American Foreign Policy

What should be the country’s main priority be when it comes to its own foreign policy?

The Nation’s Most Pressing Issue

The Future of the United States

Your perspective:  On a domestic and/or foreign scale, where do you see the United States in 5 years?  In 10 years?  20 years and beyond?

North Korea Threatens South Korea

Cyprus and the United States

The Death of Hugo Chavez

Hugo Chavez

On Tuesday, March 5, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez died at the age of 58.  His handpicked successor, Vice President Nicolas Maduro will take over.  Chavez, an ardent critic of the United States and laissez-faire capitalism, ushered strong left-wing policies into his country.  Many countries in South and Central America soon followed his lead.  At the time of his death, only a handful of countries in this area of the world were led by center-right or conservative leaders.  Furthermore, Chavez’s party, the United Socialist Party, was largest left-leaning political party in South and Central America.  Now that Chavez has passed and Maduro is leading, if only temporarily, what will happen to relations between the United States and Venezuela?

Will Rodman Be Called For Traveling…to North Korea?

The following statements were made on Thursday from the US State Department through their deputy spokesman, Patrick Ventrell, regarding former NBA star Dennis Rodman’s visit to North Korea this past week.

–Private individual Americans are welcome to take actions they see fit … we’re not a clearinghouse for American citizen travel to North Korea. There are some Americans who go there. We as a State Department provide our country-specific travel information. That’s the role we take.

–This was an – absolutely a private trip by a private individual. We have done various forms of diplomacy to connect the people of different – of countries with whom we don’t have a good relationship. We have no ill will toward the people of North Korea, just as we have no ill will toward the people of Iran. And so we have had, over time, diplomacy that we’ve done to, quite frankly, connect people in some of these countries. But this was a private [trip] …

–We haven’t been in touch with this party [Rodman’s group] at all…If there are Americans who after traveling in North Korea want to get in touch with us or have something to share with us, we take the phone calls.

Some are saying that Dennis Rodman knows more about the North Korea than any American in or out of government.  US-North Korea relations are non-existent and have been this way since the Korean War in the 1950s.  What was your opinion about Dennis Rodman’s visit to North Korea?

American Foreign Policy

Whether or not former US Senator Chuck Hagel becomes the next Secretary of Defense, the new Secretary along with Secretary of State John Kerry will have many situations across the globe to handle.  What should be the country’s first priority?

America’s Future

From the book, Ballots and Bandwagons (1964) by Ralph G. Martin:

“But the keynote of America’s mood came from thirty-seven year old United States Senator Albert J. Beveridge of Indiana, fresh from a visit to the Philippines, who said in his maiden Senate speech, “…And of all our race, He has marked the American as His chosen Nation to finally lead in the regeneration of the world.  This is the divine mission of America, and it holds for us all the profit, all the glory, all the happiness possible to man.”

This speech was made in 1900.  Within today’s framework, though, what is America’s future in the world? What is the country’s mission? Is it a divine mission, as Beveridge suggested in 1900?

 

The Effect of the Middle East on the Obama Presidency