As you all know, this is a blog about the US Presidential candidates’ views on the world, and vice versa. Last week we explored the foreign policy outlook of the Democratic vice presidential candidate, Joe Biden. Now that Senator John McCain has named his pick for vice president, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, it's her turn. […]
The Council on Foreign Relations’ campaign website published a great synthesis of interviews with the international press corps at the Democratic National Convention in Denver to find out how their national publics views of the US presidential debate. CFR.org interviewed reporters from Brazil, Mexico, Nigeria, Kuwait, Germany, Denmark, among others. It's a great read. The […]
Almost immediately after Senator Barack Obama named his running mate veteran news media began delving into newly-named Vice Presidential candidate Joe Biden's foreign policy outlook. There is a lot ot cover, thanks to his 36-year career in the Senate and his long-standing seat on the Senate Foreign Relations committee, which he currently chairs. First, an article in yesterday's New York Times: […]
The Center for American Progress and Foreign Policy magazine released their fourth annual Terrorism Index yesterday. An article about the study has been published in the Sept/Oct issue of Foreign Policy Magazine, it can also can be read here. View the complete topline results here. The study surveyed American foreign policy experts on a slew […]
After a few months of observing the global phenomenon that is Obamania, I thought I would put forth a few theories on why Senator Barack Obama is so strongly favored as the next US President by people living outside the US. First, a note on why people outside the US care about the US election […]
How will the Georgian conflict involve and influence the U.S. Presidential election campaign? What efforts are governments undertaking in this conflict to influence international public opinion? This subject spans the topic headings of several categories of our “Foreign Policy Blogs” — but let's consider briefly the public information dimension. Against the backdrop of a real […]
According to public diplomacy expert Nicholas Cull, (see this review of his new book) the very act of listening is one of the primary functions of public diplomacy. As an example Cull cited the US Information Agency's research and analysis of foreign opinion, which the director shared with policy makers. More recently, former Undersecretary of State for […]
This post will conclude this blog's three-part discussion of Senator Obama's trip overseas. Rather than look at the foreign reaction, let's consider what effect the trip had here at home. Here's what the Senator said he took away from his travels upon arriving back to the US: “One of the key insights that I come […]
This is the second installment of an overview of global reactions to Senator Obama's recent travels abroad. In this post I’ll gather some commentary about the European leg of the Senator trip. First, Peter Schmitz of the German news magazine Der Spiegel describes literally the play-by-play of the Senator's arrival in Berlin and his now […]
As you all well know, Senator Obama traveled to the Middle East and Europe in July as part of his Presidential campaign. His tour may not have given him much of a bump in the polls at home, but what did his host publics think about his visits to their respective countries? Here are some highlights from the […]
Obamania never ceases to stimulate musical innovation. This time, cue the smoke machines and get out your glowsticks! German news site Bild.de is holding a contest for the best techno remix of Obama's Berlin speech. Some of the songs are pretty catchy; Dj Moon and Stefan Schmidt's rendition (numbers 2 and 9) really got my foot tapping. Number […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]