Today, as Barack Obama formally announces his national security team, there is plenty of buzz over what his choices mean in the field of public diplomacy. Hillary Clinton, under whose State Department aegis public diplomacy falls, was not particularly vocal or articulate on this topic as a candidate. Robert Gates, whose Defense Department has no […]
You may have noticed that one of the post categories for this blog is “U.S. Aid” and it's 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, we like to see […]
I’ve noted before that the State Department is making use of Web 2.0 social networking tools and in this latest example they are using the Twitter service to promote public diplomacy: For those of you on Twitter, you can experience public diplomacy in real-time as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy, Colleen […]
In a recently released video message Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri challenged President-Elect Obama's election promise to send more troops to Afghanistan, saying, “Be aware that the dogs of Afghanistan have found the flesh of your soldiers to be delicious, so send thousands after thousands to them,” and using other language that can only […]
Staying with the subject of the G20 Summit, I was looking over the White House website for the summit, they provide a fact sheet on the agreement reached by the world leaders last weekend in Washington, it makes for interesting reading. The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace also takes a look back at the summit, […]
Center for American Progress Action Fund vice president Nina Hachigian comments to Politico on the implications of the financial crisis for the U.S. role in the world: The financial crisis is horrible, but it's reinforcing two central truths. First, that we really have to focus on home and getting our domestic house in order […]
President Bush will welcome world leaders to Washington this weekend to address the global financial crisis. He has already signaled his resistance to increased regulation of global finance in advance of the competing agendas the leaders will bring to the table. This AP report examines the diverse proposals world leaders bring to Washington and it […]
This week in which we marked Veterans Day (Remembrance Day for our allies) called to mind our more recent wars, but it's also worth noting the end of the war that gave rise to the holiday, the end of World War I on Nov. 11, 1918. The war saw the end of great empires […]
This is a follow-up to the previous post about the Russian decision to place short-range missiles in Kaliningrad. In this analsysis for ISN Security Watch, Sergei Blagov suggests that the Russian decision is not an attempt to challenge the new U.S. president (suggested by the timing of the announcement) but instead can properly been seen […]
I will be off tomorrow for the holiday, so I wanted to wish you a happy Veterans Day. As I previously mentioned, I grew up as a military brat (those who have one or both parents serving in the military) and this is a holiday that we tend to take seriously, as we have […]
I mentioned yesterday the Russian challenge to Obama, an escalation in the dispute over missile defense in Europe. Why is Russia mounting a nuclear challenge to a candidate who promised to dramatically change the U.S. nuclear policy by seeking a ban on the production of fissile materials, a reduction in nuclear stockpiles, a reaffirmation […]
While President-Elect Obama is busy planning his transition, the foreign policy challenges he will face are not waiting for his inauguration. Russia welcomed his election with an announcement that they will station missiles on Russia's western border to counter the U.S. missile defense system (WaPo editorial here), sparking fears of a new arms race. And as this […]
Here's a small collection of what I came across today. First, every day the Newseum, a museum dedicated to Journalism in Washington, DC, publishes the front pages of every major newspaper from every state in the nation, along with some foreign papers. Today, this display drew crowds. You can view it online here: http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/default.asp (Their […]
We shared our election with the world and now the world is celebrating the outcome, this from the AP: In concert halls and ballrooms, in plazas and at beach parties, people across the globe hailed Barack Obama's election as a stroke for racial equality and voiced hopes his presidency would herald a balanced, less […]
Here it is at last, Election Day. I anticipated the long lines and voted early so now I’m just sitting back, eagerly awaiting the ballot counts. There is something truly majestic about the process of democracy. Perhaps it's merely the mood of the day, but I do tend to get a stirring of patriotic […]