On Thursday, Foreign Policy and the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN) co-hosted a discussion on foreign assistance in the context of the Arab Spring. A keynote address was given by Tamara Cofman Wittes, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs. Following her address was a panel discussion with John Norris, Executive Director of the Sustainable Security and Peacebuilding Initiative, Center for American Progress; Ehaab Abdou, Co-founder, Nahdet El ...

On Tuesday, the Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED) hosted a panel discussion with the Heinrich Böll Foundation of North America to announce the release of a new publication, The Federal Budget and Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2012: Democracy, Governance, and Human Rights in the Middle East. The discussion featured Stephen McInerney, Executive Director of POMED and author of the report; Daniel Brumberg, Senior Adviser to the Center for Conflict ...

Writing in the New York Times Magazine, James Traub describes the foreign policy approach of Sen. John Kerry (D-MA). Like President Barack Obama, Kerry has long supported the approach of "engagement," by meeting and forming relationships with both democratic and authoritarian leaders. For example, in 2009 and 2010 Kerry traveled to Syria four times, conveying to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad a list of moderate reforms recommended by the White House that were ...

On Thursday the U.S. House of Representatives voted on amendments to a 2012 Department of Defense spending bill to limit or end the U.S. involvement in Libya.  Tom Cole's (R-OK) amendment H.AMDT. 542, adopted 225-201 "prohibit the use of funds for the Department of Defense to assist any group or individual not part of a country's armed forces for the purpose of assisting that group or individual in carrying out military ...

Writing in Foreign Policy, James Traub criticizes Republican presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty's recent foreign policy speech. Pawlenty's "moral clarity" lacks roots in life experience or a broader world-view. And with the complexity of U.S. foreign policy, especially towards the Arab Spring, the principle is problematic in dictating "absolute judgments rather than nuanced ones." Traub predicts that as the Republican party moves towards isolationism, which currently fits with the party's base and the ...

Last Friday President Barack Obama officially announced his intention to nominate Wendy Sherman to be the next undersecretary of state for political affairs. Josh Rogin argues in Foreign Policy that Sherman "faces a tough, but perhaps not insurmountable, confirmation fight in the Senate." Some Republicans began campaigning against her nomination before it was even announced, and the State Department is facing opposition on a number of other nominations. In an emailed ...

The divergent foreign policy views expressed by GOP leaders reflects the "degree of uncertainty over whether the party is backing away from the strong, interventionist policy that defined its last decade," according to Michael O'Brien from The Hill. GOP Presidential candidate and former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty rejected the growing GOP support for isolationist foreign policy in his speech at the Council on Foreign Relations yesterday. Max Boot praised Pawlenty for outlining consistent, sound foreign policy ...

On Wednesday the House of Representatives delayed a vote on H.Con.Res. 51 by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), which calls for the end of U.S. involvement in the NATO mission in Libya. Fearing the resolution's passage, GOP leaders worked Wednesday and today to come up with alternatives that would not adversely affect the NATO mission.  Today Rep. Kucinich argued in a press release that Congress "cannot stand by idly as a war of choice with significant ...

On Wednesday, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs held a hearing entitled, “War Powers, United States Operation in Libya, and Related Legislation.  Congressman Justin Amash (R-MI), Christopher Gibson (R-NY), and Thomas Rooney (R-FL).  Committee Chairman, Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) chaired the hearing with Ranking Member Congressman Howard Berman (D-CA) and other committee members in attendance. For full notes, continue below.  For pdf version, click here. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen brought the meeting to ...

On Thursday, the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia held the second in its ongoing series, "Shifting Sands: Political Transitions in the Middle East.” The witnesses for the hearing were Michael H. Posner, Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL), and Tamara Wittes, Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, both at the U.S. Department of State. ...

On Wednesday, the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia held the first in a proposed series of hearings entitled, “Shifting Sands: Political Transitions in the Middle East.” Testimony was given by a panel featuring, Elliott Cohen, Ph.D, Professor of Strategic Studies at The Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, J. Scott Carpenter, Keston Family Fellow at Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and ...

On Friday, the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID) held their 12th Annual Conference under the theme “Tunisia’s and Egypt’s Revolutions and Transitions to Democracy.” CSID President Radwan Masmoudi opened the conference by giving special attention to discerning real and fake stability and development in Egypt and Tunisia. The first panel, chaired by George Washington University Visiting Scholar and Program Committee Chair for the event, Radwan Ziadeh, was ...

In two similar pieces,  Marc Lynch and Joseph S. Nye, lament budget cuts to U.S. State and Foreign Operations, defending the efficacy of soft power.  Nye defends the relevant instruments of soft power, the term he coined: “public diplomacy, broadcasting, exchange programs, development assistance, disaster relief, military-to-military contacts.” He argues for an overarching governmental structure to coordinate these similarly minded efforts. Lynch focuses on public diplomacy particularly. Lynch vindicates the Obama ...

Tuesday marked the opening of the U.S.-Islamic World Conference hosted by the Brookings Institution, the Qatari Government  and the Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World.  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a speech that emphasized U.S. commitment to cooperating with Middle East countries to achieve shared interests in values.  Clinton said the region-wide uprisings have exposed the myth that “Arabs do not share universal human aspirations for freedom, ...

On Tuesday, the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs held an open hearing to discussFY2012 budget appropriations to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).  The Committee —Chaired by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), and with Senators Ronald Johnson (R-WI), Mark Kirk (R-IL) and Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) in attendance – requested the testimony of Dr. Rajiv Shah, USAID Administrator. For full notes, continue below.  For pdf version, ...

On Thursday, the Middle East Institute (MEI) hosted Hady Amr, Deputy Assistant Administrator, Middle East Bureau at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and Thomas Garrett, Vice President for Programs at the International Republican Institute (IRI), to discuss “Reform and Development in Egypt: U.S. Goals and Priorities.” The event was moderated by Kate Seelye, Vice President at MEI.   For full notes, continue below.  For pdf version, click here.   Seelye opened ...