International Reports 12/2009 - International Reports

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International Reports 12/2009

Issue 12 | December 28, 2009

Change Has Come ... Has It? President Barack Obamas’s First Year | Early Effort – Early Exit? The Obama Administration’s Policy in the Middle East Conflict So Far | Squandered Hope? The Palestinian Perspective on the Middle East Policy of Barack Obama | What Is a ”Win” in Afghanistan? | Out of Sight – Out of Mind? Is the Bush EraHistory Already? | Election in Mozambique – Chronicle of a Victory Declared

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Editorial

Ausgabe 12/2009 der Auslandsinformationen der Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung

by Gerhard Wahlers
Change has come ... has it? President Barack Obamas’s first year

Ein Jahr Präsident Barack Obama

Recent polls reveal how sharply public approval has dropped since Obama took office in January 2009. It thus seems reasonable to take stock on the first anniversary of Obama’s presidency – one year of President Barack Obama.

by Norbert Wagner, Benjamin Haase
Early Effort - Early Exit? The Obama Administration’s Policy in the Middle East Conflict So Far

Ever since its first days in office the Obama administration has tried to decisively promote the Middle East peace process. Also in the Middle East, Obama has pursued his new paradigmatic approach to engagement. This stands in deliberate contrast to his presidential predecessor. Not least to strengthen this new course, Obama has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Still, these efforts in the Middle East have not yet yielded any positive results.

by Lars Hänsel
Squandered Hope? The Palestinian Perspective on the Middle East Policy of Barack Obama

During the first ten months following his inauguration as the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama started to reshape the Middle East policy of the U.S. administration. In contrast to his predecessor George W. Bush, who had shown commitment in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict only in 2003 with the introduction of the Road Map, Obama introduced a paradigm shift inthe Middle East policy after only a few months.

by Felix Dane, Konstanze von Gehlen
What is a ”Win” in Afghanistan?

Following on the strategic review commissioned by Obama, when he declared himself in favor of a troop-intensive counter insurgency (COIN), the President has begun to have doubts in the last few months about the merits of this approach.

by Roman Sehling
Out of Sight – Out of Mind? Is The Bush Era History Already?

Even with the new US government still happy to use symbolic gestures to highlight the changeover in the White House, and the Republicans looking fornew leadership figures and policies, it would be premature to consider the Bush era dead and buried already.

by Dustin Dehéz
Election in Mozambique – Chronicle of a Victory Declared

On 28 October 2009 multiparty elections were held in Mozambique for the fourth time since the end of the civil war in 1992. Up for election were thepresident, 250 deputies of the national parliament, and, for the first time in the history of the country, 812 members from ten provincial assemblies. The numbers of seats per provincial assembly range from 70 to 91.

by Annette Schwarzbauer