If a beer maker needs hops for a brewery in South Sudan, should it import those hops from Australia when Sudanese farmers can grow a similar crop? This is a critical question that is driving the global discussion on hunger today.

While governments and non-profits have a critical role...

As the Obama Administration announces its Afghanistan drawdown tonight, much has been said about what will change -- the number of troops -- but there has been virtually no discussion of what will remain largely the same -- the continued assistance of more than four dozen countries, 20 UN agencies,...

(Originally published in The Hill newspaper)

Spending a few weeks in Pakistan is a jaw-dropping experience.

On a typical day, you can wake up to a newspaper article blasting the U.S. for not paying back the Pakistani government for various war costs, a grisly picture of the...

(Originally published in the Seattle Times)

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was dinged recently in Newsweek by an anonymous National Security Council staff member who suggested she had no strategic vision, but was good at having a "list of the nine or 10 things she has...

With Afghan President Hamid Karzai's visit to Washington now officially confirmed for May, the time is ripe for the American public to meet the other leading figures within the Afghan government - the Ministers.

The ability of the Afghan government to improve the security and living conditions of Afghan...

The comments from Afghanistan's President Karzai last Thursday attacking the West for its role in the 2009 presidential election continues a long line of mixed messages and actions over the past year that leave both the Afghan government and the US administration struggling to create a partnership that works. The...