José Maria Peredo Pombo, a professor of International Relations at the European University in Madrid, penned an opinion piece about Senator Obama in the online journal “Forum For A Safe Democracy.” In the piece titled “The Multipolar World of Barack Obama,” Pombo gives a historical take on past American Presidents who have tried to affect change: “To […]
I’d like to recommend one of my favorite foreign policy blogs. FP Passport is a group blog by the editors of Foreign Policy magazine. They describe themselves as: Equal parts scout and translator, we draw on the world's leading journalists, thinkers, and professionals to analyze the most significant international trends and events of our times, […]
Former Ambassador Chas Freeman addressed the World Affairs Council in Washington, DC last week. The title of his talk: “America In the World: Magoo at the Helm.” His remarks provide a sobering, yet extremely important account of the changes afloat in the international realm. I’ll let the Ambassador speak for himself. “A great many governments abroad now fear that Washington […]
As I prepare to depart for my Independence Day holiday, I’ve been giving some thought to what I could post that would be appropriate for the holiday, something celebrating democracy and liberty. The U.S. has contributed much to the world, far more than can be listed in this space, but perhaps it is those […]
I will be on vacation for the majority of July, so I thought I would leave you with a few timely resources on foreign policy and the US Presidential campaign. 1) Senator Chuck Hagel (R, NE), as part of his recent book tour, spoke at the Brookings Institution last week about “U.S. Foreign Policy and the […]
Last week–as the Bush administration sees it– diplomacy came out victorious in the standoff between North Korea (aka the Democratic People's Republic of Korea) and the five other “parties” attempting to halt its nuclear weapons program. Pyongyang submitted an accounting of its nuclear arsenals to the Chinese government–a first step in reigning in the nuclear weapons program North Korea […]
John McCain's airborne version of the “Straight Talk Express” flew off to Columbia yesterday — and it wasn't Columbia, South Carolina, but the actual country of Columbia. Both candidates, in fact, are taking advantage of a break in the political calendar at home to do some foreign travel. For Obama, who is about to set […]
It is fitting that progress on disarmament talks with North Korea has been made this week as this also marks another important milestone, the signing of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty forty years ago this week. The treaty created a framework for countries to pledge not to seek nuclear weapons and for existing nuclear powers to […]
Is the U.S gearing up for a major confrontation with Iran? In this week's issue of The New Yorker, journalist Seymour Hersh reports that President Bush authorized an increase in covert operations inside Iran after receiving funding from Congress (The New Yorker – Preparing The Battlefield): Late last year, Congress agreed to a request […]
Shawn Brimley at Democracy Arsenal argues that America is suffering from strategic myopia and strategic amnesia, afflictions that blind us to the time-tested tools and strategies we have successfully used in the past to chart a winning foreign policy. Is there a danger that Iraq and the War on Terrorism are distracting the U.S. from […]
Amid the many reports of foreign audiences going ga-ga for Obama, one foreign policy expert issues a strong warning against thinking that a President Obama will solve the US’ global image problem, or make public diplomacy any easier. John Brown, a 20-year veteran of the US Foreign Service and currently a senior fellow at the University of Southern […]
If you are a member of Senator McCain or Senator Obama's cadre of campaign advisers, a former US Ambassador, or even a mere foreign policy expert, you are one busy guy/gal right now. Washington is brimming with events with titles like "US Foreign Policy in the Next Presidential Administration: What Will Go Down?" or "President […]
Continuing with the theme of the last post, here is a video of North Korea destroying a water cooling tower at a nuclear facility as part of the recent nuclear disclosure agreement with the U.S. and the other six-party countries. U.S. State Department officials and IAEA representatives were invited to observe the event. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://youtube.com/v/qe20Q1SPzew” […]
It is natural, at a time of low approval ratings for the United States overseas, to ask again whether it made sense in 1999 to dismantle the U.S. Information Agency and move parts of it into the State Department. As Melinda points out in her post (below), John McCain has weighed in on the subject, […]
I have mentioned before on this blog the newly-released Pew Global Attitudes Project's global poll on views of the United States. Now they have produced this handy interactive map that overlays not only views of the US but also nations’ views of the US Presidential Candidates. Above is a picture of the map. To enjoy […]