Yesterday NBC Nightly News broadcast an interview with Iranian President Ahmadinejad. If you saw the interview, what did you think of it? As you watch the interview, consider the following: Does he answer the questions posed by Brian Williams? Does he acknowledge the deadline given to Iran? Does he suggest any flexibility about the possibility […]
Where do you get your international news? What are your trusted sources for finding out what the U.S. is doing on the world? The MountainRunner blog (devoted to public diplomacy and strategic communication) recently examined a new study about the amount of international news coverage in the mainstream American media. The study found that the […]
Although I disagree with The New Yorker's recent taste in cover art, I do think Hendrick Hertzberg is one of America's best political commentators. Until we have some reliable polls on how Americans feel about Obama's recent foreign travel, Hertzberg has the next best thing: how Americans ought to feel: There has been much discussion […]
This week we witnessed a dramatic showdown in Indian domestic politics between the Prime Minister and various factions who are against a proposed nuclear deal with the United States. Since India is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and has developed a nuclear weapons capability, the U.S. has been working on a […]
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has journeyed to Germany to deliver a speech today (text, video) and although I know that the Foreign Policy Association is non-partisan, I just thought I’d mention it in the wider context of the historic speeches delivered in Berlin by John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. Is Obama's speech in […]
In a few hours, Barack Obama takes the stage in Berlin's Tiergarten park for the kind of open-air public address that no American leader has made in Europe in a generation. As I mention in my “Election 2008” blog, not since Ronald Reagan's speech at the Berlin Wall in 1987 has there been anything quite […]
Senator Obama is visiting Israel and the Palestinian territories and using his brief visit to assure both the Israelis and the Palestinians that he will work for peace if he is elected. His visit is prompting both hope and resignation among the two different audiences (The New York Times – Mideast Sees More of […]
Imagine the following scenario: Food riots destabilize the capital of a sub-Saharan African country, military officers stage a coup, a civil war breaks out, the government falls, a new government takes power but their hold on power is tenuous, social unrest continues, people are starving. What can the U.S. do? Traditionally, the U.S. would send aid […]
The Geneva meeting with Iran over the weekend did not go well. The presence of a U.S. representative apparently made little difference, nor did Iran appear to appreciate the gesture (The Washington Post – Iran Nuclear Talks End Without Agreement): High-level international talks on Iran's nuclear program ended inconclusively today in Geneva, with European […]
By now you have heard the news that a U.S. representative will attend a previously scheduled meeting tomorrow with an Iranian representative in Geneva. Although this represents a dramatic departure from the U.S. effort to isolate Iran, a skeptical observer may ask why this such an important move. Do we really expect a breakthrough? An op-ed […]
Today's New York Times offers some analysis (Policy Shift Seen in U.S. Decision on Iran Talks) of the potential breakthrough mentioned in the last post, and it looks like oil prices are starting to respond to the lessening tensions between the U.S. and Iran. In this video from The Council on Foreign Relations, foreign policy […]
Thankfully, we have a debate here — on the ideas behind Jim Glassman's “War of Ideas.” It is a topic worthy of debate, although to many it may seem like inside baseball. It was Glassman, the new Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy at the US State Department, who earlier this month called for a “War of […]
A quick follow-up to my last post to note that the U.S. appears to be inching toward a new engagement with Iran. According to this New York Times report (U.S. Envoy to Join Meeting With Iranian): President Bush has authorized the most significant American diplomatic contact with Iran since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, […]
Just released from Agence France Presse: “Defense Secretary Robert Gates called for greater funding for U.S. diplomacy and foreign development aid July 15, acknowledging concerns about a “creeping militarization” of U.S. foreign policy. “Broadly speaking, when it comes to America's engagement with the rest of the world, it is important that the military is – […]
From a July 2008 Foreign Policy Magazine web exclusive interview with Karim Sadjadpour is an associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: FP: What do Iranians think about the U.S. presidential election and John McCain versus Barack Obama? KS: There's far more intrigue about Obama than about McCain. Apart from the fact that he […]