President Barack Obama has successfully transformed America’s strategic dialogue with the world for the better in his first year, impressing Europe — or at least eminently sensible Norway — enough to win a Nobel Peace Prize. In relationship after relationship, America now finds itself talking about what really matters, which in most instances means prioritizing economics above terrorism (George W. Bush’s one-note presidency) and climate change (Al Gore’s shrill post-vice-presidency). For those who prefer a diet of constant fear, Obama’s maddeningly calm approach is not nearly as filling as an American foreign policy forever focused on perceived existential threats. The [...]
No sooner does Jack Lang, the newly appointed French envoy to North Korea, touch down in Pyongyang than all hell breaks loose. I had a feeling this would happen. Good thing President Barack Obama just decided to send his own presidential envoy, Stephen Bosworth, to North Korea to straighten things out. Here’s hoping Bosworth gets a chance to debrief with Richard Holbrooke and George Mitchell before he heads off. I’m sure those guys have useful tips on how this whole special envoy thing is done.
BEIJING — One of the issues President Barack Obama will inevitably discuss when he visits China next week is the deadlocked Six-Party Talks seeking to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis. Perhaps the most important difference between the 1994 Agreed Framework (.pdf), which settled the 1992-94 nuclear crisis, and the current Six-Party Talks is that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has been considerably more involved in supporting the latter process. Chinese policymakers initially promoted the Six-Party Talks primarily as a means of preventing Washington from adopting more coercive measures — whether severe sanctions or military attacks — toward the [...]
