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Election '08: The press spent so much time sniping at Sarah Palin for her visits with global leaders that in the end it babbled about itself. What it missed was news on John McCain's foreign policy. Who are the real rubes?Palin's meetings with foreign heads of state in New York this week sent a stark message to the world's tyrants: If she and John McCain are elected to the highest office in the land, America will stand by the embattled nations it calls friends. Not those nations with the most money, prestige or radical think tanks lobbying Congress on their...

After 18 months spent examining the deteriorating relations between the United States and the Muslim world during the Bush administration, a diverse group of American leaders will release a report in Washington on Wednesday calling for an overhaul of American strategy to reverse the spread of terrorism and extremism. The report recommends more diplomatic engagement, even with Iran and other adversaries, and a major investment in economic development in Muslim countries to create jobs for alienated youth. It calls on the next president to use his Inaugural Address to signal a shift in approach, to immediately renounce the use of...

Sarah Palin addressed something last night that I don’t know how many noticed, but I suspect a certain population of Americans didn’t miss. Back when Michelle Obama spoke at the Democratic Convention she said that service men and women need more than medals and parades – that they need jobs. Michelle, veterans are very capable of finding jobs. Do you believe that they’re so inferior that they need a jobs program? What was your point? Do you have any data to suggest that they can’t find jobs? Not one person I know who served in the military had a bit...

Since world war ii international relations specialists have debated two main traditions or schools of American foreign policy, realism and liberal internationalism. Realism identifies with Richard Nixon and looks to the balance of power to defend stability among ideologically diverse nations. Liberal internationalism identifies with Franklin Roosevelt and looks to international institutions to reduce the role of the balance of power and gradually spread democracy by talk and tolerance. Generally speaking, conservatives or Republicans were considered realists — Eisenhower and Ford — while liberals or Democrats were seen as liberal internationalists — Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, and Carter.This debate broke down with...

More than 130 Georgian civilians are being held captive by South Ossetian authorities in the regional capital, Tskhinvali, after being rounded up and herded into a single room in the interior ministry headquarters here, the Guardian has learned. The prisoners, who were plucked off the streets according to their nationality soon after hostilities broke out 10 days ago, are being kept indefinitely in the hope of exchanging them for Ossetian civilians allegedly abducted by Georgian soldiers during the conflict. One interior ministry official confirmed the plan, saying: "We hope there will be an exchange soon." The 131 "hostages" are being...

For Immediate ReleaseOffice of the Press SecretaryAugust 15, 2008 President's Radio Address   President's Radio Address  Audio  En Español       In Focus: Global DiplomacyTHE PRESIDENT: Good morning. For more than a week, the people of the nation of Georgia have withstood assault from the Russian military. The world has watched with alarm as Russia invaded a sovereign neighboring state and threatened a democratic government elected by its people. This act is completely unacceptable to the free nations of the world. The United States and our allies stand with the people of Georgia and their democratically elected government. We insist that Georgia's sovereignty...

Russia 'sabotaging Georgian airfields', US claims as Condoleeza Rice lands in Tbilisi By Daily Mail Reporter Last updated at 2:49 PM on 14th August 2008 An American official has claimed that Russian troops are sabotaging airfields and other installations in Georgia this afternoon. The confusion about the Russian's planned pullout came as American military planes began delivering aid to the victims of violence in Georgia and as Washington sent a warning to Moscow that it would back the republic. Today Russia said it was concerned by the 'type' of cargo the US is flying in. The first aid flights into...

Here's how I envision how Obama speaking with President Ahmadinejad without a ateleprompter: "Everybody knows that it makes no sense for you to want nukes when there is lots of oil … and ... and cheap oil, too. I mean, you can get oil everywhere, so why the nuclear power, and you don't want nukes. You don't, do you? Would you tell me if – if you want nukes, because y'know nukes are a big deal with the American public. Making nuke material, people are – they think that, 'Hey, you want to build a nuke to wipe Israel off...

