US foreign policy | The Santa Fe World Affairs Forum

Eyes in the Sky All of Us Can Use: What can they see? . . . How can We Make Global Security Discoveries via the Cloud?

September 30, 2013

Frank Pabian, Senior GeoSpacial Information Analyst, Los Alamos National Laboratory

Analysts at various NGOs, universities, and think tanks (as well as arm-chair hobbyists) are playing a leading role in obtaining new information of relevance to global security from a variety of open-source geospatial tools. These tools include Google Earth as well as other satellite imagery from technology companies that come via the internet Cloud. Pabian describes some of the discoveries made by researchers around the globe, discoveries that have only recently become possible as a result of advances in cutting-edge modeling technology and image data that commercial companies have made easily available to the public at nominal or no cost.

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Eyes in the Sky All of Us Can Use: What can they see? . . . How can We Make Global Security Discoveries via the Cloud?PatK2019-05-01T14:20:27-07:00

The European Union: America’s Friend or Foe?

June 11, 2013

Brian E. Carlson, Ambassador, experienced public diplomacy specialist and a former Career Minister in the U.S. Foreign Service

Does America have anything to fear from the new EU? Are our closest allies moving away from trans-Atlantic organizations like NATO and becoming a large, powerful and competing coalition? Can the EU be a partner for American business, diplomacy and socio-economic goals? Is the EU likely to “eat America’s lunch” in the world economy, or drag us down in Europe’s own morass of dubious debt and rampant regulation?

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The European Union: America’s Friend or Foe?PatK2019-05-01T14:20:27-07:00

The Geopolitics of Oil

February 9, 2013

Molly Williamson, former Foreign Service Officer with the rank of Career Minister, is an expert on energy, economic and demographic factors affecting foreign policy formulation, US-Middle East relations, especially the Israel-Palestine conflict, Iran and nuclear challenges, and the inter-agency process

How do energy, economic and demographic factors affect US foreign policy decision-making as they relate to America’s relations in the Middle East and especially the Israel-Palestinian conflict, Iran and its nuclear challenges as well as their roles within the US government’s inter-agency policy making process?

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The Geopolitics of OilPatK2019-05-01T14:20:27-07:00

The Fallout from Libya: Al Qaeda in Africa

November 27, 2012

Vicki Huddleston, Ambassador, former US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for African Affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Africa; US Ambassador to Madagascar and to Mali; Principal Officer of the US Interests Section in Havana and Chargé d’affairs ad interim in Ethiopia

The power vacuum created by Qadhafi’s fall goes beyond the tragic death of our Ambassador and his colleagues in Benghazi — the same city that the US led coalition saved from rape and pillage. Religious extremism, terror and crime now thrive within Libya and beyond. Having destroyed the country of Mali and established a homeland in West Africa from where, violent extremism will spread across the Sahara and North back into Algeria and Libya creating another Afghanistan if we fail to adopt a proactive counter terrorism strategy that will help Africa defeat Al Qaeda.

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The Fallout from Libya: Al Qaeda in AfricaPatK2019-05-01T14:20:27-07:00

Engaging a Dangerous World Without Guns: The U.S Foreign Service Today

November 9, 2012

Nicholas Kralev, author, a journalist and a lecturer on international affairs, diplomacy and global travel

Americans are still reeling from the death by suffocation of their Ambassador to Libya in the city of Benghazi, dramatic proof that the life of a diplomat today doesn’t conform to tea party stereotypes. In this talk, Nick Kralev goes behind the scenes to tell us what life is like for those representing the U.S. in a turbulent, changing world. Having been granted privileged access to the inner sanctum of American diplomacy in Washington and to embassies and U.S. diplomats around the world over several years, he has written a book entitled America’s Other Army, the one that’s armed with words and (sometimes) money. In the course of his research Kralev visited more than 50 U.S. embassies and interviewed some 600 career diplomats—this on top of his previous, decade-long, round-the-world contacts with four Secretaries of State (Hillary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell and Madeleine Albright) as they visited over 80 countries.

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Engaging a Dangerous World Without Guns: The U.S Foreign Service TodayPatK2019-05-01T14:20:27-07:00

Fish vs. Cattle: Conflict Mitigation in South Sudan

September 24, 2012

Patrick Murphy, was the “fisheries expert” for the USAID project in South Sudan under the direction of AECOM

South Sudan gained its independence from Muslim (North) Sudan in 2011 after decades of hot and cold Civil War. The world rejoiced. The Arab North would no longer be oppressing the non-Arab, non-Muslim South. Unfortunately the regions and tribes of the newly independent country had been united mostly by their opposition to the North. The new country, unfortunately, is still riven by tribal and other sub-national rivalries, some older than the bloody conflict with the North. Other questions arose. How would the new country define itself? How could it reconcile its jealous components? How could it redirect its peoples’ energies in a manner consistent with the modern world? (more…)

Fish vs. Cattle: Conflict Mitigation in South SudanPatK2019-05-01T14:20:28-07:00