Diplomacy

Mark Leon Goldberg reports that John Bolton, the Bush administration’s former ambassador to the United Nations, has a new book out. It’s called ConUNdrum — get it? — and apparently continues Bolton’s quest to shave several more floors from the U.N.’s Turtle Bay offices. But what’s more interesting, Goldberg reports, is who’s throwing book parties [...]

Last week I broke the story of a proposal from Stuart Bowen, the inspector general for the Iraq war, to create a new agency for coordinating and directing civilian governance and development activities in war zones. Bowen wants the envisioned agency, known as the U.S. Office for Contingency Operations or USOCO, to stand up in [...]

Today’s the deadline for Iran’s leadership to embrace or reject the deal its negotiators endorsed in Vienna to ship uranium out of the country for enrichment into fuel-producing-and-not-weapons-grade material. Whether that happens or not, Laura Rozen reports an interesting Vienna backstory:
Diplomatic sources tell POLITICO that among the most interesting dynamics to emerge was increasing, direct US-Iranian [...]

Seated across the table from the United States and its allies, the Iranian regime is considering an ambitious diplomatic offer to ship its uranium out of the country.

Much as Barack Obama may deserve the Nobel Peace Prize for changing the climate toward international diplomacy and recognizing the value in cooperating with the rest of the world, the prize seems more about congratulating the United States for breaking with the Bush go-it-alone attitude than for any great achievements or policy changes Obama has [...]

Just out from the White House:
Good morning, everybody.  I want to just make a brief comment about the fact that the two young journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, are safely back with their families.  We are obviously extraordinarily relieved.  I had an opportunity to speak with the families yesterday once we knew that they [...]

Not really, but what in the world would convince a diplomat with nearly 50 years’ worth of experience that he should remark on the beauty of women he understands to be the daughters of Pashtun tribesmen? (Via Andrew Exum/Via Christian.) BruceR, with whom I’m unfortunately unfamiliar, remarks:
You know, if there is somewhere a list of [...]

Laura Rozen at the Cable has the scoop. This will provide an interesting test of the Clintons’ marriage. Will the Haitian government view Clinton’s envoyship for the United Nations as a backchannel to the Obama administration and the Hillary Rodham Clinton-run State Department? How can a husband and wife who both work in diplomacy not [...]

Officially, today marks “Armenian Remembrance Day,” set aside to honor the roughly 1.5 million Armenians killed at the hands of Ottoman Turks in 1915. But in the eyes of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), it’s misnamed. From the statement just out of her office:
Today, we commemorate the 94th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide and pay [...]

The Iranians have so far greeted every Obama administration overture to them with tepid-to-hostile reactions. Without reading too much into it — Mahmoud Ahmedinejad does not make the foreign policy of Iran; that’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, last seen rebuking President Obama — this would appear to be a change in tone: