by Jiyoon Han Confident of its newfound economic prowess and growing military might, an emboldened India is in the throes of voicing a new foreign policy doctrine for the 21st century. As pragmatism overpowers a traditionally quixotic and nationalistic external outlook, the new direction of Indian foreign policy is encouraging and refreshing. Nevertheless, the lingering threat of a flawed and archaic non-alignment policy threatens to squander t...
Former Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry had an impressive biography but no coherent policy vision. Stuck in the wilderness for at least another two years, the Democratic Party has conjured the spirits of conventional wisdom, and they have spoken. “The Democrats produce a litany of concerns, while the Republicans have a narrative,” says James Carville. “Democrats must speak in a language that allows all voters to know we share their...
In 2008, President Barack Obama had a clear idea for Latin American foreign policy. The Bush administration, distracted by events in the Middle East, had pursued a harmful hemispheric policy of blustering unilateralism and neglect; Obama, conversely, would pursue a “new partnership” with the Americas, one marked by cooperation and mutual interests. His subsequent election was heralded throughout Latin America as an opportunity to repair the dam...
...with the Muslim Brotherhood.” Citing “The Muslim Brotherhood in America: The Enemy Within,” a ten-part video series produced by Frank Gaffney, a former Assistant Secretary of Defense and the founder of the Center for Security Policy, Bachmann and her colleagues contended that “the State Department and, in several cases, the specific direction of the Secretary of State, have taken actions recently that have been enormously favorable to the Muslim...
photo from Wikimedia Commons Foreign policy is not a game. It is not a contest, it is not a place to show off, and it must transcend mere politics. It is easy to draw red lines for Iran; it is hard to make Iran abide by them. It is easy to criticize China’s corrupt trade policies; it is hard to make China follow American rules. It is easy to condemn human rights abusers worldwide; it is hard to bring them to justice. It is easy to criticize sec...
...rly, the Colombian government in 1991 hired the same firm to help better its image in the USA and be its “eyes and ears” on America’s perceptions of Colombia. Political consultants can change public opinion and affect foreign policy. It is not surprising that US consultants are the most effective, it seems, in influencing the politics of their own country, even if they are being paid to act on the behalf of another. The political consultant is no...
Illustration by Phyllis Ma In late April 2004, the news that American soldiers had abused detainees at Abu Ghraib prison arrived to the public in a string of shocking photos. The images that exposed the torture of prisoners were brutal and strange—and they were memorable, resistant to amnesia. On May 24, President Bush made a somber address about the news. He called the abuse “disgraceful conduct by a few American troops, who dishonored our co...
Illustration by Liz Lee The problem with the firmly partisan prism of the media through which most of American politics is dissected is that we lose the many nuances of our political realities. Complexities become distorted and disfigured as they are forcefully shoved into the binary classifications of party politics. Perhaps the most extreme example is the way foreign policy has almost disappeared in today’s political consciousness, not in the...
ods toward opening up American education to a more diverse international population – consider the use of satellite campuses in other nations to extend access. However, Stephen Heyneman, a professor of international education policy at Vanderbilt’s Peabody College of Education, complicates this model, noting that the risk of failure in expanding overseas scares many top colleges (who fear for damage to their brand) away from the venture. Addition...
...the standards for textbook adoption nationwide. The Texas school board became the center of a November 2001 debate over whether to adopt certain environment science textbooks that were opposed by the independent Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF). The TPPF condemned the book Environmental Science: Creating a Stable Future, which was widely used in high schools and colleges, on the grounds that it was “anti-Christian, anti-free enterpris...
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