david lettis's blog

President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton have signaled a willingness to shift American foreign policy to what has been deemed a “Smart Power” approach by promising more resources to international development and civilian capabilities.  However, with the global economy in shambles and resources becoming increasingly difficult to come by, there is a large gap between the idea of Smart Power and the capacity to implement Smart Power.  Today, in light of the new policy direction, the Center for U.S.

President Barack Obama has taken yet another step away from the policies of President Bush by vastly expanding the National Security Council to include the attorney general, the secretary of homeland security, the secretary of energy, and the ambassador to the United Nations.  The expansion fits into Obama’s promise to include economic, energy, and climate issues in national security policy decisions.

A recent story in The New York Times takes an interesting approach to America’s “War on Terror,” describing the changing perceptions of the word, “terrorism.”  By showing the transformation of the word “terrorism” from a concrete definition to an abstract thought with no general consensus, the story iden

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton embarked on an ambitious first foreign policy tour this week, visiting Japan, China, South Korea and Indonesia, where she aims to begin work on a slew of foreign policy objectives, such as bolstering trade, combating WMD proliferation, and fighting global warming.  Clinton, who has promised to use Smart Power to develop America’s foreign agenda, is the first of America’s top diplomats in over 50 years to forego either Europe or the Middle East as the first international

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that President Obama has overturned another controversial program proposed by former President Bush in the last few days of his administration, putting an end to the notion of offshore drilling, according to stories by The Christian Science Monitor and MSNBC.com.  The decision comes just a week after Salazar announced he is placing a halt on potential drilling in Utah around two national parks.

Gary Langer, Director of Polling at ABC News, presented his findings on the public opinion trends inside of Afghanistan at a public forum today at CSIS, coincidentally just a few hours after a rare Taliban suicide attack killed 20 people inside of Kabul.  In an unconfirmed report, a Taliban leader called ABC following the attack to tell them that the militant Islamist organization had 20 more suicide attackers inside the city waiting to strike, using the quintessential scare tactic employed by terrorism.

Panelists, speaking yesterday at the CSIS Energy and National Security conference, “Breakthrough Energy Technologies: The Enabling Role of Basic Science,” discussed findings of a new report released in December, 2008 by the Department of Energy, called, “New Science For a Secure and Sustainable Energy Future.” Experts on the development of advanced technologies discussed how the current gap in investment in scientific research and development is preventing breakthroughs needed to bring about the next generation of

The CSIS Post Conflict Reconstruction Project and the United States Institute of Peace held a forum yesterday that looked at the causes and consequences of extremism in Pakistan.  Panelists spoke of the situation in the FATA region and the possible new directions the United States can take in thwarting the growing threat.

The 2009 World Economic Forum came to a close on Sunday failing to achieve any agreement of substance to help overcome the current financial crisis.  Instead, while many leaders agreed to work together and pushed for more cooperation in areas such as green technology and better regulation of financial markets, most left upset over what the New York Times is calling, “The new threat of protectionism by the United States.”  Even President Barack Obama’s honeymoon with the world seemed to suffer a setb

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stormed off the stage late Thursday night at the World Economic Forum in Davos after an impassioned exchange with Israeli President Shimon Peres over the recent conflict in Gaza.  Peres was defending his country’s actions, accusing Hamas of instigating the violence by launching rockets into Israel.  Erdogan countered that Peres’ government was killing innocent people.  Finally, when the moderator cut