Dialogue of the Deaf

Amman, Jordan Based on the newspaper reports from Morocco it sounds as though the Forum for the Future did not go especially well. The Forum, which was probably Colin Powell's final overseas trip as secretary of state, brought together foreign ministers and other senior figures from the United States, a number of European nations, 20 Arab nations, Turkey and Afghanistan. Read More

Movements of Change – II

Amman, Jordan – 11 December 2004 Yesterday I wrote about the opportunities the Palestinian election and, to a lesser extent, the slow rise of a new generation of Arab leaders offer for people throughout this region. Today I want to talk about what the US can and should do to help this process along. Read More

Movements of Change

Amman, Jordan Marwan Barghouti's candidacy in the upcoming Palestinian elections is partly about whether Palestinians voters will be offered a real choice or what passes for an 'election' in Cairo or Damascus. But the January 9 election also touches on a broader issue, one that has been on the region's agenda for several years: generational change, and how the United States plans to cope with it. Read More

Ballot Boxes and Real Choices

Amman, Jordan An editorial cartoon that ran in a Beirut newspaper over the weekend showed an Arab ballot box chiding a Ukrainian ballot box with the words: "You should have come to me for advice!" If you want to know how to stage a meaningless, rigged poll Arab governments are the people to ask. Read More

The Secretary’s Credibility

Amman, Jordan A friend from the state department called over the weekend to ask if I had a sense of how people here felt about the election returns. "I'd say everyone's disappointed, but nobody's very surprised," I replied. He did not ask about Condoleezza Rice's appointment as Secretary of State, but if he had I'd have said "ditto". Read More

Some Thoughts on Foreign Hospitals and Public Diplomacy

Amman, Jordan If advertising pitches are anything to go by, winding up in a foreign hospital appears to be a recurrent nightmare among Americans traveling overseas. My own first encounter with non-American medical care only reinforced this. Visiting a fellow teenager at a London hospital in 1980 I arrived in something that resembled a 30's style cancer ward in a Hollywood movie. It seemed rather severe for a guy with a broken leg. Read More

Looking Out on Concourse E

Amsterdam Now this is something extraordinary, on several levels. As I write this I am sitting in Amsterdam's Schiphol airport looking out on a rainy morning far removed from the clear skies and still-warm days in Amman. In addition to a dozen or so KLM planes my window seat offers a view of four Northwest Airlines jets and one apiece from Singapore, Hong Kong, Hungary and Turkey. Read More

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