Yesterday I was invited to attend a civil society plenary session on UNSCR 1540 (obliging States to refrain from supporting by any means non-State actors from developing, acquiring, manufacturing, possessing, transporting, transferring or using nuclear, chemical or biological weapons and their delivery systems) at the UN organized by the Stanley Foundation . The session was co-sponsored by the […]
Josh Rogin at The Cable notes that Senators Kerry and Lugar have written to President Obama urging that a USAID administrator be appointed as soon as possible.
Last week I was pleased to meet with a delegation of Members of Parliament and staff from the Parliament of Ghana, who were in town as part of a USAID-supported legislative strengthening visit coordinated by the SUNY Center for International Development.While in Albany, NY they spent the week meeting with state legislators, staff from the […]
This past Thursday I attended an annual event of the International Center of the Capital Region that honors people in the community who have taken time out of their busy schedules to meet with delegations brought to the US through the State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program. It was a wonderful gathering that included federal, state and […]
Last week I was thrilled to host a dinner for a delegation from Uganda in the US on a State Department International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) visit. The conversation over dinner was an amazing mix of informal chat and high politics. The members of the delegation came to Albany, NY on the final leg of their multi-city tour […]
Steven Cook of the Council on Foreign Relations has released an excellent report on “Political Instability in Egypt,” through the Center for Preventive Action. The report begins by noting US policymakers’ bias toward assuming that Egypt “will muddle through its myriad challenges and endure indefinitely.” As anyone who has ever tried to study revolutions knows, it […]
Patricia Kushlis at WhirledView has an excellent post on the end of the Global War on Terror(John Brennan, Obama’s top White House advisor for Homeland Security and Counter Terrorism, who formally declared America’s Global War on Terror over at a CSIS event) and what global engagement means as a concept and a policy in practice. I couldn’t […]
The UACES: Exchanging ideas on Europe blog has an excellent post by Michael Siebert of the German Embassy in London (this came to my attention through John Brown’s blog on public diplomacy – a must read for anyone interested in PD). John quotes this part of Siebert’s post: “As a member of the Political Department of […]
Last Friday the New York Times ran an editorial offering ideas on how to begin serious reforms in New York State government, particularly the New York State Legislature. Leadership challenges in the state senate paralyzed the operations of government at a difficult time in the state’s economic situation (many of the states in the US are suffering in this downturn […]
Universities can – and often do – play an important role in advancing the cause of international development (and public diplomacy). One program that works very well is USAID’swork with the organization Higher Education for Development (HED). HED uses USAID funds to create partnerships between US and overseas universities. These partnerships are focused on specific development […]
The Washington Post ran an article yesterday about how the continued lack of a USAID Administrator is making it difficult to define the role development in the new administration, especially as Congress looks to reform the agency and Hillary Clinton is beginning her Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review. What is making this post so difficult […]
Patricia Kushlis at WhirledView has an excellent review of William P. Kiehl’s How Colleges Can Create International Communities. I won’t repeat the points made about the book (but make sure to read the review). But I would add that while it is heartening to see that educational and cultural affairs have been mentioned by both President Obama (especially […]
USAID Reviews Role of For-Profit Contractors Earlier this year the US Agency for International Development (USAID) began an internal review of its longstanding practice of using for-profit consulting firms that sub-contract to non-profit organizations working with USAID (thereby skirting the regulation that does not allow for-profit contractors). USAID awards about $4 billion every year in federal […]