Right now, Jim Lehrer is hosting a discussion with Paul Begala and Michael Gerson about the presidential transition and its implications for foreign policy decision-making in the next Administration.
They will spend time discussing the Global Plum Book. From the Center for US Global Engagement:
The Center for U.S. Global Engagement today released its Global Plum Book identifying the 100 key leadership positions that will shape the next Administration’s strategy for global development and diplomacy. Accompanying the report are “First Steps” for how the transition team can successfully translate the pledges of Candidate Obama – the most in-depth and far reaching global development platform of any candidate in history – into the policies of President Obama.
-Chris Scott
UPDATE: The discussion has concluded, but here’s a video of the event
I just watched the first installment of a web show, called “The Global Wire” produced by our great colleagues at the Center for U.S. Global Engagement. The series is hosted by veteran CNN reporter Frank Sesno and the first show features Sen. Chuck Hagel.
It delves deeper into the global challenges facing the next president than your average talk show usually manages to accomplish and I found Sen. Hagel’s comments striking. In one case, he relates his view on foreign assistance programs, saying that the “mentality of [foreign assistance] has to be changed in understanding that we’re not just a nation that goes and flies over countries and sprinkles $100 bills and then just sends sacks of oats and meal and corn because we’re benevolent people. We are benevolent people. We’re the most generous country in the history of man, by any measure. But there’s something more to it than that. It is an investment in stability and security.”
The next show of “The Global Wire” features former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, which I’m told will be posted in early June. While you’re waiting, definitely check out the interview with Sen. Hagel.
J. Mark Brinkmoeller, ONE U.S. NGO Partnerships & Faith Relations
ONE is campaigning to ensure that the Congressional budget does not cut foreign assistance programs like Feed the Future that help people break the cycle of poverty and hunger.
The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years. More than 11 million people, mostly nomadic pastoralists and farmers in south-central Somalia, north-eastern Kenya, and south-eastern Ethiopia, are severely lacking access to food.
2011 marks 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were documented. Take a closer look at the specific, achievable goals we must hit by 2015 to make this year the beginning of the end of AIDS.
As aid agencies warn more than 9 million people could be affected by a food crisis in East Africa, world leaders are failing to keep their 2009 promises to tackle the causes of chronic hunger and support farmers in the world's poorest countries.