George Bush U-turn opens way to nuclear talks between US and Iran Tim Reid in Washington President Bush is sending a top US diplomat to meet Iran’s nuclear negotiator this weekend, a major break with his hardline stance towards Tehran and the closest contact between the countries since the 1979 Iranian Revolution. In a significant departure from Mr Bush’s long-standing refusal to talk to Tehran until it has abandoned its nuclear enrichment programme, William Burns, the Under-Secretary of State and America’s third most senior diplomat, will travel to Switzerland to attend talks between Iranian and European officials on Saturday.

Public Diplomacy by: Ben Giles, July 14, 2008 Jim Murphy, Great Britain’s Minister for Europe, spoke at the Brookings Institution< as part of a trip to Washington D.C. for the release of his new publication on public diplomacy. The July 11 speech highlighted many of the concepts in Murphy’s publication, Engagement: Public Diplomacy in a Globalised World, a compilation of essays and papers stressing better communication as the future of global politics. “We have to stop equating public diplomacy with public relations,” said Murphy, “shouting our core messages and top lines, louder and louder, in the false belief that people...

The United Nations is reported to be considering ordering the return of the 60 recently freed hostages of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to their captors because “their release was obtained through deceptive and dishonest means.” “The Colombian government agents misrepresented who they were and failed to carry out the agreed upon exchange,” said UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. To carry out the rescue mission, Colombian security forces infiltrated FARC, posing as members who were ordered to transport the hostages as part of a trade for the release of imprisoned rebels. “If we let this go we run...

Engagement in the battle of ideas and strategic communication has long been the missing ingredient in the government-wide effort to combat terrorism. Now, with a restructured public diplomacy bureaucracy at the State Department and elsewhere in the interagency process, engaging foreign publics has formally and strategically become part of the toolkit to combat radical extremist ideologies. Today, in his first major public address in his new position in Washington, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs James Glassman addressed The Washington Institute for Near East Policy's Special Policy Forum on "Winning the War of Ideas." The prepared...

June 10: President Bush walks to a news conference with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, Janez Jansa, prime minister of the European Union, and their security detail at Brdo Castle, Slovenia. Jason Reed-Reuters President Bush is touring Europe; but he seems to have lost his ability to draw stadium-sized crowds of protests: The young anarchists, middle-aged peace activists and established left-wing politicians here have at least one thing in common: none bothered to keep a six-year tradition alive by organizing a protest against President Bush’s arrival here Tuesday. “Bush is not even popular in the role of the enemy...

Following years of frustrated talks, flaccid declarations, and conspicuously ineffective sanctions, the Bush administration seems to have recognized that all is not right with its Iran policy. But observers may reasonably doubt whether administration’s answer – more sanctions – is likely to strike terror in Tehran.

It is tough being all things to all people and promising more entitlement and spending at every turn, and then talking about “fixing” government and “changing” how Washington does business. The contradiction takes real rhetorical acrobatics to explain away. It is even tougher to hide all the radicals and Marxists you associated with, supported and excused over the years, and the racist clergy that bellowed hatred to your children. Of course, it helps if the press covers for you, ignores the frequent absurdities and falsehoods and inflates your successes. It helps a lot. Since critical analysis is not a skill...

Yesterday the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, issued a scathing report highlighting Iran’s continued lack of cooperation with the agency. This report amounts to the culmination of 6 years of bureaucratic failure by the UN. Before we touch on the report, perhaps we should look at what the UN has accomplished in 6 years... ...If the UN Couldn't Do It, The British Couldn't Do It, The French Couldn't Do It, The Russians Couldn't Do It, and the EU Couldn't Do It, why does Obama think "YES WE CAN"?...

Barack Obama, under attack from President Bush and John McCain for pledges to meet with Iran's leadership, has started to qualify his prior bold stance, setting new preconditions and qualifications... A centerpiece of Sen. Obama's foreign policy has been what he says is placing a greater emphasis on diplomacy than President Bush, including engaging Washington's adversaries... The Illinois senator drew heat in July after pledging in a debate his willingness to meet with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela and North Korea during his first year in office, without preconditions... In response to the query last summer about whether he...

