As the U.S. presidential election enters the final hours we here at U.S. Role are taking a look at how the election is playing in the world. First, this nod from Voice of America to our own national estimation of how the world is paying attention to us as a role model for democracy: U.S. President George […]
The AP reports that a substantial number of voters remain undecided as we count down to the election. If you are one of those undecided voters and have an interest in foreign policy please see the Foreign Policy Association's Election Guide 2008, it features candidate profiles by issue area, video of the candidates discussing the […]
The FPA's Pakistan blog notes that conditions are dire in Pakistan's quake zone. Given the fragility of the U.S. alliance with Pakistan (due in part to recent drone attacks), there is an opportunity here to work on relationship building. An immediate and substantial offer of humanitarian assistance by the U.S. would go a long […]
You are president and confronted with a situation which tests your basic philosophy about diplomatic negotiation, your philosophy can be described as: A. Talk with friends and ignore enemies. B. Talk to friends and enemies. This is the simplistic depiction of how diplomatic negotiation has been presented during the election and we can all […]
I’ll let this article, published by Indian news wire Sify, speak for itself: “Kathmandu: They made predictions – some with success and some without – about the end of the country's royal dynasty and the end of the Maoist insurgency. Now Nepal's cosmopolitan astrologers are predicting a victory for Barack Obama. According to Nepal's leading […]
Adobe Fireworks CS3 + Wave Arts Power Suite + Adobe Creative Suite 3 Nicholas Burns, former Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs (effectively the #3 position in the Department), penned an opinion piece for Newsweek this week titled “We Should Talk to Our Enemies.” In it, he defends Senator Barack Obama's stance on talking with […]
The OneWorld Network is a news and community portal for non-governmental organizations and non-profits and they have assembled an election site that does a great job of comparing and contrasting the candidates positions on foreign policy issues: U.S. presidential candidates McCain and Obama would each make major changes to the national security and foreign […]
The differences between the two presidential candidates on the issue of Iraq is well known, but is it possible that both presidential candidates have the same, or at least similar, views on when the U.S. should use military force in other circumstances? According to this report in The Washington Post, the answer is yes. […]
As we count down to the national election voters are looking for every bit of information they can use to help evaluate the candidates. The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has assembled some resources devoted to examining the foreign policy issues facing the next president: Next January, the new U.S. President will be confronted with […]
In the run-up to the election, there are so many relevant commentaries, polls and musings that it is best to just list a few of them below. Sunday's reporting by Colum Lynch, the Washington Post's UN correspondent, is titled “At the U.N., Many Hope for an Obama Win:” “There are no “Obama 2008” buttons, banners […]
Today the State Department welcomes about 100 fellows of the “I-VOTE” program to a reception in the diplomatic reception rooms. I-VOTE, which stands for International Visitors Observe the Elections, is a program of State's ECA Bureau. Here's their description: “I-VOTE is an exchange initiative of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs' International Visitor Leadership […]
With just a few days remaining until the U.S. elections, I wonder not so much how they will be interpreted as who will be doing the interpreting. There are plenty of observers and commentators, of course, most of them connected in some way to national and international mass media. But there appear to be few […]
Glenn Greenwald reacts in this Salon piece to an op-ed in The Washington Post by a Democrat and a Republican urging the next president to immediately prepare for war with Iran. Here is a quote that I find interesting: It's just objectively true that there is no country in the world — anywhere — […]
It's old news now that Former Secretary of State and General Colin Powell broke with his Republican party and endorsed Barack Obama while on “Meet The Press” this past weekend (video here). But I took particular notice to his advice on what should be the President's number one priority once inaugurated:
When former Secretary of State Colin Powell appeared on Meet the Press and endorsed Senator Obama he specifically mentioned Gov. Palin's candidacy as one of the reasons for his doubts about the Republican ticket: And I was also concerned at the selection of Governor Palin. She's a very distinguished woman, and she's to be admired; […]