As many readers know, when a President makes a foreign trip, a battalion of security, logistics, protocol and media personnel precede and accompany Air Force One. Having witnessed and participated in many such visits in my former career as a State Department diplomat, I can attest to the fact that preparations can be overwhelming, especially […]
Last week I pointed out an article authored by a British academic, addressing the British public about the errs of voting for John McCain, if Britons were to take to the American polls. Also last week a French academic authored an article about the US Presidential candidates, this time addressing the American public on which candidate Europeans […]
Foreign Policy In Focus, a progressive think tank based in Washington DC, published a useful article synthesizing the three US Presidential candidates positions on key foreign policy issues. The author is himself an advocate for a Presidential candidate that is engaged in foreign relations. Howard Salter is the Director of External Relations at Citizens for Global Solutions, a non-partisan think tank based […]
The war in Iraq has grown increasingly unpopular at home, and it continues to be unpopular abroad. [The BBC World Service broadcast a fantastic documentary about how the US-lead war in Iraq changed the world's mind on the US]. So what do the US Presidential candidates propose to do about it? Spencer Ackerman investigated this […]
If you’ve ever heard a State Department briefing, or briefing by any other foreign ministry, you probably don't think of foreign policy as an exercise in “straight talk.” Yet there was John McCain in Los Angeles the other day, driving his “Straight Talk Express” right down the middle of the road. The word “Bush” was […]
Today's Wall Street Journal carries an interesting summary of how the world's regions seem to feel about Hillary, Obama and McCain. That Barack Obama would be popular in Africa, Indonesia and the Mideast is perhaps no surprise. But he also appears to be quite popular in Europe, where I’m writing from this week. On the […]
The Financial Times published an op-ed by Anatol Lieven, a British academic (who sidelines as an American think-tank-er), titled “Why we should fear a McCain presidency.” In the piece, Lieven schools his British compatriots on the danger that “a natural incendiary” like Republican Presidential candidate John McCain poses to trans-Atlantic relations. Leiven explains: “The problem that Mr McCain poses stems […]
ZAGREB — President Bush leaves for Europe in a few days. Likely one of the last foreign trips of his Presidency, Bush's five-day visit to Kiev, Bucharest, and Zagreb offers him a chance to work on his image and his legacy — each in bad repair. The timing is both good and bad. First the […]
As many of your know, Senator Obama gave a major campaign speech last week on the subject of race in the U.S. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/pWe7wTVbLUU” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] Public Radio International's The World program hosted a panel of international journalists based in Washington to discuss how their publics’ view race in America. It is an […]
Last year 22-year old Harvard graduate Amar Bakshi embarked on a world tour that was a bit different than the usual post-college international tour d’hostel. His globe trekking had a specific mission: Find out what the world thinks about the United States. (Bakshi's Itinerary) Armed with a digit camera, a microphone and a laptop, Bakshi […]
Middle East Online (and Al Jazeera magazine subsequently) published an intriguing article by Rima Merhi, a Lebanese human rights activist and research fellow at the Middle East Institute working on Arab media outreach to American public opinion. Based on the readership of the two publications, it is safe to assume that Mehri is speaking to primarily an […]
Think of it as fence-mending, image-building and playing his strong suit. With the Republican nomination now in hand, John McCain is making the overseas trip he was forced to delay earlier this month when he still faced opposition from both Mike Huckabee and from conservatives unreconciled to his being the Republican standard bearer. Now he's […]
I was sad to miss this event put on by the Center for Global Engagement in Washington, DC last week. The event featured General Anthony C. Zinni, USMC (Ret.) and Admiral Leighton W. Smith, Jr., USN (Ret.) fresh from testifying at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Capitol Hill. According to the Center, the General and […]
Richard L. Armitage, Deputy Secretary of State during President Bush's first term, was recently interviewed by the Washington Diplomat. Armitage spoke about the need to repair the U.S.'s tarnished image abroad. He told the Diplomat: "The decline in American influence can be a temporary phenomenon. I believe most countries want us to be the indispensable […]
Is that the existential question? There's been much made of recent comments by Obama advisers that came back to bite them. Economic adviser Goolsbee talked to the Canadian Consulate in Chicago regarding NAFTA, Samatha Power told a UK journalist that Hillary was a “monster.” Both learned the hard way that campaign advisers are fair game […]