The conflicted nature of the U.S. relationship with Pakistan was on full display this past week as the U.S. released official figures on U.S. aid for flood relief while Pakistan closed an important transportation corridor to NATO supply convoys. The aid announcement by the State Department underscores both American generosity to a wartime ally as […]
You may have noticed that one of the post categories for this blog is “U.S. Aid” and posts under that category are devoted to news and commentary about U.S. efforts to provide financial and humanitarian assistance to other countries. I see this as one of the pillars of the traditional U.S. role in the world. […]
On a few occasions, I have taken up the subject of how institutional relations among states are affected by events and common missions. Writing on the Atlantic Council’s New Atlanticist blog recently, Magnus Nordenman offered his views on how the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns may affect transatlantic cooperation in the future. His basic conclusion: The […]
Like many people I still remember exactly where I was and what I was doing as those tragic events unfolded that day in New York City, Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania. On this the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks it seems clear that our national media have chosen to filter this anniversary through the […]
A few months ago, I discussed how China’s dominance of the global rare earths market threatens the ability of the U.S. to become a green technology leader. Now it seems that American steelworker unions are petitioning the U.S. government to open talks with China on the matter, and they are requesting that the Obama Administration […]
You may have heard that a Florida minister is planning to hold a a Quran-burning protest this weekend. Many prominent Americans have weighed in and encouraged the minister to cancel his event, including Gen. David Petraeus, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and even President Obama. The general is concerned for the safety of our men and women […]
President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton began new Mideast peace talks this week in Washington. The talks bring together the leaders of Israel, Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority to start yet another high profile effort to achieve the goal of Mideast peace. As you know, Mideast peace is always on the presidential to-do […]
President Obama addressed the nation from the Oval Office yesterday to announce the end of combat operations in Iraq. Since then there has been a fair amount of media coverage and I’m very encouraged by that. I was beginning to worry that this major milestone in the history of the U.S. role in the world […]
How do you pick an envoy for a “rescue” mission to North Korea? Foreign Policy’s Josh Rogin looked at how this question was answered in the most recent case involving former President Jimmy Carter’s mission to Pyongyang to retrieve American citizen Aijalon Mahli Gomes. It’s a good piece that also details the insider campaigns waged […]
Many countries in the world have constitutions based on the models of the great imperial powers of Europe. It makes sense that former colonies would model themselves on Great Britain or France, for example, and shape their systems of government to mirror the ideal of parliamentary democracy. Rarer are the countries that have modeled themselves on the U.S. system of checks […]
I came across two articles that speak volumes about the reality of how culture, particularly pop culture, is transmitted from one country to others (and how the US is much less dominant than some triumphalist voices assume and proclaim). 1. “Soft Rock Power” in Foreign Policy reports on the work by Joel Waldfogel and Fernando […]
For those interested in the growing U.S.-China rivalry in the South China Sea, a very good read here. It opens thusly: The nations of Southeast Asia are building up their militaries, buying submarines and jet fighters at a record pace and are edging closer strategically to the United States as a hedge against China’s rise […]
I have written before about the negative effects on the US Government because of an over-reliance on contractors, especially by USAID. But the distortion runs both ways – the organizations scrambling for and implementing those contracts are also affected. In an article this month in The New Republic, “How NGOs Became Pawns in the War […]
Two stories about important trends in international development at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the the British equivalent, the Department for International Development (DfID): 1. Federal Times article on decreasing reliance on contractors and increasing insourcing at USAID can be found here. An excerpt: USAID is trying to rebuild a work force […]
Pakistan is experiencing epic flooding as a result of monsoon rains. How bad is it? U.S. Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke puts it this way: “Floods in Asia” is such a recurrent headline that many people outside Pakistan still do not realize that this is an epic event–the worst monsoon floods in the history of the […]