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With the election of President Barack Obama to a second term as President of the United States, the operational realities of an exit strategy for U.S. forces to leave Afghanistan by 2014 began to be put into place. Obama campaigned strongly on the notion of turning the security of Afghanistan over to the national forces […]

Almost a month after the reelection of Barack Obama at the presidency of the U.S., its implications on the EU-U.S. relations should be reviewed. In a conference organized by the EU Center of Excellence at the University of Miami counting the French Consul to Miami, Gaël de Maisonneuve, Jean Monnet Chair Jaoquin Roy, Ambassador Ambler […]

I spent the last week on a tour of the Canadian oil sands in Alberta talking to oil sands industry representatives, Government of Alberta officials – the regulator – and environmental think tanks. I am now back in New York with interesting insights, a far better understanding of “everything oil sands” and many thoughts I would […]

  Burundi obstetric clinic slows maternal deaths The Burundi region of Kabezi has already met the Millennium Development Goal of reducing maternal mortality by 75% from 1990 rates thanks to an emergency obstetric care clinic run by Médecins sans Frontières, and open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. “You do not need state-of-the-art […]

Communities around the globe united over the weekend to spread awareness for World AIDS Day, which was held on Saturday, December 1st.  In 1988, the U.N. General Assembly expressed deep concern over the pandemic proportions of the AIDS virus. Following the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of 1 December 1988 as World AIDS Day, the General Assembly […]

“The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force.” — Thomas Jefferson  Dear President Obama, Congratulations on winning your second term in office. I wish you the best as you work with your team, and the Congress, to chart a course to strengthen our economic and national security in the years […]

In part one of this two-part series, I discuss the good news in UNAIDS’ Global Report, released in advance of World AIDS Day on December 1. We’ve made unprecedented strides in past decade–and just in the past few years–to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic. We’re well on our way. Many barriers remain, however, and I’d like to […]

This is the first blog in a two-part series. You can read the second part here. In advance of World AIDS Day, which takes place on December 1 each year, UNAIDS has released its annual report on the epidemic. We are making significant progress against HIV/AIDS, as a number of scientific discoveries in recent years, […]

After Iran, arguably the most urgent problem in nuclear nonproliferation policy is Japan’s huge and growing stockpile of separated plutonium, its plans to start commercial reprocessing of spent nuclear fuels next year,* and the bad precedent that will set for South Korea, South Africa and other near-nuclear-weapons capable nations. Anybody concerned with this issue and […]

  In his most recent, and to my mind, revealing examination of the evolution of the IAEA safeguards regime, Carnegie Senior Associate Mark Hibbs lays out some critical issues facing the evolution of the Agency’s central nuclear watchdog function.  What he finds is a swirling morass of political jockeying, an ongoing struggle by an agency struggling […]

  In a radio interview airing Nov. 17 on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Zhang Junsai, China’s ambassador to Canada, told radio host Evan Solomon that Chinese firms are not involved in foreign espionage, “I can assure you that our companies working in other countries are strictly doing business according to the local laws.” Zhang blamed the […]

An unexpected shadow was cast over President Obama’s swing through Southeast Asia last week by the fighting in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.  The diversion is interpreted by some as a sign of how the combustibility of the Middle East will undercut Washington’s much-ballyhooed “pivot” toward Asia.  As one commentator artfully puts it, “Having [Secretary […]