Two thoughts on the Obama-Iran-appeasement controversy: 1. It seems to me that it’s a victory for Obama. The Iran debate is being defined as one of diplomatic engagement versus diplomatic isolation, with Obama presenting himself as the bearer of a new strategy while McCain is portrayed as obdurately insisting on the approach of the Bush administration. This, of course, creates an unsavory political problem for McCain, in which he is said to represent a third Bush term. But it also allows the debate on Iran to become completely fictionalized.

Congress: What, exactly, does House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's latest junket to Iraq have to do with her official duties? Her inability to keep her amateur fingers out of the foreign policy pie suggests a political power grab.Pelosi went to Iraq uninvited Saturday, and her reception was less than warm. Iraq's democratically elected Nouri al-Maliki government wanted nothing to do with her until she admitted the truth about Iraq's progress as a nation and quit braying that U.S. troops must be immediately pulled out, a proposal so naive that even radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr opposes it. Message through, Pelosi admitted that...

Another excellent example of what personal diplomacy and leadership really means!It's been less than four months since President Bush's last trip to the Middle East. His attendance at the World Economic Forum in Egypt this weekend afforded him another opportunity to make diplomatic progress on a host of issues, but most importantly, Iran. With leaders of so many of the region's leaders present, the message was unmistakable and clear: Iran's theocratic government is a threat to peace and the best way forward is not to recognize ore reward it with meaningless talks it, but to isolate it. That has been...

In the delicate world of diplomatic protocol, mispronouncing a foreign leader's name ranks among the worst of faux pas. But that is lost on many Americans. Who can forget Hillary Rodham Clinton's verbal gymnastics after being asked by Tim Russert to name the new president of Russia? (Most transcripts cleaned it up as "Medvedev -- whatever.") Or recall the guffawing last September after a draft of President Bush's speech before the United Nations was found that included the phonetic spellings of several names of foreign countries and leaders. Among them: Harare (hah-RAR-ray) and Mugabe (moo-GAH-bee). At a time when the...

War On Terror: Caving to Muslim pressure groups, the Bush administration has banned the term "jihadist" to define the enemy. Islamic terrorists will now be known as "violent extremists." Our war on radical Islam has been hamstrung by political correctness from the start. First, we couldn't call the campaign to strike back at al-Qaida a "crusade" because Muslims found it historically offensive. Then we couldn't define the enemy as "Islamic terrorists" because it insulted Islam — even though it accurately described the Muslims committing murder and mayhem in the name of Islam. To appease critics, we narrowed the terminology, confining...

Cannot Post due to copyright issues: http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2008/03/17/080317taco_talk_hertzberg

Benny Avni at the New York Sun looks at Barack Obama's promise to meet with America's enemies, and wonders what could come from this policy. Given that Obama doesn't discuss the goals or the potential trading points would be, Avni sees the potential for humiliation as far greater than that of progress. It also demonstrates Obama's moral relativism: For Mr. Obama, however, dangling high-end diplomatic meetings as an incentive for a change in behavior is bad policy rooted in American hubris. "If we think that meeting with the president is a privilege that has to be earned, I think that...

A few weeks ago, I wrote slightly disobligingly about Jay Lefkowitz, the man who holds the new congressionally mandated post of U.S. special envoy for human rights in North Korea. The North Korean state does not recognize the concept of human rights and considers every one of its citizens to be the property of the ruling family, so Lefkowitz’s job is admittedly an extremely difficult one, but I tried to call attention to the way in which he (in his rather slender annual report to Congress), and the administration in general, had gone somewhat quiet on the subject of North...

