"The surge of troops is needed to provide us with time and space to further build our own security forces," stated the Ambassador of Afghanistan to the U.S. Said T. Jawad at my Center on Politics & Foreign Relations at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies last week...

The Jobs Summit to be held this week at the White House will provide no new jobs for any of the large number of Americans who are now unemployed.

With the official unemployment rate at 10.2% and the unofficial rate, which is nearly 18% and probably the...

Enough already on Palin and her new book!

The national media is creating a best seller for the former GOP vice-presidential candidate by its harsh criticisms of her.

It is almost as if talking heads on TV cannot get enough of the former Alaska governor. Every time they speak badly...

"An elite corps of impudent snobs" who are "hopeless, hysterical, hypochondriacs of history" and "nattering nabobs of negativism" said former Vice-President Spiro Agnew about the media in the United States when he served under President Richard Nixon.

And, going back to the press in the days of Thomas Jefferson there...

Crisis manager. Realist. Idealist. Pragmatist. Internationalist. Practical politician.

At this early stage of the Obama presidency it is difficult to see a comprehensive foreign policy agenda. While Obama has been chiefly focused on health care reform and a dire economy with high unemployment the world has not stood still while...

By Robert J. Guttman and Emily Benavides

In these days of high unemployment and financial stress, it is not the time to go to the exclusive island of Martha's Vineyard. The influx of spending brought by the presidential entourage would have a greater effect in the Midwestern, economically hurting city...

Having just returned from two states hard hit by the recession -- Michigan and Florida -- I can say that I heard not one person talking about the need for a special prosecutor to look into interrogation practices under the Bush Administration.

I certainly heard much about unemployment nearing 15%...

President Obama can be applauded on the one hand for taking a more cautious approach on the deteriorating situation in Iran. And, Republican leaders can also be applauded for speaking out against the violence and against the obvious rigged elections.

However, the situation in Iran is looking grim and ominous...

President Barack Obama has made it perfectly clear that the centerpiece of his current trip to the Middle East and Europe is his speech tomorrow in Cairo.

Europe has definitely taken a second place in the minds of the White House on this trip--more of a quick pass by...

It is refreshing to have Joe Biden as our vice-president. Instead of people criticizing him for giving us his views we should be applauding him for saying what is on his mind.

If he doesn't want his family in a confined space--in an airplane or train -then it is his...

As President Barack Obama prepares to attend the 60th anniversary summit of NATO
in Strasbourg, France and Kehl, Germany on April 3rd and 4th the question has to be asked among all the hoopla and celebration: Is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization still necessary?

Everyone will...

How would you like to be a billionaire courtesy of the federal government?
No, I don't mean becoming a bank and then failing and cashing in on a bailout?

Let's face facts. The economic stimulus package is really quite boring and no one really has any idea what it...

His inaugural address set the right tone. It was somber and sober to fit the mood of our times.
The president's popularity is enormous as he begins to tackle our economic, financial, health care and foreign policy problems.

It is good to see a new mood appear in Washington,...

George W. Bush ran for president in 2000 as a compassionate conservative who would be a competent president. As he leaves office with one of the lowest approval ratings for an outgoing president in recent history, a large percentage of the American public views the president as not being competent...

Caroline Kennedy would be a wonderful choice to become an ambassador in the Obama administration. She could have her pick of countries where she could serve. I remember interviewing Jean Kennedy Smith in Dublin in 1996 where she served as the American ambassador to Ireland. She was a popular pick...

It seems almost obscene in these dire economic times we are living through every day to read and hear about expensive parties and other lavish events being planned around Obama's historic inauguration.

It is wonderful to come to the nation's capital to celebrate the new administration and to take part...

The new president-elect will have his hands full when he takes office in January, 2009 withdrawing American forces from Iraq and sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan and trying to successfully revive our ailing economy.

Luckily, he will have Vice-President Joe Biden who has an extensive background in foreign policy...

"There is not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America -- there's the United States of America." -- Obama speech at 2004 Democratic Convention

The election of Illinois Senator Barack Obama as America's 44th president is astounding, historical, implausible, improbable and completely without...

If the polls are correct when we wake up next week on November 5th, President-Elect Barack Obama and Vice-President -Elect Joe Biden will be starting to put together a new administration to try to solve America's massive economic and foreign policy problems.

Obama has proven to be a gifted speaker,...

Polls this good should not be believed since they sound too good to be true. Obama is up 10 points in Virginia, ahead in Missouri and New Mexico and in the lead in my home state of Indiana -- if he wins Indiana this would, most likely, be a landslide...