Here's one last resource related to President Bush's recent trip to the Middle East. Brookings Institution scholar Martin Indyk, a former Ambassador to Israel, speaks with ABC's Martha Raddatz about Bush's attempts at achieving peace in the Middle East. He also addresses, more broadly, the policy options at the next US President's disposal for dealing with the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. […]
I thought I’d add to last week's post about President Bush's trip to the Middle East, by pointing out two new analyses. First, the Washington Post's White House correspondent Michael Abramowitz wrote in great detail about the various steps of Bush's mideast trip. Second, the Center for American Progress in their daily “Progress Report” published a thorough […]
Earlier this month the American Foreign Service Association held its annual ceremony honoring the Foreign Servicemen and women who lost their lives in the line of duty. Their names are eched into memorial plaques on the wall near the entrance to the State Depatment. This year sadly saw two more names etched onto the memorial wall: Steven Thomas […]
(AP) President Bush has travelled to Israel to celebrate the nation's 60th anniversary. He met with both Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (above, the full text of their remarks can be read here) and the President Shimon Peres. He addressed the Knesset(the Israeli Parliament) and a large conference with celebrity guests Henry Kissinger and Elie Wiesel. Every […]
A consistent theme running throughout this blog has been the Defense Department's slow and steady encroachment on activities traditionally performed by our diplomatic bureau, the State Department. A recent article from the USA Today reveals a new aspect of this phenomenon: “The Pentagon is setting up a global network of foreign-language news websites, including an Arabic […]
The Washington Post's job section ran a story this Sunday on tips for getting a job with the US Foreign Service. The author dispelled a few common myths about the FS. Here is an excerpt: “Myth: The Foreign Service — the nation's diplomatic corps — is made up exclusively of State Department staff. Fact: The biggest branch of […]
This October, Georgetown University Press will publish a new “manual” on the Foreign Service titled Career Diplomacy. Authored by former Foreign Service Officer Harry Kopp and the recently-passed Charles “Tony” Gillespie, a former Ambassador to Colombia and Chile, the book serves as an A to Z guide on the Foreign Service and US diplomacy. Here's some […]
Diplomacy isn't just an activity civil servants engage in. the average American (gasp!) can be a diplomat too. Whether it's going th extra mile to be nice to foreigners you meet on the street, or trying your hardest to be a well-behaved international tourist, Americans themselves can together help to polish the US tarnished image abroad. One […]
According to Robin Wright and Glenn Kessler, the release of intelligence on the Syrian nuclear site at al-Kibar, has had adverse effects on the negotiations with North Korea. Unfortunately, this development came at time when significant progress was being made. Blake Hounshell of FP Passport rightly points out evidence of North Korea actively aiding Syria […]
Harvard professor Joseph Nye and former Assistant Secretary of State Richard Armitage briefed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week on their Smart Power initiative. Joe Nye has been writing about smart power and its earlier version soft power since The “smart power” concept was first introduced to the Senate Foreign Relations committee by Admiral […]
Today is the sixteenth anniversary of the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan. As Ghosts of Alexander reminds us the United States finds itself battling the radical sentiment it helped proliferate to fight the Soviets. Pakistan's President Musharraf, addressing the 88th National Management Course, noted the growing extremism , which he fears "the spread of Talibansation beyond […]
The Washington, DC-based Brookings Institute and the University of Bern's Project on on Internal Displacement has released an interesting report focusing on how to fuse human rights with US foreign policy. The author is Roberta Cohen, who, among her impressive credentials in the field of human rights, was Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Rights at […]
Jimmy Carter's controversial visit with Hamas has yielded an unexpected offer to Israel. Hamas' leading strategist, Khaled Meshaal has publicly announced a ten year "hudna" (truce), as recognition of Israel in exchange for a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. Of course, this offer is met with cynicism here in the United States: […]
Just as the brand new US Embassy in Iraq has finally been cleared to open for business, bad news from HR. “The State Department is warning U.S. diplomats they may be forced to serve in Iraq next year and says it will soon start identifying prime candidates for jobs at the Baghdad embassy and outlying […]
The Kojo Nnamdi show, an NPR station based in Washington, DC, hosted a group of foreign policy experts and practitioners in a discussion about the future of the US Foreign Service (FS). (Listen to the show). All of Kojo's guests pointed out that the central barrier to a bright future for the FS was the […]