Time is almost up for the Obama administration’s “dual-tracked” approach to Iran. As the Islamic Republic keeps rejecting the administration’s diplomatic outreach and moving forward with its nuclear program, the administration is primed to turn to the U.N. Security Council early next year to seek authorization for a program of More…
Chances are President Obama will announce a readjusted Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy shortly after the Thanksgiving holiday. It’s very likely that strategy announcement will come paired with an announcement of a troop escalation. Before that happens, however, Obama will host one last all-hands-on-deck meeting with his national security team. Just added to More…
U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice gave a speech in Israel yesterday urging that peace demands more than “lip service,” an unsubtle dig at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Augustinian approach. She singled out President Shimon Peres, a leading peace-processor, for praise:
“As President Peres always reminds us, being serious about
Here’s the guest list for today’s White House meeting to discuss Afghanistan and Pakistan strategy. New additions to the discussion: Amb. Susan Rice, a close Obama adviser turned ambassador to the U.N.; and Lt. Gen. Doug Lute, the “war czar” who will oversee interagency policy coordination. Wait, isn’t that Richard More…
As reports of political violence in Iran intensified after Friday’s fiercely disputed election, the Obama administration insisted that it would not interfere with the struggle for power between regime-backed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the thousands of demonstrators who contend the election was stolen. Administration officials, on and off the More…
You know, spending a lot of time dredging through the public record on torture is a rather depleting exercise. So it’s a glass of lemonade in a desert to read the Obama administration’s human rights pledges issued by the State Department today. The administration announced last month that it would More…
Official negotiations among United Nations members begin today in Vienna over a U.N. declaration to guide global drug policy for the next decade.
As we’ve written here recently, the Obama administration has come out strongly in support of needle exchange programs — a break from previous administrations that’s been More…
Bush-era envoys to the United Nations are trying to block global efforts to promote HIV/AIDS-prevention programs such as needle exchanges, according to health and human rights advocates who supplied documents of the negotiations. The envoys’ opposition runs directly counter to the stated position of President Obama, who supports lifting a More…
Politico’s Ben Smith adds to Laura Rozen’s report on President-elect Barack Obama’s South Asia-themed dinner last week. Ben learns that Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi was there, along with an important defense adviser to Obama’s presidential campaign, Air Force Maj. Gen. Scott Gration (Ret).
That raises a question: More…
“It shouldn’t be an either/or debate” between military force, diplomacy and development, Clinton says, “we want to blend those.” But what does that really mean? Right now it means that soldiers and Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan have to be diplomats and development workers as well. But it’s not clear More…
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