I recently had the privilege of attending the swearing-in ceremony for my friend and former New America Foundation colleague Karen Kornbluh who recently was confirmed as the new US Ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Anyone who knows New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson knows he can be a handful, can be complicated, and can too often want the story about him more than others. Those are characteristics of most who aspire to the presidency.

The Democratic Party of Japan has scored a historic and monumental victory over the many decades ruling Liberal Democratic Party in Japan. The DPJ has scored 308 seats in Japan’s powerful lower house while the LDP has retained only 119 seats.

If you can spare ten minutes, this interview with former Australia Prime Minister Paul Keating offers some of the smartest commentary on the consequences of the global financial crisis. It is from February 2009 but it’s still relevant today.

(photo of Paul Wolfowitz and Steve Clemons at Australian Prime Minister’s Official Residence in Sydney — Kirribilli House, 16 August 2009. When taken, Paul Wolfowitz remarked, “I don’t know whose reputation will take more of a hit for this picture — yours or mine. . .

Patrick Doherty directs the New America Foundation/U.S.-Cuba 21st Century Policy Initiative. This post originally appeared at The Havana Note. Governor Bill Richardson is visiting Cuba on a trade mission for his state this week.

(Oakley the Amazing Weimaraner waiting for Steve to get home for the surprise birthday party) Good morning all. Today, we are 47. Well, I am actually.

I just received word at Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Paris that Senator Ted Kennedy has died at age 77. While his passing was increasingly expected, it doesn’t make the time and day of his death any less significant and sad.

Many writers and thinkers have had late nights and early mornings in the past few days, owing to the release yesterday of the 2004 CIA Inspector General’s report.