Moisés Naím who is also editor in chief of Foreign Policy magazine wants to pretend that he and his ilk love America in a Washington Post op-ed. But, after reading his newest editorial, titled "A Hunger For America" where he denounces the USA's "incompetence, recklessness and ignorance," one can only come to the conclusion that he only loves it when America does what foreigners want her to do. In other words, he doesn't love America at all; he only loves the interests and desires of others and using the power and money of America to their ends instead of our...

(IsraelNN.com) U.S. President George W. Bush has declined to meet with former Prime Minister and current Likud Opposition Leader MK Binyamin Netanyahu during his upcoming visit to Israel, slated to begin on Wednesday, according to the Jerusalem Post. Sources in Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s Kadima party quoted in the report offered this explanation: “At the White House, they think [Mr. Netanyahu] is a liar because of his behavior when he was prime minister.” Outraged Likud officials accused Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of sabotaging what would normally be a routine meeting between a visiting U.S. President and an Israeli Opposition Leader,...

Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the United States of trying to undermine Russia to further its global dominance and said Washington had ignored Moscow's attempts to build a friendship. In an interview with Time magazine, which named the Russian president its "Person of the Year" for 2007 on Wednesday, Putin said Washington had adopted its strategy of belittling Russia to try to influence the country's domestic and foreign policy. "I believe ... this is a single-minded attempt to create a certain image of Russia which allows (Washington) to influence our internal and external policy," Putin said in the interview posted...

Life in southern Israel is unbearable. Since last January, on average, 6.3 mortars and rockets have been fired from Gaza on southern Israel every day. As Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilna'i warned the heads of the communities around Gaza last week, due to the improvements in the Palestinian arsenal since Israel vacated Gaza two years ago, the Palestinians now field missiles and rockets with extended ranges that place 130,000 Israelis under threat of missile attack. Wednesday, IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi made clear that if Israel wishes to secure its citizens there is only one thing it...

Adding a cultural wrinkle to the diplomatic engagement between the United States and North Korea, the New York Philharmonic plans to visit Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, in February, taking the legacy of Beethoven, Bach and Bernstein to one of the world’s most isolated nations...

If only the bumblers, blusterers and other bureaucrats in our "intelligence" services could make up their minds. The estimates of what we know about Iran and its nuclear ambitions, released this week just in time to undercut the U.N. sanctions meant to deter another Islamic bomb, underscores how little the bumblers know. These are the wiseheads who only four months ago were telling the president and Congress that Iran was hard at work developing their bomb. Now they want the president, Congress and the rest of us to believe that the Iranians actually stopped work, maybe, on their bomb four...

Surprisingly, something useful has emerged from the combination of the misconceived Annapolis meeting and a weak Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud ("Peace is achieved through concessions") Olmert. Breaking with his predecessors, Olmert has boldly demanded that his Palestinian bargaining partners accept Israel's permanent existence as a Jewish state, thereby evoking a revealing response. Unless the Palestinians recognize Israel as "a Jewish state," Olmert announced on November 11, the Annapolis-related talks would not proceed. "I do not intend to compromise in any way over the issue of the Jewish state. This will be a condition for our recognition of a Palestinian state."...

Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson suggested on Thursday that Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton's lack of clarity in her debate answers raises questions about her ability to handle diplomacy. Addressing a crowd of Republican donors, the former Tennessee senator joined Clinton's Democratic opponents in seizing on her debate answer on whether she supported a plan by New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer to grant drivers' licenses to illegal immigrations. At first, Clinton appeared to praise the plan. Pressed later in the debate, she seemed to backtrack, saying she didn't say it should be done. Her campaign sought to clarify her comments...

Kurds don't fear Turks By Betsy Hiel TRIBUNE-REVIEW Sunday, October 14, 2007 QANDIL MOUNTAINS, Iraq Turkey's threat to invade northern Iraq and attack PKK guerrillas comes when U.S.-Turkish relations are at an all-time low. It further complicates already-strained U.S. plans in the region, including efforts to end sectarian violence across Iraq and to isolate Washington's regional arch-nemesis, Iran. A recent Pew opinion poll showed only 9 percent of Turks hold a positive view of the United States while 28 percent look favorably on Iran.

