This past Tuesday, Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) came out against the consideration of New START during the lame duck session stating his desire for greater assurances of support from the Obama Administration for the modernization of U.S. nuclear labs and protection from limitations on U.S. missile defense programs. That same day, Vice President Biden and […]
Senate ratification of the renewal of the START nuclear arms reduction treaty may be stalled by domestic politics. As you will recall, the old treaty expired in December and the U.S. and Russia worked to put together a new treaty that will continue their decades-long commitment to draw-down their nuclear arsenals. The heavy-lifting has already […]
This year the University at Albany’s (SUNY) Department of Educational Administration and Policy Studies created a new organization focused on global higher education. The Cross-Border Education Research Team (C-BERT) is co-directed by faculty members Jason Lane and Kevin Kinser. Here is what they say about their mission and focus: Over the past two decades, there […]
Two articles appeared in the last few days that caught my attention, both on Al Qaeda: one about Yemen and the other about Morocco and the Western Sahara. The New York Times had a piece last week titled Yemen’s Drive on Al Qaeda Faces Internal Skepticism and The New York Post ran an article on […]
1. American Ballet Theater Return to Cuba After 50 Years 2. Impacts: Does Academic Exchange Matter? – Cultural Diplomacy, Scholarly Internationalism, and American Studies since World War II (Conference of the Austrian – American Educational Commission) 3. U.S. to Send Visual Artists as Cultural Ambassadors 4. Modern Art was a CIA ‘Weapon’ 5. French Diplomat […]
President Obama is off to Asia for a ten-day drip designed to promote U.S. commercial and security interests. After the “shellacking” his party took at the polls, who can blame him for wanting to get out of town? Actually, this trip was planned way before the election, so we can’t really read too much into […]
Today (Tuesday, November 2) is Election Day in the United States. While it is an off-year for presidential elections, in my home state of New York the entire state legislature is up for election, governor, attorney general, comptroller, both US Senators (rare as they are usually staggered , but one is running for Hillary Clinton’s […]
Secretary Clinton is in Asia attending a summit and reassuring allies on the issue of disputed territory that has galvanized the region. The premiers of China and Japan met at an Asian regional summit in a bid to defuse a territorial dispute on Saturday, while the United States urged Asia’s two big economies to cool […]
Did you know that Americans were involved in the Chile mine rescue? I may have been tangentially aware that American engineers and know-how were involved, but amid the 24/7 news coverage of the final days of the rescue, it’s not something that I focused on. In fact, looking back, I’m really surprised I didn’t focus […]
Here in Rovinj, a picture perfect little town on Croatia’s Adriatic Coast, the third annual “Media Weekend Festival,” September 23-25, brought together over 2,500 media, PR, advertising and communications specialists from countries of the former Yugoslavia to hear from international experts on new trends in the media field, assess the regional media situation and provide […]
Nicholas Kristoff has an article (here) in the New York Times magazine on what he sees as a two-part trend: 1. do-it-yourself foreign aid; and, 2. the notable role of women in that effort. I won’t rehash the substance of the article but it is worth asking if this D.I.Y. approach to foreign aid is a reaction […]
Something strange happened at the UN this past week: Canada ran for a non-permanent seat on the Security Council and, for the first time in more than 50 years, didn’t get it. Stranger still? It seems the Obama Administration did not actively campaign on behalf of the U.S.’ Neighbor to the North. The details are […]
There are two new blogs on that focus on the Middle East, both worth following: 1. From the Potomac to the Euphrates, by Steven A. Cook of the Council on Foreign Relations. Cook introduces the blog with the following post: I hope the site will be a forum for readers who share my passionate interest […]
Earlier this month I served as a member of the US delegation to the election observation mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (overseeing presidential, parliamentary and cantonal elections held on October 3). The observation was implemented by the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODHIR) of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) […]
The State University of New York announced that Ambassador Robert R. Gosende has been named the John W. Ryan Fellow in International Education for 2010-2011. Here is the official SUNY press release: SUNY Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher Announces Robert Gosende as 2010-11 John W. Ryan Fellow in International Education September 10, 2010 Albany – State […]