Diplomacy
Kerry’s Middle East Trip
May 21, 2013
This week Secretary of State John Kerry takes on some of the thorniest challenges in U.S. foreign policy with an ambitious trip to Oman and Jordan followed by Jerusalem and Ramallah. Top of the agenda for the trip is Syria – ahead of next month’s international meeting in Geneva – and the Middle East Peace [...]
Sober Consideration on Iran
May 14, 2013
As the P5+1’s lead negotiator meets her Iranian counterpart tomorrow and Congress weighs new sanctions legislation, most observers expect little movement until after Iranian elections scheduled for one month from today. In this relative quiet, bipartisan voices are urging heightened Washington focus on a negotiated solution, even an imperfect one. Yesterday’s release of a CNAS [...]
The U.S.-South Korea Alliance, Present and Future
May 8, 2013
Today, South Korean President Park Geun-hye will address a joint session of Congress, an opportunity afforded only to America’s closest partners. She speaks as U.S. and South Korean resolve and diplomatic coordination are showing progress in diminishing provocations from Pyongyang, which now appear to be tapering off. Going forward, sustained U.S. and South Korean coordination [...]
Small Steps towards Clarity on Syria
April 29, 2013
A string of unconfirmed news reports out of Syria has nerves around the region on edge: a reported assassination attempt on Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi and unsubstantiated rebel claims of a possible Israeli airstrike in Syria over the weekend. Meanwhile, whether Syrian loyalists have employed chemical weapons remains unclear and UN efforts to inspect [...]
A Bipartisan Push for Diplomacy
April 18, 2013
Yesterday, a distinguished panel of former senior American officials and outside experts released the latest in a series of reports from bipartisan experts making the case for the need for balancing sanctions and military pressure with a renewed diplomatic engagement with Iran as the best way to achieve America’s goals towards Iran and the broader [...]
The Case for Diplomatic Engagement on the Korean Peninsula
April 15, 2013
This past week, Secretary of State Kerry travelled to meet with American partners in Asia – including South Korea, Japan and China – to put the pieces in place for diplomatically engaging North Korea at the “appropriate moment.” While recent calls for massively destabilizing military strikes against North Korea are not supported by experts or our [...]
State’s Budget: Balancing Strategy After the Wars?
April 11, 2013
Yesterday NSN looked at the implications of the President’s FY2014 budget request for the Pentagon. Today we consider the budget for civilian international affairs – the leading way most of the world encounters official America, and the tools we rely on to promote our interests without the use of force — accomplished with just over [...]
Food Security in the 21st Century
April 8, 2013
Food insecurity matters for American security because, as Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute explains, it “can contribute — and it has — to revolutions and upheaval.” In challenging economic and security circumstances, the Obama administration is poised to take up a decade of bipartisan recommendations to overhaul the way the U.S. provides food aid to people in urgent [...]
Living Up to the Statue | Heather Hurlburt
April 3, 2013
By Heather Hurlburt April 3, 2013 | Foreign Policy Beltway insiders yawned at the progress of the United Nations’ Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), the first treaty to regulate the massive global trade in conventional weapons that are responsible for most conflict deaths worldwide, from its near death in the summer of 2012 to its Easter-week [...]
Aligning Options with Interests on Syria
March 20, 2013
The debate on the U.S. and international response to the crisis in Syria has intensified over the last 24 hours amid unconfirmed reports of the use of chemical weapons. A number of proposals to address the crisis have emerged in Congress. These proposals range from the practical to the extreme: implementing a “no fly zone” [...]
