Recent Blog Posts
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Trump Plans to Dismantle Foreign Policy Apparatus
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According to the Washington Post, Trump plans to destroy much of the State Department’s organization and bureaucracy. Trump associates echo “Trump’s insistence on the need to ‘drain the swamp’ of national security officials who are not prepared to forcefully and enthusiastically implement whatever his priorities may be.” Under a Trump rewriting…
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Data Center Diplomacy
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According to CNBC, an article in Foreign Policy by Jared Cohen calls for the US to compete with China for cooperating with other countries in building data centers. Data centers are a key piece of artificial intelligence infrastructure. Where they pop up around the globe could have lasting geopolitical impacts…
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State Department Hiring
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Government Executive magazine reports that since 2021 the State Department has expanded it civil service employees by 22% and its Foreign Service employees by 6%. he State Department’s workforce growth and reforms to bring in new types of employees are at the core of the Biden administration’s diplomatic accomplishments, its…
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State Department Program to Fight Disinformation Threated by Budget
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According to Politico: This year, a little-known center within the State Department exposed a major Russian disinformation campaign in Africa, scoring a rare but decisive victory as America’s adversaries seek to sow chaos and confusion around the world. Now, the Global Engagement Center, which acts as America’s nerve center in combating…
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CIA Whistleblower on Trump’s Helping Putin Destroy Ukraine
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I sympathize with the CIA whistleblower who disclosed that Trump was denying weapons to Ukraine in order to get Ukraine to incriminate Joe Biden, according to the Washington Post. Trump was bribing Ukraine to get dirt on Biden to use in the election. Rudy Guiliani was working closely with Trump…
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ACDA
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I served a tour in the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA). The Association for Diplomatic and Consular Training (ADST) provides a history of its creation based on an interview with Helmut Sonnenfelt. I worked on the space treaty portion of the arms control agreement evaluation book displayed in the…
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Immigrants Concerned about Immigrants
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The Washington Post described a county board meeting in Wisconsin where legal immigrants complained about all the money being given to illegal immigrants. the board punted and made no decision on the immigration issue. The Washington Post’s bias in favor of illegal immigrants over legal immigrants is clearly on display.
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Antony Blinken’s Tour as Secretary of State
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Wired magazine has published an evaluation of Antony Blinen’s tenure as Secretary of State. It says: Blinken, 62, once thought he might become a musician—or maybe, even less lucratively, a journalist. Instead he has spent virtually his entire career in the Washington foreign policy establishment, which is something of a…
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Menendez Convicted Unlike Trump
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Senator Menendez was convicted of bribery while serving as senator, unlike former President Trump who was not convicted of crimes related to his performance in office. Trump was convicted of some minor crimes by kangaroo courts in New York, but he has not been convicted of trying to overthrow the…
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Pat Derian and Human Rights
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Pat Derian gave me fits when Iwas working on the Brazil desk because Brazil had a bad reputation for its human rights performance. AFSA has publised its oral history of her time at the State Department. The AFSA history begins: Patricia “Patt” M. Derian was one of the key proponents…