How we got here

My colleague here at PRI’s The World, Jeb Sharp is posting the first episode of her new podcast, “How We Got Here.” It delves into the history of current international news issues. And if you’re not familar with Jeb’s work, check out her radio series, “How Wars End.”

Torture will keep us safe

John Yoo makes the case for torture in today’s WSJ. Among other things, though, he’s jumping to conclusions. It’s not clear that the Obama administration will put all terrorist suspects on trial in US civilian courts. And even if that does happen, my understanding is that there are procedures to allow for looser standards of evidence and for protecting intelligence sources and methods. The other point here, which Yoo actually alludes to, is that Obama has not given up one of the counter-terrorism options used by the Bush administration (and before that, Clinton’s), namely, the use of deadly force.

Dear Iran

Obama’s working on a letter to Iran, says the UK Guardian. From the story:

“… State department officials have composed at least three drafts of the letter, which gives assurances that Washington does not want to overthrow the Islamic regime, but merely seeks a change in its behaviour. The letter would be addressed to the Iranian people and sent directly to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, or released as an open letter.”

UPDATE: 2:33 PM

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs was just asked about this and he said neither the president nor the secretary of state had requested or has seen such a letter. Gibbs said that should close the book on that.

Orders to kill

Spiegel is reporting that the American NATO commander in Afghanistan has issued new orders to kill drug smugglers. And, according to the story, European commanders will refuse those orders.

Al-Arabiya journalist who interviewed Obama

Jeffrey Goldberg from The Atlantic called up the journalist who got the first big sit-down interview with the new American president. Al-Arabiya’s Hisham Melham came away from the interview with a feeling that there’s a change in tone, but not in substance, from Barack Obama.

“… Is there going to be disappointment later? We’re bound to have disappointments, but the main message is that a new wind is blowing. He’s closing down Guantanamo, sending Mitchell, pulling out of Iraq, and maybe I’m dreaming but I hope he would show Palestinians and Israelis tough love, both of them.”

State power

I’m working on something about how years of underfunding at the State Department will complicate the Obama administration’s effort to reinvigorate US diplomacy. Kori Schake at the Shadow Government blog writes about the issue. And she’s got a money quote about how America’s diplomats – the worker bees from the non-military side of US foreign policy – have climbed to positions of authority.

“The State Department didn’t teach them how to swim; they threw them in the water and promoted the ones who didn’t drown.”

Unlike the Pentagon, the State Department lacks the resources and manpower to offer training and education to diplomats. There just aren’t enough of them. And there isn’t enough money in the budget to do what the Defense Department does with its best people, which is to send them to graduate school.  More to come on this.

Hot new global economy podcast

Hosted by The World’s Clark Boyd.

Pentagon shifts to Afghanistan

Two interesting things jump out of this LA Times piece. One, the Pentagon’s main focus will be Afghanistan, not Iraq, in the coming months. And two, Sen. Saxby Chambliss’ comments at the end of the story on fiscal stimulus.

“If we want to truly stimulate the economy,” Chambliss said, “there is no better place to do it than the Defense budget.”

Harvard economist, Martin Feldstein made the same point this week on the public radio program, On Point. Question is, will Obama go for it, especially when you listen to pledges from him and Hillary Clinton about boosting the level of funding for US diplomacy, foreign aid and development?

Good for the goose, but not good for US

It’s not good Monday morning news when the head of the IMF is on live television (granted, it’s C-SPAN2, but still… ) talking about your country. Oh, how times have changed. Congress is now considering actions that were once thought to be the unwise and reactionary moves of small, troubled nations. Namely, nationalizing US banks. And imposing new government regulations over the financial system. Developing nations will find no small amount of irony in this. At one time, western governments vehemently cautioned them against taking both of these measures. But in times like these…

Forgetting Korea?

Don Kirk’s latest piece at Asia Times about the US and Korea is a great read. Kirk suggests that Barack Obama would just as soon not think about Korea, neither the US-South Korean alliance, or the nuclear standoff with North Korea. The article points out that Obama neglected to allude to the sacrifices of the US military during the Korean War. That’s interesting, but I’m not sure I’d read so much into it. Kirk doubts that Obama ever considered appointing a special envoy for North Korea. I don’t have any inside information on this. But if Obama is as smart as most people say he is, he probably undderstands that US presidents ignore North Korea at their peril. Team Obama has also said it plans to keep the six party talks on NK nuclear issues alive. It’s hard to imagine doing that without giving someone – with some kind of fancy “envoy” title – the responsibility to oversee that tricky effort.