In the Washington Post today Joby Warrick and Karen DeYoung report, “On Al-Qaeda Web Sites, Joy Over U.S. Crisis, Support for McCain:” “Al-Qaeda is watching the U.S. stock market's downward slide with something akin to jubilation, with its leaders hailing the financial crisis as a vindication of its strategy of crippling America's economy through endless, […]
The U.S. presidential election is entering its final weeks and it's not surprising to find most news media saturated with election coverage. Most of it naturally concerns domestic politics, so I’d like to call your attention to an excerpt on the American Diplomacy website of analysis by George Friedman, founder and Chief Intelligence Officer of […]
The Council on Foreign Relations recently won an Emmy for its video Crisis Guide on Darfur. I’ve gotten through the first two chapters and I can tell you that it is extremely informative. It highlights both the devastation that the civil war has wrought on the Sudanese and also the efforts of the international community […]
The U.S. is hosting a major international conference on aid and development (AP – Bush hosts international aid summit): The event brings together about 500 representatives of nations ‚ from Africa to Romania ‚ that receive U.S. aid; faith-based organizations; and non-governmental, private and public leaders from the United States and the developing world. U.S. […]
Two reporters from abroad have separately noticed and reported that certain issues and regions have been neglected in the US presidential campaign. First, Jonathan Marcus, a BBC News diplomatic correspondent, reported last week that “US campaign bypasses foreign policy:” “At the outset of this presidential race it looked as though foreign policy would be one of the […]
The next president will have an opportunity to improve the image of the U.S. role in the world. A recent survey of international public opinion by the Washington-based Pew Research Center found that regard for the U.S. is quite low, even among our allies. This video report from NBC News highlights that survey and notes […]
NPR's “All Things Considered” program ran a segment on Indonesian opinion of Barack Obama this week. Obama attended grade school in Jakarta, so one would expect Indonesia to be a bit of a”blue state.” (Obama's third-grade classroom at Public School No. 1. — Michael Sullivan/NPR) Here's what NPR reports: “Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim-majority […]
An article published in Foreign Policy magazine this week discusses the Foreign Service's newly reformulated examination process for new hires. First, here's something I didn't know: “In a 2007 survey, American undergraduates rated the State Department the fourth-most desirable employer in the country, just behind the private-sector dream team of Google, Disney, and Apple. (The […]
This has been a dramatic week, we’ve had major financial shocks amid a boisterous presidential campaign, so I thought I’d close the week by returning to one of the traditional themes of the U.S. role in the world, that of welcome new home for immigrants. This video from NBC News highlights the future of legal […]
The final presidential debate is now history and it proved to be remarkably free of foreign policy questions. Initial commentary seems to suggest that the overwhelming winner of the debate was Joe The Plumber. I’d like to repeat my practice of parsing the debate transcript, devoting comment sections for the candidates responses to the foreign […]
It comes as no surprise that the United States is leaving Grosvenor Square, the historic park in the heart of London that was home to the U.S. embassy since 1938. This is part of a regrettable trend, in which the State Department builds drab, fortress embassies on the outskirts of foreign capitals, leaving American diplomats […]
The final Presidential Debate between Barack Obama and John McCain will air live tonight, Wednesday, October 15th at 9 pm ET, 6 pm PT, on every major broadcast network and cable news network. Hofstra University is the host for this debate, and Bob Schieffer of CBS News is the moderator. This is the official website […]
This AP report gives the impression that Europe has taken the lead in meeting the global credit crisis and that the U.S. is merely reacting. And yet it was after this weekend's meeting of the G7 finance ministers in Washington that the major decisions being announced this week were taken. Here is the text of […]
The Washington-based non-profits Search for Common Ground and the Consensus Building Institute have produced a major new leadership group report on improving U.S. relations with the Muslim world. Titled “Changing Course: A New Direction for U.S. Relations with the Muslim World,” the two groups released the report last month to a packed house at the […]
The Henry L. Stimson Center and the American Academy of Diplomacy have unveiled a new report on how the next President can strengthen American diplomacy. Titled “Foreign Affairs Budget for the Future,” the report finds that: “The State Department, USAID, and related organizations lack the tools to meet today's complex global challenges. It calls for […]