Foreign Policy and Development Structure, Process, Policy, and the Drip-by-Drip Erosion of USAID

Most bilateral government donors, including the United States, are rethinking the relationbetween their foreign policy and their development policy. Implicit in that rethinking are theorganizational forms they take and the relations between them. How independent shoulddevelopment be from foreign policy? Should they have separate organizations? If so, what shouldthe relations be between the foreign ministry and the development ministry or agency? Amajority of government development programs are part of or connected to the respective foreignministries.

Remarks by the President at the Millennium Development Goals Summit in New York, New York

THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon. Mr. Secretary General, fellowdelegates, ladies and gentlemen.In the Charter of this United Nations, our countries pledged to work for“the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples.” Inthe Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we recognized the inherentdignity and rights of every individual, including the right to a decent standardof living. And a decade ago, at the dawn of a new millennium, we setconcrete goals to free our fellow men, women and children from the injusticeof extreme poverty.

President Obama’s Foreign Policy Vision: Defining the Obama Doctrine

Almost two years into his term, President Obama had hoped to improve America’s standing in the world by crafting a foreign policy vastly different from his predecessor’s. His statements and actions demonstrate a doctrine that sees America less as “the exceptional nation” than as an “equal partner,” one nation among many. Characteristics of his policies include a heightened emphasis on multilateralism, an apologetic attitude toward the past, a more restrained role on the global stage, and an atmosphere of mutual respect toward oppressive autocracies.

American Muslim Leaders Visit Concentration Camps to Learn About Holocaust, Pay Respects to Victims

A group of eight American Muslim leaders have visited the Dachau andAuschwitz concentration camps to learn more about the Holocaust and to payrespects to its victims.

Bundeskanzlerin Merkels Rede vor der U.N. zu den Millenniumszielen

Presseecho

Bundeskanzlerin Merkel hat in New York vor den Vereinten Nationen über die Ziele deutscher Entwicklungspolitik gesprochen. Hilfe zur Selbsthilfe, zeitliche Begrenzung und die Verantwortung der jeweiligen Regierung lauten die wichtigsten Punkte Merkels, die sich zu den Milleniumszielen der UN bekennt.

Midterm Elections: Referendum über die Politik von Präsident Obama

Am Dienstag, 2. November 2010, werden in den USA Zwischenwahlenstattfinden. Zur Wahl stehen die 435 Mitglieder desRepräsentantenhauses, 37 (34 für sechs Jahre, drei für kürzerePerioden) der 100 Senatoren, 37 Gouverneure von Bundesstaatensowie zahlreiche weitere Positionen in Bundesstaaten,Kreisen und Städten. Auch wenn viele Wahlkämpfe vonörtlichen Themen und den jeweiligen Kandidaten geprägt sind,so ist die Stimmungslage im Lande derart, daß dieZwischenwahlen vor allem zu einem Referendum über diebisherige Politik von Präsident Barack Obama werden dürften.

Tolerance Through Truth

8 American Muslim leaders visited Nazi concentration camps in an effort to promote tolerance, understanding, and change between Jewish and Muslims communities.

US Imams and Muslim leaders Make Historic Trip to Auschwitz

On August 7 – 11, eight of the most influential Imams and Muslim leaders in the U.S. made an historic trip to concentration camps in Germany and Poland. The trip was led by Rabbi Jack Bemporad of the Center for Interreligious Understanding (NJ); organized by Prof. Marshall Breger, Catholic University of America and Suhail Khan of the Institute for Global Engagement; and funded by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (Germany). Joining the delegation were two State Department Ambassadors: Hannah Rosenthal, Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism and Rashid Hussein.

Visit to Auschwitz and Dachau

Joining eight imams in prayer at Dachau concentration camp was a powerful experience and a profound show of faith and solidarity with the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust. This event took place even as anti-Semitism and Islamophobia spread across the world. For these eight religious leaders, the future will be shaped by a shared understanding of the past, not by the prejudice of the present. As representatives of government and communities we joined these clerics to bear witness to the horror and tragedy of the Holocaust and reaffirm the pledge - “never again.”

An imam at Auschwitz: Local Muslim cleric joins Jewish leaders on Holocaust journey

Suhaib Webb can’t stop thinking about what he saw at Auschwitz-Birkenau last month: piles of discarded shoes, ghoulish fluffs of human hair, train tracks that once led to death and incineration for a million Jews. The memories make him cry out to Allah. Last month Webb, who is an imam in Santa Clara, and seven other Muslim clerics joined Jewish leaders on a journey to the death camps at Dachau and Auschwitz-Birkenau. The experience seared him.