Intro to Public Diplomacy by: Heyecan Veziroglu, September 26, 2007 As foreign policy becomes increasingly complicated in the Middle East, the lack of a public diplomacy strategy by the U. S. State Department becomes problematic, Michael Waller, the author of The Public Diplomacy Reader, told the crowd in a recent appearance at the Heritage Foundation. On the same panel with Waller, policy analyst Juliana G. Pilon critiqued the State Department and stated that the agency is downgrading the use of words at the same time that Al Qaeda is engaged in internet propaganda activities.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been denied a request to visit the World Trade Center site of the September 11 attacks, New York police said on Wednesday. Ahmadinejad, who regularly accuses the United States of arrogance in his speeches, had asked to visit the site while in New York for the United Nations General Assembly this month. "The site is closed to visitors because of construction there," police spokesman Paul Browne said in a statement. "Requests for the Iranian president to visit the immediate area would also be opposed by the NYPD on security grounds." Police said they were unsure...

BERLIN - Germany does not want to rush into a third round of U.N. sanctions against Iran for defying Security Council demands that it freeze its nuclear enrichment programme, diplomats said on Wednesday. Germany and the five permanent U.N. Security Council members -- the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China -- have been key players in efforts to ratchet up pressure on Tehran to halt its programme and cooperate more with U.N. inspectors. German officials have repeatedly warned that unless Iran heeds the demands of the United Nations and suspends its nuclear fuel programme, which the West fears is...

“You don’t roll out a new product in August,” said President Bush’s aide, Andrew Card, apropos Iraq in the summer of 2002. But in this seventh September of a no longer new war a somewhat battered product is in need of a rebranding. It was launched in the days after 9/11 as a “war on terror,” an artful evasion deemed necessary on the grounds that a war on any enemy beginning with “Islamist,” “Islamo-,” or “Islamic” might give the impression we had some, ah, issues with Islam itself and only complicate things further with various “friends” like Mubarak and the...

Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt has spoken out about the need for Sweden to stand up for press freedoms following the controversy surrounding the publication by a local newspaper of drawings of the Muslim prophet Muhammad. Asked whether Sweden risked being drawn into a similar situation as that faced by Denmark two years ago, Reinfeldt replied: "I think it's important to say two things. First, we are eager to ensure that Sweden remains a country in which Muslims and Christians, people who believe in God and people who don't believe in God, can live side by side in a spirit of...

Pakistan has added its voice to that of Iran in condemning the publication of a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad in newspaper Nerikes Allehanda. Sweden has told Pakistan it is sorry if the publication hurt Muslim feelings. The protest concerned a cartoon by artist Lars Vilks, which showed the head of Muhammad on the body of a dog. In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad said Pakistan condemned the publication "in the strongest terms." Related Articles Paper defends Muhammad dog cartoon 28th August 2007 Ahmadinejad claims 'Zionists' behind Swedish cartoon 28th August 2007 Iran protests over Swedish...

"It is a real beauty" - that's President George W. Bush's verdict on the brush cutter he was given by Fredrik Reinfeldt during the Swedish Prime Minister's visit to the White House. In a letter dated June 18th and released to journalists on Wednesday, Bush tells Reinfeldt that he has already put the brush cutter to use on his Texas ranch following the prime minister's visit in May. "Dear Fredrik: I was honored to welcome you to the Oval Office," the president writes. Reinfeldt was slammed by opposition politicians at home for not using the meeting to criticize US policy...

Iran on Tuesday unveiled what it said was the world's largest handwoven carpet, worth 5.8 million dollars and larger than a football pitch, to be laid out in a United Arab Emirates mosque. The carpet, adorned with green and cream colours, was made in 18 months from 38 tonnes of wool and cotton by 1,200 weavers in three villages in northeastern Iran, said the head of Iran's state carpet company, Jalaleddin Bassam. It is to be spread out in the mosque in UAE capital Abu Dhabi that bears the name of UAE president and founder Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahayan....

