U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford is home following an informal and indefinite recall. The Obama Administration cited concern for Ford’s personal safety as the basis for this decision. A more likely explanation, however, is the failure of the Administration’s policy of “engagement” with Bashar al-Assad’s repressive autocratic regime. Assad’s unremitting violence caused the Arab League to suspend Syria’s membership earlier this week, as the country continues its slide toward civil war. The fact of the matter is, no U.S. ambassador should have been in Damascus in the first place—for …
In its latest strategic move, billed smART Power, the State Department is sending abroad on Americans’ behalf not more Foreign Service officers but a cadre of elite artists. Their mission: to use visual arts as a medium for winning the hearts and minds of foreign populations all over the globe. The impetus for this initiative comes right from the top, for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has crafted the new approach to U.S. foreign policy around what she dubs “smart power.” Cultural diplomacy is, of course, a good thing. So, …
Last Thursday marked the closing of the 38th Baghdad International Trade Fair, an annual event intended to showcase international corporations to Iraqis and Iraqi corporations to the world. This year’s installment, lasting 10 days and drawing more than 1 million visitors, was made all the more special by the fact that the U.S. participated for the first time in 20 years. Coming on the heels of President Obama’s announcement of a total U.S. troop pullout by the end of the year, U.S. participation at the Trade Fair is sending mixed …
The recent passing of Steve Jobs, while sad, is a good reminder that the freedom to innovate is, after all, one of the things that make this country so great. Those who criticize free-market economies fail to remember that this system has always made people free to dream big and equipped with the resources to make it happen. The U.S. rose to international prominence in large part thanks to its entrepreneurial spirit, and its economic recovery depends upon the rediscovery of what made it great in the first place. The …
