DAR ES SALAAM—As the Sahel — the area just below the Sahara desert — and the Horn of Africa continue to face severe drought, high food prices, and population displacement, millions of people have plunged into food insecurity, which has generated instability and massive human suffering. Yet, if the United States, Europe, and Africa make [...]

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WASHINGTON, DC– One year ago this week, a magnitude-9.0 earthquake and ensuing tsunami devastated the northern Tohoku region of Japan, causing the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. Many observers have pointed to 3/11, as it is now called, and its aftermath coming after two decades of slow economic growth as further reasons to write off [...]

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While traveling in London this past week, I could not help but to be reminded of the enormous sacrifices that have been made by nations in times of war.  It seems as though every street has a memorial to a particular war or regiment, most striking of all is The Cenotaph, an empty tomb that [...]

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WASHINGTON–The protests in Afghanistan over the burning of copies of the Quran confiscated from detainees at Bagram Airfield have led to more than two dozen deaths, and have severely — perhaps even permanently — undermined the United States’ determined efforts to win hearts and minds in the country. The killing of NATO troops by members [...]

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WASHINGTON – Leadership transitions are inevitably accompanied by uncertainty. Promises made by aspiring leaders – particularly on matters of foreign policy – rarely bear themselves out.  In recent American memory, Bill Clinton decried the “butchers of Beijing” as a presidential contender but did his utmost to set U.S.-China relations on an even keel after the [...]

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WASHINGTON – When it began last March, the Syrian revolution appeared to be a textbook example for a peaceful uprising by a people united against state brutality. For weeks, videos documented the determination of the mostly youthful protesters, chanting their demands for freedom and political participation only to be faced with bullets, arrests, torture, and execution. [...]

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French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s recent announcement that French troops would hand over their security responsibilities to Afghan forces by the end of 2013 — a year earlier than the completion of the NATO combat mission — has caused some to declare that the entire Afghanistan operation is at risk. The French decision certainly reflects Sarkozy’s need [...]

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WASHINGTON – As he campaigned for the U.S. presidency in 1952, Republican candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower argued that he would seek to bring “security with solvency” to the American people.  Eisenhower realized that the challenges posed by the Soviet Union could too easily stress America’s finite resources and a strategy to face that threat consider [...]

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Fewer than 30 days into the new year, the foreign policy agenda for Europe and North America has already become crowded.  North Korea, Iran, Syria, potential breakthroughs in Burma, and the still roiling revolutionary fervor in the Middle East are but a few of the issues facing transatlantic policymakers.  Iraq, facing renewed violence in the [...]

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WASHINGTON–A year ago, during his State of the Union address, U.S. President Barack Obama set a goal for a national high-speed rail (HSR) network: 85 percent of the country’s population would have access to HSR within 25 years. One year later, that goal seems wildly optimistic. Within a month of Obama’s speech, Florida Governor Rick [...]

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