Mark Mazzetti talks to Terry Gross about President Obama’s foreign policy:

It shouldn’t have been a surprise to anyone that [Obama] believed in drone strikes, but what has been surprising, I think, is the extent that these shadow wars really have come to define Obama’s foreign policy. That, you know, he ended the war in Iraq and, after the surge in Afghanistan, he’s now winding down, and it was interesting he said during his second inaugural address, ‘A decade of war is now coming to an end,’ but that’s a decade of the wars that we know about. It’s the decade of the public wars. What are continuing? Are these more secret wars, and there really isn’t any evidence yet of them abating. The drone strikes continue and we’ll see what happens in the second term.

Image from Obama’s January 2013 inaugural festivities via The White House

In the old nuclear age, you could sit under a big screen under a mountain in Colorado and you could see where the missiles were coming from. If there’s a cyber attack from China or Russia or Romania or Mexico, it may well run through a server in another country. And it may take months before you know where it really came from.

— New York Times’ chief Washington correspondent David Sanger on cyberattacks.

“These people who founded Massachusetts, they were seeking religious liberty and they were complaining about the persecutions they suffered in England. And of course, the first thing they do when they get to Massachusetts is persecute others and persecute their religion.” — Historian Andrew Preston, “The Religious Language in U.S. Foreign Policy.”

(via Puritan Clipart)

smellslikemegan:

George Washington as a middle-aged dad with his record collection.

I’ve always wanted to see how presidents would look modernized.. so I’m making it happen. 

Today’s show: how religious rhetoric has influenced American foreign policy from George Washington’s days to the present. [picture h/t emilykilpatrick]

Tomorrow: Historian Andrew Preston on how religious rhetoric has shaped U.S. foreign policy since the days of George Washington.

United States License Plate Map (by designturnpike)

They can’t stay there for the 20-30 years it might take to build local government into something that might spawn itself without help. So once they leave, what does it look like? You really can’t tell if there’s any significant change. These Afghan Taliban, this is where they live. They’re not likely to leave. They’re likely to wait.

— On today’s Fresh Air, New York Times Kabul bureau chief Alissa Rubin discusses what happens when the U.S. troops leave.

We have this debate in America that is almost a theoretical debate about the role of government in the economy and whether government should be involved, and I worry that while we’re having this theoretical debate, on the other side of the world, the Chinese government is vigorously promoting industry after industry, the German government is vigorously promoting its manufacturing center, the South Korean government is vigorously promoting its manufacturing sector — and by the time we’ve resolved our debate, there won’t be any industries left to compete in. It is absolutely clear that government plays a key role, as a catalyst, in promoting long-run growth.

— Fareed Zakaria, on the relationship between government and innovation. [complete interview here]

The tallest building in the world is now in Dubai, the biggest factory in the world is in China, the largest oil refinery is in India, the largest investment fund in the world is in Abu Dhabi, the largest Ferris wheel in the world is in Singapore. And … more troublingly, [the United States is] also losing [its] key grip on indices such as patent creation, scientific creations and things like that — which are really harbingers of future economic growth.

— On today’s Fresh Air, Fareed Zakaria explains why America is lagging behind other countries on indices that indicate long-term economic growth.

What we’re probably looking at down the road is a situation where there will be extreme hunger in some of these countries where the investments are being made and people will simply resist — and try to block — the trucks that are hauling the grain from the fields to the ports. … It’s a new situation and quite unlike any that we’ve faced before.

— Countries like Saudi Arabia, China and South Korea have all leased land in Africa, where the governments lease irrigable land for as little as $1 an acre. On today’s Fresh Air, environmentalist Lester Brown explains how the land leases are creating huge conflicts between local populations and investors. 

Tomorrow: New Yorker science writer Michael Specter will explain how some scientists are trying to grow meat in labs. And environmentalist Lester Brown will talk about his Foreign Policy article, “The New Geopolitics of Food,” about 21st century food wars.

Despite the funny phrasing, at the heart of the idea of leading from behind is the empowerment of other actors to do your bidding or, as in the case of Libya, to be used as cover for a policy that would be suspect in the eyes of other nations if it’s branded as a purely American operation

— Ryan Lizza on the phrase ‘leading from behind’ which has recently become a hot-button topic among political pundits after Lizza wrote in The New Yorker that an Obama advisor had used the term to describe Obama’s actions in Libya. [Lizza on Fresh Air today]

New Yorker writer Ryan Lizza details President Obama’s response to the ongoing uprisings in the Middle East and explains why the president’s actions — in Egypt and then in Libya — say a great deal about the administration’s foreign policy strategy: ”The hinge of the story of his first term will be the uprising in the Middle East that will allow our foreign policy, to allow our interests and our values to align in a region where they have not been aligned for a very long time.”

npr:

A Libyan opposition soldier raises the independence flag over a highrise building in Misurata after Gaddafi forces were defeated in the city center. Photo courtesy of Misurata Freedom Group.

Today: The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza details how recent clashes in the Middle East have remade President Obama’s foreign policy. 

U.S. Department of State: The Week in Review

statedept:

About the Author: Sarah Goldfarb serves as Associate Editor to DipNote.

On April 17, Secretary Clinton returned from her visit to Berlin, Seoul, and Tokyo. Assistant Secretary Gordon said the NATO Ministerial in Berlin was “an opportunity to consult with key allies and partners not…

Tomorrow: New Yorker writer Ryan Lizza analyzes Obama’s recent foreign policy decisions. Pictured above: State Department’s Tumblr. [Lizza’s article]

theamericanbear:

Children are ubiquitous at the political protests that have swept across Yemen in recent weeks, and some feel the risk involves is unnecessary. Ahmed Al-Gorashi, Chairman of SEYAJ Organization for Childhood Protection, tells UNICEF that as long as Yemeni parents continue to take their children to protests, they are “increasing their vulnerability to fatal dangers.” Above, a young Yemeni girl holds her hands upward in protest in Sanaa on March 28, delivering a stern message for President Ali Abdullah Saleh: “Leave, you butcher.”

From Foreign Policy

Today’s guest: The New Yorker’s Dexter Filkins on Yemen