DES MOINES, Iowa - Democrat Barack Obama cast himself Saturday as the leader the United States needs for it to stand up to and engage renegade nations such as North Korea. 'We need a president who'll have the strength and courage to go toe to toe with the leaders of rogue nations, because that's what it takes to protect our security," the Illinois senator told Democrats at a rally. "That's what I'll do as your next commander in chief." Obama and rival Hillary Rodham Clinton have had a running argument since clashing in last week's debate over how far the...

Cartoonist Michael Ramirez doesn't seem too optimistic about how fruitful these U.S.-Iran talks over the Iraq War are going to be. See here.

Relations between UAE and the Holy See affirmed Vatican City, May 31, 2007 / 09:37 am (CNA).- The Holy See and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced the establishment of diplomatic relations today. The creation of a relationship at the ambassadorial level is a boost to the Christian population of the UAE, which numbers around one million people. The new diplomatic arrangement was arranged because of a desire to promote “bonds of mutual friendship and of strengthening international cooperation,” according to a Vatican communiqué. A note attached to the communiqué recalls that the United Arab Emirates is located along...

Sweden will open the first 'diplomatic representation' in the virtual reality of web-based Second Life, a fantasy world inhabited by computer-generated residents, on May 30, the Swedish Institute said Friday. "The Second House of Sweden, the world's first virtual embassy in Second Life will be inaugurated on May 30," the institute said in a statement. Related Articles Swedish taxman sets sights on Second Life 31st January 2007 Sweden to set up embassy in Second Life 26th January 2007 Article Options Send to a friend Printable version Submit to Digg.com Sweden's Foreign Minister Carl Bildt and Director General of the Swedish...

WMD: Iran's flouting of international law and human decency is getting a little monotonous. Despite repeated efforts to curb Tehran's nuclear program, it continues not just unabated but at an accelerated pace. Iran's latest snub to the civilized world was summarized in the New York Times Tuesday: "Inspectors for the International Atomic Energy Agency have concluded that Iran appears to have solved most of its technological problems and is now beginning to enrich uranium on a far larger scale than before, according to the agency's top officials." Imagine that. Iran improves its ability to enrich uranium in defiance of "strict"...

Speaking on the Senate floor in favor of the supplemental funding bill for the war in Iraq (and salmon fishers, timber counties, woodland firefighting efforts and other projects), Sen. Barbara Boxer implored the president to sign the legislation. The bill would have required the start of American withdrawal from Iraq by July 1 if the Iraqis failed to make progress toward certain legislated "benchmarks," and by Oct. 1 even if they did make such progress. Her rationale was as follows: The war is lost. We've tried everything and failed. Therefore , it is time for diplomacy. Sen. Boxer speaks for...

MOSCOW -- The implementation of UN resolution 1244 on Kosovo is unsatisfactory, Russian Foreign Ministry said Sunday. Referring to the results of the UN fact-finding mission's work, the Russian Foreign Ministry asserted that "the UN delegation had found many blind spots." "The mission has confirmed the conclusion that despite relative progress in the social and administrative sphere, the situation in regards to the implementation of key provisions of Resolution 1244 and international standards in Kosovo cannot be described as satisfactory," the statement read, as reported by RIA Novosti . Adopted in 1999, the resolution determined to resolve the grave humanitarian...

<p>BELGRADE, Serbia: Serbia proposed near-complete independence for Kosovo on Sunday, urging the province's ethnic Albanian separatists to accept the offer of broad autonomy and drop their demand for formal secession.</p> <p>Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica described his vision of Kosovo's future as "supervised autonomy" — as opposed to the "supervised independence" recently proposed by a U.N. envoy. Either way, foreign civilian and military officials would supervise Kosovo for years to ensure peace and democracy in the tense province.</p>