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- President Obama Meets the Americas,
Stephanie Miller
- Obama Can Make a Difference in Darfur,
Jim Wallis and John Prendergast
- Getting the Defense Budget Under Control,
Lawrence Korb
- Gates' Weapons Cuts Will Make Us Safe,
Nina Hachigian
- Pride and Providence, Spencer Boyer and
Ken Gude
- Obama Can End 'Reign of Terror', John
Prendergast
- Pathways for U.S.-China Climate
Cooperation, John Podesta
- Working with Pakistan, Brian Katulis
- Confronting Piracy through Private
Contractors Raises Concerns, Andrew Grotto
- Administration State Secrets Motion
Disappointing, Ken Gude
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Stephanie Miller, "President Obama Meets the
Americas," Center for American Progress, April 15, 2009
President Barack Obama’s arrival
at the upcoming Summit of the Americas
in Trinidad and Tobago later this week will be his first opportunity to
meet and address 33 other heads of state from the Americas. This is an
important moment for the president to set the tone of his
administration’s policy toward the region, as well as reengage
with a
region that was largely missing from the Bush administration’s
foreign
policy radar screen.
Click here to read the full article.
Jim Wallis and John
Prendergast, "Obama Can Make a Difference in Darfur," Wall Street Journal, April 12, 2009
The U.S. needs to lead the
international community in presenting
Sudanese regime officials with a choice. If they allow access to aid
organizations, sideline their indicted president, and secure peace for
Darfur and the South, then they will be offered a clear path toward
normal relations with the U.S. and other coalition partners. But if
those officials use starvation as a weapon, allow Mr. Bashir to remain
defiant, and make no progress toward peace, then there will be
escalating costs in the form of targeted economic sanctions, diplomatic
isolation, and potential military action.
Click here to read the full interview.
Lawrence Korb, "Getting the Defense Budget Under
Control," Center for American Progress, April 9, 2009
The Center for American Progress has
argued for the past four years
that the Department of Defense needs to slow growth in the defense
budget, rebalance the allocation of budgetary resources to reflect the
threats and challenges of the 21st century, cancel or slow down the
procurement of troubled weapons programs that are over cost and behind
schedule, and stop using war supplementals to fund items that belong in
the base budget.
Click here to
read the full article.
See also: Fact Sheet on
Proposed Fiscal Year 2010 Defense Budget.
Nina Hachigian, "Gates' Weapons Cuts Will Make Us
Safe," GOOD, April 8, 2009
Finally we have a Defense Secretary who
is brave enough to stand down
the critics who are already accusing him of weakening America. He is
making the tough choices we have put off for far too long-curtailing
redundant and expensive weapons systems and investing more in
capabilities for counterinsurgency and “irregular”
campaigns as well as
programs that support our troops.
Click here to
read the full article.
Spencer Boyer and Ken Gude, "Pride and Providence,"
Center for American Progress, April 9, 2009
President Barack Obama, in his first
trip abroad since taking office,
presented the United States to the world in ways that make it possible
for all Americans to take great pride in our successes but still
recognize that global leadership is not our divine right. The president
reminded us that we are strongest when working in concert with a broad
set of partners to advance our common goals. That is exceptional.
Click here to read the full article.
John Prendergast,
"Obama Can End 'Reign of Terror'," CNN, April 9, 2009
In
addition to Iraq and Afghanistan, President Obama has inherited
another military challenge started by his predecessor. This
off-the-radar drama is unfolding under the forest canopy of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its consequences could end
up becoming deadlier than the two better-known cases, unless the Obama
administration demonstrates the leadership of which it is capable.
Click here to
read the full article.
John Podesta, "Seeking Pathways for U.S.-China
Cooperation on Energy and Climate Change," Center for American
Progress, April 8, 2009
The opportunity that the energy crisis
presents allows for the United
States and China to address this challenge head-on together and become
partners and leaders in developing low-carbon and economically sound
solutions. To prevail in this ambitious project, each country needs not
only a strong set of national policy agendas, but also a groundbreaking
strategy that forms a partnership between the two nations.
Click here to
read the full speech.
Stars & Stripes - Brian Katulis
says the administration's plan to partner with Pakistan is a "leap of
faith that we're going to have to take": "I don’t think the
Pakistani establishment has done enough … but there is so much
more room for them to demonstrate they are committed to stability in
the region. ... [T]hey need to improve, but there have already been
some improvements."
Politico -
Andrew Grotto questions the wisdom of using 'letters of marque' to
authorize private action against pirates: "It may work in the sense
that if you give people incentives to fight piracy, you'll see more
action taken against it ... but just given the experience in Iraq with
private contractors, that effort showcases the difficulties dealing
with folks who aren't answerable to anyone but shareholders."
TPMMuckraker
- Ken Gude express his disappointment with recent Obama administration
filings that seek to assert a 'state secrets privelege': "They've taken
the maximalist view that the judge has hardly any role
in determining whether national security would be compromised by the
release of classified information... I'm very uncomfortable with
the notion that the people who get to
decide [whether national security would be jeopardized] is the
government."
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