Clinton Praises Russia on Iran

New administration will need to fix problems Bush has not addressed

(NEWSER) - Taking the attitude that "since we were now all-powerful, allies were no longer necessary," President Bush damaged the US' image and diminished its power, Fred Kaplan writes in Slate. How can the next president heal our diplomatic woes?

1. Visit all Middle East countries; leave a full-time envoy: "It is appalling that President Bush made his first trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories in his final year."

White House engages with Russia, China, and more, and gets results

(NEWSER) - Diplomacy has become a major part of Barack Obama’s strategy in Afghanistan; the administration has been proactively recruiting regional allies, even ones that seem like strange bedfellows. Russia, for example, which suffered its own defeat in Afghanistan in part thanks to US covert operations, recently gave a general authorization allowing flights supplying US forces to fly through its airspace. “What we coalesced around is, this is a regional issue,” National Security Adviser Jim Jones tells Politico . More»

Krauthammer finds the Nobel not premature, but ridiculous

(NEWSER) - President Obama's Nobel prompted Charles Krauthammer to review the administration's foreign policy moves to date, and from Iran to Russia to China, he finds nothing but failure. "It is amateurishness, wrapped in naivete, inside credulity," he complains. "In short, the very stuff of Nobels." Obama gets credit for planting seeds, but his yield after 9 months is laughable. More»

Blunt talk and campaign-style events ruffle some diplomatic feathers

(NEWSER) - Hillary Clinton has impressed many in her 8 months as secretary of state but her own leadership aspirations are sometimes all too obvious, Glenn Kessler writes at the Washington Post. Clinton has forged close working relationships with other Cabinet members and made her desire to cooperate clear, Kessler writes, but she has also seemed out of step with the administration at times, and analysts see her as pursuing her own agenda on issues like women's rights. More»

(NEWSER) - President Obama’s decision to scrap plans for a missile defense shield is a political bombshell, writes Robin Oakley for CNN. America’s allies in Poland and the Czech Republic are left holding the bag after expending significant political capital on the unpopular system. Abandoning it might make their lives easier, but it won’t make them likelier to embrace future US causes. Moscow, meanwhile, must choose whether to tout its victory or embrace the move as a sign of easing relations. More»