The Diplomatic Times Review

Winning Through Human Security

Do you win a war by destroying a country? Helena Cobban at Just World News has some thoughts on the subject in a July 30, 2008, post headlined "Defining 'winning.'

Should the 'Terror Threat' in U.S. Foreign Policy be De-Emphasized?

Gregory Djerejian at The Belgravia Dispatch has a July 31, 2008, post headlined "Should We De-Emphasize The Terror Threat in U.S. Foreign Policy?" I highly recommend it.

Does This Mean Obama is Fiscally Prudent?

Jonathan D. Salant at Bloomberg.com: "Obama Raised More Than McCain, Didn't Outspend Him (Update2)." Does that mean he is fiscally prudent?

Technorati Tags: Barack Obama,John McCain,Election Spending

SFGate.com: 'Obama Raises Profile of Mixed-race Americans'

"On blogs and around kitchen tables across the country, mixed-race Americans are celebrating the fact that, for the first time, a biracial person, Barack Obama, will be a major party's nominee for president of the United States," the San Francisco Chronicle's Tyche Hendricks reported July 20, 2008.

If you want to read more, please see "Obama raises profile of mixed-race Americans."

Technorati Tags: Mixed-race Americans,Barack Obama,Tyche Hendricks,SFGate.computer Security

SFGate.com: 'Obama Raises Profile of Mixed-race Americans'

"On blogs and around kitchen tables across the country, mixed-race Americans are celebrating the fact that, for the first time, a biracial person, Barack Obama, will be a major party's nominee for president of the United States," the San Francisco Chronicle's Tyche Hendricks reported July 20, 2008.

If you want to read more, please see "Obama raises profile of mixed-race Americans."

Technorati Tags: Mixed-race Americans,Barack Obama,Tyche Hendricks,SFGate.computer Security

Is Charging al-Bashir With War Crimes a Bad Precedent?

Mahmoud Ali Youssef, the foreign minister of Djibouti and chairman of a one-day emergency meeting of the 22-member Arab League in Cairo, Egypt, convened to discuss  the Netherlands-based International Criminal Court's July 14, 2008, decision to charge Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, with 10-counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur "is a dangerous precedent in dealing with heads of state."

Al-jazeera quoted him on July 20, 2008, as saying:"The indictment is a dangerous precedent in dealing with heads of state. It will have dangerous repercussions, not only on Sudan but on the whole region."

According to Al-jazeera, Mr. Youssef characterized the act as a "double-standard."

If you want to read more, see "Sudan genocide charges 'dangerous' ."

Technorati Tags: Arab League,Mahmoud Ali Youssef,Omar al-Bashing,International Criminal Court

What Do Iraqis Think of Barack Obama?

Newsweek's Larry Kaplow, writing in a July 20, 2008, post in the Checkpoint Baghdad Blog, "with reporting from Hussam Ali, Yassar Ghani, Salih Mehdi and Hassan al-Jarrah," contends that:

Iraqis are mystified by Barack Obama. As he kicked off his tour of Europe and the Middle East—including a stop in Baghdad—this week, both leaders and ordinary people here were trying to size up the Democratic candidate. For many, opinions are distorted by decades of misinformation and years of post-war cynicism about American motives in general. If you ask unemployed, 34-year-old Uday Ahmed whether he views Obama as a Muslim, because his father was Muslim, or as a Christian, which is the candidate's religion, he answers: "I think he is Jewish." It's an old conspiracy complex common in the Middle East, that Jews run American policy. But Ahmed didn't seem to mind. "If he is going to save my country from the chaos, I think I will like him. It is so important to have a good person, whether he is a Muslim, a Christian, or Jewish."

To read the entire article, please see "What Iraqis Think of Barack."

Technorati Tags: Newsweek,Larry Kaplow,Barack Obama,Iraqis,U.S. Presidential Election

Anchors Negotiating for Interviews With Obama on Foreign Trip

American national news anchors Brian Douglas Williams of NBC, Katherine Anne "Katie" Couric of CBS and Charles deWolfe Gibson of ABC will join presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama on his foreign trip this summer to Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Europe, Iraq and Afghanistan. See "Media stars will accompany Obama overseas." According to the International Herald Tribune's Jim Rutenberg:

... when Obama heads for Iraq and other locations overseas this summer, Williams is planning to catch up with him in person, as are the other two evening news anchors, Charles Gibson of ABC and Katie Couric of CBS, who, like Williams, are far along in discussions to interview Obama on successive nights.

Rutenberg added: "And while the anchors are jockeying for interviews with Obama at stops along his route, the regulars on the Obama campaign plane will have new seat mates: star political reporters from the major newspapers and magazines who are flocking to catch Obama's first overseas trip since becoming the presumptive nominee of his party.

I guess this means the trip is important. What do you think?

Technorati Tags: Brian Williams,NBC,Katie Couric,CBS,Charles Gibson,ABC,Barack Obama's Foreign Trip

Anchors Jockeying for Interviews With Obama on Foreign Trip

American national news anchors Brian Douglas Williams of NBC, Katherine Anne "Katie" Couric of CBS and Charles deWolfe Gibson of ABC will join presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama on his foreign trip this summer to Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Europe, Iraq and Afghanistan. See "Media stars will accompany Obama overseas." According to the International Herald Tribune's Jim Rutenberg:

... when Obama heads for Iraq and other locations overseas this summer, Williams is planning to catch up with him in person, as are the other two evening news anchors, Charles Gibson of ABC and Katie Couric of CBS, who, like Williams, are far along in discussions to interview Obama on successive nights.

Rutenberg added: "And while the anchors are jockeying for interviews with Obama at stops along his route, the regulars on the Obama campaign plane will have new seat mates: star political reporters from the major newspapers and magazines who are flocking to catch Obama's first overseas trip since becoming the presumptive nominee of his party.

I guess this means the trip is important. What do you think?

Technorati Tags: Brian Williams,NBC,Katie Couric,CBS,Charles Gibson,ABC,Barack Obama's Foreign Trip

Castro Calls on FARC to Release Remaining Colombian Hostages

According to Al-jazeera, former Cuban President "Fidel Castro has called on Columbia's FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia)  rebels to release its remaining hostages." The reportedly number around 700.

The call came in the wake of the rescue of former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt on July 2, 2008, and 14 other hostages, including three Americans, after Columbian intelligence allegedly tricked FARC into bringing them aboard a government airplane.

Technorati Tags: Fidel Castro,FARC,Ingrid Betancourt,Colombia