Few places in the world have assumed as much importance for the United States and its allies since 2001 as Pakistan’s northwestern tribal regions, which have served as a base for the mix of militants seeking to attack the governments, militaries, and civilians of the United States, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and others.

This note is reprinted with permission from a note health care policy blogger Brad Wright sent out. Brad blogs at Wright on Health. Even TMZ Doesn’t Care Anymore. . . Just saw John Edwards at the food court at Southpoint Mall (Durham, NC) and absolutely nobody cared.

Acclaimed strategist and Nobel Laureate in Economics Thomas Schelling gave a command performance at this American Strategy Program meeting I had the privilege to chair with Arms Control Wonk publisher and New America Foundation Nuclear Strategy and Nonproliferation Director Jeffrey Lewis.

After my post about King Abdullah II’s sobering comments that war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanan may be “imminent” to a group of Congressmen organized by Representative Adam Schiff last week, I received a clarification from the Embassy of Jordan that I am glad to post as an update to the meeting and discussion….

I received a note today reacting to a set of Congressional letters reaffirming US-Israel relations from Sama Adnan, executive director of the new political action committee advocating for Palestinian interests, NewPolicy.org.

The Economist has a lengthy profile of the BRIC bloc of emerging countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China), which appears to be casting itself as an alternative institutional framework to supplement and perhaps counter-balance the wealthy-country-dominated Bretton Woods clubs.

The New America Foundation/American Strategy Program is hosting an event TODAY, Friday April 16 featuring Nobel Laureate in Economics Thomas Schelling.

One of the privileges of working at a think-tank is the opportunity to soak up the intellectual energy that thrives at the crossroads of cutting edge research and policy-making.

I keep getting lots of emails each day from folks asking me what my TWITTER address is as they can’t seem to find me by searching. I can find me by searching, so not sure what is happening. In any case, here you go: SCClemons Note the two C’s.

I regularly watch the very good work the Steve Kull and his team do at the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland — and just a few moments ago I got an attention-getting email from his team on Israeli political attitudes.