Remember. . .this exchange I had with Center for Security Policy President and leading neocon force in Washington Frank Gaffney was done for charity to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society — probably the only thing that Frank Gaffney and I basically agree on.

Latin America policy uber diva Julia Sweig chaired a news-making gathering at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington yesterday morning. It was excellent, and the CFR has audio of the entire event here.

(Sorry for late notice on this — just learned we could do it. will get video up for later viewing tomorrow.

(Photo Credit: Army.mil’s photostream) For those who missed it, New America Foundation Senior Fellow Anatol Lieven‘s column in yesterday’s Financial Times is an excellent summary of the United States’ strategic challenges in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Mutlilateralism may be back? In the past week alone, the Obama administration has agreed to restart arms control negotiations with the Russians, work with the G-20 to develop a new global financial regulatory architecture, and join Europe’s negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program.

The New York Times and Bloggingheads ran this fascinating short clip of New America Foundation/Middle East Task Force Director Daniel Levy and Nuh Yilmaz, a Washington staff member of the Turkey-based SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research. (The longer exchange is embedded above).

While it is unclear how or when the world will emerge from this dramatic economic slowdown, one thing is for certain. The balance of power is shifting away from markets and toward governments.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy Here is the clip from my chat with Keith Olbermann of MSNBC’s Countdown last night. I thought it was a very good exchange — though I was more long-winded than usual (. . .I know, that’s not such an unusual thing).

I will be discussing with Keith Olbermann tonight on MSNBC’s Countdown Barack Obama’s foreign policy scorecard after a pretty staggering week for him in Europe, Turkey, and as of today, Iraq.

I just received a powerpoint from a Naval War College instructor that I think captures rather well one informed person’s perceptions of the Obama administration’s course on defense allocations. It was prepared by Professor Tom Fedyszyn.