapons that human rights groups deplore but that the United States, which did not join the ban, calls an integral, legitimate part of its arsenal. …Advocates of the ban said they hope the agreement, which was supported by rich […]
Frida Berrigan, a Senior Program Associate at the New America Foundation's Arms and Security Initiative, authored a scathing endictment of the military buildup that occurred during George W. Bush's presidency. In the section called "The Pentagon as Diplomat," Berrigan argues: ” the White House's foreign policy agenda has increasingly been directed through the military. With a military budget […]
Ron Nessen, a journalist in residence at the Washington-based Brookings Institution, reported on what he calls a “rare event” in Washington. His article, titled “A Defense Secretary Says Something Nice About a Secretary of State,” relates the remaks Secretary of Defense Robert Gates made at a recent Brookings Board of Trustees meeting. “Verbal battles, turf fights, and policy […]
(Secretary Rice and Secretary Milliband in Silicon Valley) Britain's Foreign Secretary David Milliband continued his US tour last week by conducting an interview with Public Radio International's “The World” program. You can listen to the interview here. On the controversial issue about whether Iran–and every country on earth–has the right to develop nuclear power for […]
British Foreign Secretary David Milliband spoke at the Center for Strategic and International Studies yesterday. He is quite an exceptional foreign leader: he is 41 years old and has been in politics for only 10 years, and at very high levels at that. CSIS invited Milliband as part of their “Smart Power” program, which studies new public […]