Here are a few items worth reviewing from 2010 and some things to keep an eye on in 2011. Notable Events in 2010: Release of the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR): This is the long-awaited (14 months) road map for reform of the State Department and USAID – what they do, how they do […]
Vladimir Sambaiew, President of the Stanley Foundation, recently had an op-ed in the Des Moines Register that very neatly sums up the argument on how multilateralism can work to address (if not always solve) global problems. Sambaiew’s focus is on the G-20 and “responsible stakeholdership.” Two phrases help explain today’s leadership context: the “G-20” and […]
Below are links to three articles that relate to previous postings here at Global Engagement: 1. My previous post on U.S. students seeking to study full-time in the U.K. has been followed up with an article in the Washington Post, “U.S. students crossing pond for college.” The population of U.S. undergraduates at United Kingdom schools […]
Several key Senate Republicans, McConnell, Graham and Kyl are leading the resistance to the ratification of the START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), claiming that the Senate needs more time to review the fine print on the treaty that would specify limits of: – 1,550 deployed warheads, which are about 30% lower than the upper warhead […]
Today the U.S. Senate will finally take up New START. There will be a lot of activity on this issue until the final vote as amendments are considered. Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Richard Lugar (R-IN) believe they have enough votes to secure passage (which is to say, enough to prevent a filibuster), and The […]
The incoming chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen signaled a few weeks ago that State Department and foreign aid programs will most likely be cut when she assumes the chairmanship in 2011. In a recent statement, Ros-Lehtinen laid out her agenda, “I have identified and will propose a number of cuts to […]
Since my post on WikiLeaks last week in which I half-seriously called for a declaration of war against the group I’ve had some rather interesting conversations with my politically-aware friends. I have liberal and conservative friends (as a moderate, I can do that) and had fully expected them all to share my views on WikiLeaks. […]
A very interesting juxtaposition in the news caught my eye this last week, thanks to WikiLeaks. I’m not praising WikiLeaks, mind you, merely pointing out that leaked cables revealed that the president of Mexico had been urging the U.S. to take a more active role in the region to counter belligerent actors in South America […]
A bit of good news on the diplomatic front: The U.S. has persuaded Belorussian President Alexander Lukashenko (known as Europe’s Last Dictator) to give up its stocks of highly enriched uranium (HEU). This is a significant win because Belarus has been a difficult country to deal with in the past, and it is a pretty […]
I’ve had a very busy day but on this World AIDS Day I’d be remiss if I didn’t note the U.S. role in fighting the global AIDS pandemic. What is the U.S. doing to fight AIDS? Let’s go from the general to the specific. First, let’s start with the State Department and the official statement […]
The Wall Street Journal recently ran an article on a small but growing number of U.S. students applying to British universities – not as study abroad but as their home institution. The article is here. U.S. high school and transfer students are looking at colleges outside the country as the price of an American college […]
U.S. foreign policy is in the news today with the release by Wikileaks of secret diplomatic cables. As a blogger for the Foreign Policy Association, foreign policy is naturally something that I take seriously and I’m really amazed and stunned at this malicious attack on American foreign policy. You know, when I first heard about […]
The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars has announced a new project focused on strengthening U.S. global engagement and strategic communications (called “Strengthening America’s Global Engagement – SAGE). Here is what they say about the project: In July 2010, the MacArthur Foundation joined with the Wilson Center to host a dinner that included key Obama […]
Last week I attended the latest installment of the Global Challenges Forum, held in Geneva and co-chaired by the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) and the Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization. Here is what NPS says about this effort: The Global Challenges Forum will bring together representatives from governmental and non-governmental partners to explore joint policy research […]
If you are looking for an illuminating bit of commentary on U.S.-North Korean relations in light of the North’s recent shelling of its southern neighbor from someone who knows quite a bit about the subject, check out this clip of CSIS’ Michael Green on Washington Journal, courtesy of C-SPAN. Green also wrote a great feature […]