Future historians may look back on the Georgian Crisis and define the attack on South Ossetia by Georgia as the proximate cause of the conflict while finding that several factors, including oil, ethnicity, nationalism, and alliances were the ultimate causes of the conflict. In Cracks in the Foundation: NATO's New Troubles, Cato Institute Research Fellow […]
After a few months of observing the global phenomenon that is Obamania, I thought I would put forth a few theories on why Senator Barack Obama is so strongly favored as the next US President by people living outside the US. First, a note on why people outside the US care about the US election […]
This post collects sage advice for US policy toward the Middle East: one aspect of US foreign policy that could really use a jump-start. First, a new analysis by Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's Middle East Scholars Marina Ottoway and Mohammed Herzallah assess the diplomatic efforts of Arab regimes seeking to fill the power vacuum left by the absence […]
Now that the dust is settled we can reflect on the past week or so and see where we stand in this ongoing Georgian crisis. We have learned: – Georgia started the conflict. – Russia reacted in a more or less predictable manner. – The U.S. armed and trained Georgia and therefore can't feign surprise […]
I’d like to make a modest proposal to banish the word “need” from U.S. policy statements about other countries. We have fallen into the habit of telling other countries what they need to do as if authoritatively defining their need makes it so. Take, for example, this recent statement by Secretary Rice (AFP – […]
How will the Georgian conflict involve and influence the U.S. Presidential election campaign? What efforts are governments undertaking in this conflict to influence international public opinion? This subject spans the topic headings of several categories of our “Foreign Policy Blogs” — but let's consider briefly the public information dimension. Against the backdrop of a real […]
According to public diplomacy expert Nicholas Cull, (see this review of his new book) the very act of listening is one of the primary functions of public diplomacy. As an example Cull cited the US Information Agency's research and analysis of foreign opinion, which the director shared with policy makers. More recently, former Undersecretary of State for […]
As Russian tanks move deeper into Georgia in defiance of the ceasefire agreement The New York Times’ On This Day section reminds us that it was on this day in 1961 that Berlin was divided as East Germany sealed off the border between the city's eastern and western sectors. The original report from The New […]
Let me take a moment to recommend two resources for background information on the Georgia crisis. Professor Stefan Wolff, the Director of the Center for International Crisis Management and Conflict Resolution at the University of Nottingham, offers this timely backgrounder on the Georgia – Russia crisis, as well as optimism for an eventual resolution to […]
New York Times veteran columnist Nicholas Kristof weighed in this weekend on what he calls a “cancer in American foreign policy.” He lists the symptoms: “1) The United States has more musicians in its military bands than it has diplomats. 2) This year alone, the United States Army will add about 7,000 soldiers to its […]
As Russian and Georgian forces continue to fight each other far beyond the confines of South Ossetia the diplomatic action has moved to the U.N. Security Council (Voice of America – US, Russia Trade Accusations at Security Council Over Georgia ): At the rare Sunday session of the council, called jointly by the United […]
This post will conclude this blog's three-part discussion of Senator Obama's trip overseas. Rather than look at the foreign reaction, let's consider what effect the trip had here at home. Here's what the Senator said he took away from his travels upon arriving back to the US: “One of the key insights that I come […]
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