French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, a champion of tough-edged humanitarianism, too frequently falls into a linear, knee-jerk approach to global justice causes rather than embracing the complexity of most global problems. Nations are good or bad. We must take forceful action against some country or are otherwise appeasing them. And so on.
Joe Biden had AMTRAK trips between D.C. and Wilmington, Delaware so imprinted in his DNA that he must really miss them now. For 35 years, then Senator Biden commuted each working morning and each working night — 100 miles each way — to be with his wife and children.
(Photo Credit: Argenberg’s Photostream) While here in Istanbul for a series of meetings with foreign policy practitioners and analysts, I have been struck by the nearly complete absence of Turkey’s European Union negotiations from my discussions. As one prominent Turkish political commentator explained to me, Turkey’s relations with Europe are in a coma.
(photo is of White House Treaty Room, White House Museum Archives) During a Maria Leavey Memorial Breakfast Series discussion with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), I asked the Senator in May 2008 whether there would be any action before the end of that Congress on the “Law of the Sea Treaty“.
I am traveling today — but wanted to note that the UK election yesterday is tracking with so many other elections in the world today like we recently saw in Iraq, and even in Afghanistan, not to mention the US presidential race in 2004.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy Here is an exchange I had with Keith Olbermann yesterday on MSNBC’s Countdown on what the broader geopolitical implications of the Faisal Shahzad case may be.
Noman Benotman, a former top tier member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) and a mujahadeen who fought along with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, has helped broker “reconciliation” between members of his former group and the Libyan government.
The most recent terrorist attempt to attack New York on Saturday has got me thinking in the last few days, especially if it turns out to be true that the would-be-car bomber may have been acting in reaction to American drone strikes in Pakistan.
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Vice President for Communications Peter Reid emailed me the most fantastic suggestion. After seeing my post about US soldiers in Afghanistan doing their Lady Gaga stuff, he sent me another YouTube link of US Air Force Academy cadets playing up Kesha’s Tik Tok. Coolio.
Although he’s just launched it, writer Allen McDuffee has a fun blog called ThinkTanked that is worth paying attention to.
