An unnamed German publisher has agreed to publish The Jewel of Medina, a novel about the prophet Muhammed and his child bride.  The book was passed over by Random House over concerns that it might incite anger among Muslims.  Though the author claims the story honors the prophet and his wife, the book was withdrawn from shelves in Serbia after local imams protested, saying the book was insulting to Islam.       

[NY Sun via Gawker]

Paula Abdul has it right—opposites attract, especially when it comes to the 2008 vice president picks. Joe Biden (D) and Sarah Palin (R) each have what the presidential candidates lack.

Let’s take Biden: Senior Senator from Delaware and long-time member and current chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. His foreign policy and national security experience dwarfs Obama's by decades.

And then there’s Palin: She has little to no foreign policy or national security experience, compared to McCain, but she does have many of the traits this veteran lacks: strongly opposes abortion, favors domestic drilling, and not to mention she’s a woman who’s nearly 30 years younger.

While reading about the recent crisis in South Ossetia, Paul Krugman wondered if the second wave of globalization will share the fate of the first: world war.  A world in which the US isn't the only military force, argues Krugman, is a dangerous one.  Russia has proven itself willing to use gas as a political weapon, and China, emboldened by Russia's example, might invade Taiwan.  These nationalism-powered conflicts threaten the stability of our globalized world. 

I'm skeptical. 

French energy firm Gaz de France recently canceled its bid to become the seventh member of Nabucco pipeline consortium.  
 
The French gas company’s involvement with the Nabucco pipeline was contentious.  Turkish energy officials opposed Gaz de France’s involvement with the Nabucco pipeline because of the French National Assembly’s approval of a bill which made it a crime to deny that Armenians suffered at the hands of the Ottomans during the First World War.  
 
Despite resistance, however, France continued to show interest in participating as recently as last month.  Details of the cancellation were not given, though Jean Sirelli of Gaz de France-Suez said that it would consider rejoining if the pipeline was extended to France.   
 
My take on it is that it doesn't really matter.  Nabucco has enough leadership; what it needs are the actual supplies.  Dubbed 'a pipeline without gas,' the Nabucco pipeline project has floundered in the absence of a natural gas source.  Azerbaijan, the onetime hope for the pipeline’s leadership, is no longer “feasible” as a supplier.  In the absence of a single gas source, Nabucco leadership is deliberating a more multilateral approach for the pipeline, potentially supplying Europe an amalgamation of Middle Eastern, Northern African, and Eurasian gas.  This would raise the multi-billion dollar price tag on Nabucco even higher, but at the very least save its face.      

We had a great session yesterday at the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office.  We heard from three panelists - each from a different desk within the FCO - and discussed a number of issues, including the UK's strategic approach to public diplomacy.  Over the last few years, the British government has made a concerted effort to both revaluate and reconceputalize how their country conducts public diplomacy.  Most recently, the FCO, led by Minister for Europe Jim Murphy, published a report called "Engagement: Public Diplomacy in a Globalized World."  The report, which I highly recommend, was launched in the US at the Brookings Institution last month.  It is a compilation of essays by leading public diplomacy scholars and addresses a number of the challenges facing governments today as they seek to promote their values and foreign policy objectives overseas.  What struck me the most was the report's emphasis (and this was also brought up by the speakers) on a "new" public diplomacy for the 21st century - one that focuses on listening, dialogue, and real cooperation as opposed to diplomacy as propaganda:  keep shouting your message, and if foreign publics don't seem to get it, shout louder.  As an American, it seems that all too often we seem to fall in the latter camp, and sure enough Karen Hughes' failed "listening tour" was mentioned a number of times as an example of the old, ineffective way of conducting public diplomacy.  Reading "Engagement" and listening to the panel, I was impressed not only by the more progressive vision for public diplomacy offered by the FCO, but also by the simple fact that their government is actively and critically reflecting on what does and does not work when it comes to public diplomacy and is unafraid to adopt a new paradigm and take bold action when old practices appear ineffective. 

WILTON PARK, UK—On our day-trip into London, we made a stop at the American embassy. A fairly heated discussion about Guantanamo Bay and torture completely dominated the hour we spent there. Guantanamo was raised simply as an example of an issue that must very carefully defended overseas; I believe our speaker merely referenced it in passing. The minute the issue was raised, my European and American colleagues took the opportunity to delve in more deeply. We hardly discussed anything else from that point.

Much of the critique I had already heard back in the States, even by some of our own policy makers and elected officials: violating the Geneva conventions, hypocritical, immoral, secretive, detrimental to the West’s efforts in the Middle East, and a bit disgraceful overall. One of the American students said “embarrassing.”

Here’s a good article by Barbara Bodine, former US Ambassador to Yemen and director of the Scholars in the Nation’s Service Initiative at Princeton University.  She argues that the next president should stop the practice of filling over 30% of ambassadorships with presidential appointees, those loyal to the party or to campaigns.  The positions should instead be filled by career diplomats.  I think her article makes some good points but I would also add a few things:   
 

WILTON PARK, UK—My introduction to London was four hours spent in the Gatwick airport, with a splitting headache, no Starbucks in sight (I was in the wrong terminal for that), and in a pair of shoes that I’ll never wear to travel again. It was 3 AM on my body’s clock, so I sipped on a sub-par latte, wishing desperately I had a British accent and all the sophistication it implies, and prepared myself for the week ahead by browsing the latest Economist. I had intended to read it on the plane, as well as a whole stack of intellectual material, but the screaming infant in front of me had other plans for our seven hours together.

“It looks like Mickey Mouse, it sounds like Mickey Mouse, but do you think Mickey Mouse would ever tell kids to fight Americans and the Jews?” asks FOX News anchor Eric Shawn.   The Mickey Mouse in question is nothing like his Walt Disney counterpart.  His name is Farfur and he teaches Palestinian children to fight for Israel’s destruction and Islam’s domination over the entire world.

“Tomorrow’s Pioneers,” a children’s program aired last summer by Hamas’ official television station, featured this unlicensed Mickey Mouse and a young co-host named Saraa.  Together, the two indoctrinate young views with teachings of Islamic supremacy, hatred of Israel and the U.S., and support of “resistance”—a euphemism for terrorism.

In what has been dubbed as the city's "brain gain," New Orleans has benefitted from the stream of young professionals moving to the city in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.  Many are compelled to move by a sense of wanting to help the city, either directly by working in disaster-related industries or simply trying to reverse the trend of net emigration since the 2005 disaster.   

These 20- and 30-somethings work primarily in disaster relief work, but can be found in fields as diverse as business or politics.  They come mostly for opportunity, and for the chance to feel part of something greater.  They can see the impact of their work, be part of rebuilding a broken city, and a share sense of camaraderie and purpose with their fellow city residents.  Personally, I wonder if these new residents seek some of the romanticism and raw energy associated with a rising American city - Gold Rush-era San Francisco, Atlanta during Reconstruction, or even 1950's New Orleans, as portrayed in A Streetcar Named Desire.