Foreign Policy Blogs

Tag Archives: United States

Why Obama’s visit is important for South Africa

Why Obama’s visit is important for South Africa

  As Barack Obama is about to embark on his historic tour of Africa, many South Africans are asking why it should matter to them. There are numerous reasons why a visit from the President of the United States is an historic occasion. First, the U.S. helps save South African lives. Since 2004, Washington has […]

read more

Strategic Stability in Cyberspace

Strategic Stability in Cyberspace

The unclassified version of the 2013 Annual Report to Congress on the Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China provides a glimpse of the military build-up and capabilities of China in the second decade of the 21st century: “The U.S. Department of Defense seeks to build a military-to-military relationship with China that is sustained and substantive, while encouraging China to cooperate […]

read more

Doubts about Data (and Debt)

Doubts about Data (and Debt)

  In a 2010 study, Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff identified a 90 percent debt/GDP threshold as a “red line” national economies crossed only at the cost of impeding their growth. That study garnered a great deal of attention among debt hawks. More has been written about the impact of recent academic work discrediting Reinhart/Rogoff’s core conclusion […]

read more

President Thein Sein of Myanmar Comes to Washington, D.C.

President Thein Sein of Myanmar Comes to Washington, D.C.

President U Thein Sein of Myanmar visited Washington, D.C. last week and met with President Barack Obama in what was billed by many in the media as “an historic event,” taking into account that President Sein is the first president of Myanmar—also known as Burma—to come to the United States in almost fifty years. US-Myanmar […]

read more

White House releases national Arctic strategy

White House releases national Arctic strategy

“We in the lower forty-eight and Hawaii join Alaska’s residents in recognizing one simple truth that the Arctic is an amazing place.” That’s how U.S. President Barack Obama begins his written statement on the first page of the National Strategy for the Arctic Region (PDF), which the White House has just released ahead of next week’s […]

read more

Shadow of Afghanistan (2012)

Shadow of Afghanistan (2012)

This documentary is all over the place. It is in part a history of modern Afghanistan and also a film about independent journalists – some of whom were killed – trying to report on the situation on the ground. Afghanistan is called “The Graveyard of Empires” for good reason: Every country or empire that has […]

read more

Alaskan Senator Mark Begich advocates creating U.S. Arctic ambassador

Alaskan Senator Mark Begich advocates creating U.S. Arctic ambassador

  Last month, I discussed Japan’s designation of Masuo Nishibayashi as Arctic Ambassador — the second Asian country to create such a position. While Japan joins Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Russia and Singapore as countries with Arctic ambassadors or equivalent positions, the United States still does not have a similar role. Canada once had an Ambassador […]

read more

Yes, U.N. Does Pass the Arms Trade Treaty

Yes, U.N. Does Pass the Arms Trade Treaty

Update to 26 of March entry, “Will a New Arms Trade Treaty Be Approved?”: On 2 April, the U.N. General Assembly passed the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) – the first binding international treaty designed to regulate the $70 billion cross-border conventional arms trade, and create a standard to protect peace and security. Countries will be […]

read more

Too Close to Punch: The United States and Deadlocked Alliance in Asia

Too Close to Punch: The United States and Deadlocked Alliance in Asia

In the kaleidoscopic world of power politics in Asia, the United States’ pivot to that region may yield the unintentional consequences of fostering closer strategic ties between the two Asian giants — China and India – which could result in a strategic alliance ostensibly hostile to Western interests in the region. Analysts will be quick […]

read more

North Korea Catches Up on Rhetoric as Iran Strives for the Weapons

North Korea Catches Up on Rhetoric as Iran Strives for the Weapons

The news media lit up late Thursday on news that North Korea threatened to use preemptive nuclear warfare against the United States and canceled its non-aggression pact with South Korea. The regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, equipped with nuclear capabilities, seems less interested in peace and only throughout the last 24 hours upped […]

read more

Cyber Espionage: Reducing Tensions Between China and the United States

Cyber Espionage: Reducing Tensions Between China and the United States

I appeared on the talk show “The Fresh Outlook” this weekend to discuss cybersecurity issues and China.  Here is a link to the video. I argued for a more nuanced, less panicky approach when dealing with China on this sensitive subject. Here are some more thoughts: The most recent revelations of the activities of the Chinese […]

read more

Powering Up NAFTA

Powering Up NAFTA

Latin America is often seen as in the lower echelon of State Department priorities, and many experts think this is appropriate, given the world’s current hotspots. However, Latin Americans are our closest neighbors, much of our immigrant population, and our partners in solving major domestic issues. Christopher Sabatini, Editor-in-Chief of Americas Quarterly, wants the Obama […]

read more

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Here on the tranquil island of Palawan, in the West Philippine Sea, the arrival of Chinese naval vessels  is causing quite some anxiety among local residents.  Last Friday, three ships from the Peoples Liberation Army Navy’s North China Sea fleet, the missile destroyer Qingdao and missile frigates Yantai and Yancheng, traveled through the Bashi Channel, […]

read more

U.S. Embassy Bombing in Ankara: Why? Why now?

U.S. Embassy Bombing in Ankara: Why? Why now?

On February 1, U.S. Embassy in Ankara – in a calm, residential and business neighborhood — was bombed. At the time of writing this, police statements indicate that it is believed to be a suicide attack and the attacker(s) detonated the bomb inside the security checkpoint bunker, killing at least one security guard. Growing up […]

read more

Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

This film is riveting. It is a fictional look at the hunt for and eventual killing of Osama bin Laden, the man who is believed to have masterminded the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. Jessica Chastain rightfully won the best actress in a drama at the Golden Globes. She has also […]

read more

About Us

Foreign Policy Blogs is a network of global affairs blogs and a supplement to the Foreign Policy Association’s Great Decisions program. Staffed by professional contributors from the worlds of journalism, academia, business, non-profits and think tanks, the FPB network tracks global developments on Great Decisions 2014 topics, daily. The FPB network is a production of the Foreign Policy Association.