Steven Clemons: All Publications, Events and Press

Unchecked and Unbalanced

Communications — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 11:15:00 -0400

A New America Event
09/09/2008 - 12:15pm

Former U.S. Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) will discuss his candid and smart political memoir, which calls on Republicans to return to their traditional principles of fiscal conservatism, respect for the environment and aversion to foreign entanglements.

RNC Convention: Can the Next President Make the Middle East Irrelevant?

Communications — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 06:00:00 -0400

A New America Event
09/03/2008 - 9:00am

Panelists will discuss the challenges the next president will face in building a new equilibrium in the Middle East.

The dialogue will moderated by Steve Clemons and will be advanced by four short provocations delivered by foreign policy experts.

Light breakfast fare and coffee will be served beforehand.

Steve Clemons in the Guardian | 'Biden to Recast Foreign Policy from Center Stage'

Communications — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:35:00 -0400

New America in the News:
Steve Clemons, a director the Washington-based New America Foundation and among the first to tip Biden for the vice-presidential slot, is among those who argue that Biden's exercise of power in the White House would be similar to that of Cheney's. "The office of vice-president has changed forever," he said. "The office has explicit legal powers now. Maybe some will be rolled back but they can't be rolled back easily." LINK

Steve Clemons on Democracy Now | 'A Debate on Sen. Joe Biden’s Foreign Policy Record'

Communications — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:56:00 -0400

New America in the News:

Much of the focus of Sen. Obama’s selection of Biden to be his running mate has centered on his foreign policy experience. Biden serves as the chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In 2002, he helped push through a Senate resolution authorizing the invasion of Iraq. He has since become a persistent critic of President Bush’s policies in Iraq and the so-called troop surge.

Featured Guests:

Steve Clemons, Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, where he directs the American Strategy Program. He runs the popular blog TheWashingtonNote.com

Stephen Zunes, Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of San Francisco, where he chairs the program in Middle Eastern Studies. He is a senior policy analyst for the “‘Foreign Policy in Focus’” project of the Institute for Policy Studies. His most recent article is titled "Biden, Iraq, and Obama's Betrayal"

LINK to video and audio

Does Nation-Building Have a Future?

Communications — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 06:15:00 -0400

A New America Event
08/21/2008 - 12:15pm

Amb. James Dobbins will discuss U.S. Nation-Building efforts in Afghanistan and the relationship between the Afghan and Iraqi ventures.

How the War is Driving Oil Costs Up and American Families Down

Communications — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 22:00:00 -0400

A New America Event
08/21/2008 - 11:00am

On Thursday, August 21, the New America Foundation hosted Richard Vague, CEO of Energy Plus and author of the report "Terrorism: A Brief for Americans", to discuss rising oil costs and their effect on American families. Video of the event is available at right and and an mp3 audio file can be downloaded below.

Vague began by pointing out that even in the light of recent price drops, the price trend of oil over the past four years has been one of unprecedented increase. Since the eve of the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the price of oil has quadrupled from $28 to over $100 dollars a barrel. Central to the explanation for this increase is the Iraq War’s effects on the strength of the dollar and oil price risk.

Conventional wisdom points to explosive demand growth among developing countries as the main reason for this increase, but this ignores broader global demand trends. Oil demand in the U.S. and EU has actually decreased over the past year and global demand growth has averaged an anemic 1% annually for the past several years. Demand growth has actually been decelerating over the past two years, even while the price sustained its greatest increases.

The real reason behind high oil prices is the weakening of the American dollar that has happened as a result of expansionary monetary policy on the part of the Federal Reserve and massive increases in federal spending in the Iraq War. Since the beginning of the invasion of Iraq, the dollar has fallen more than 40% versus the euro, which has dramatically decreased the ability of the American dollar to purchase oil.

The instability that the United States’ invasion of Iraq has injected into the Middle East has added to this pain by increasing the risk premium charged on oil. By making future supplies of oil increasingly insecure, the Bush Administration has increased the price of oil as markets raise prices to hedge against risks of a catastrophic reduction from conflict in the region, further adding to the pain felt by Americans at the pump.

To break this trend, the next administration will be faced with two equally unpleasant plans of action. One is to reverse the expansionary monetary policy of past decade and sharply raise interest rates to reign in the monetary supply, a difficult and painful maneuver for American families’ purchasing power. The second is to massively decrease federal spending, slashing military expenditures and social programs in an attempt to bring the federal budget in line with the American economy. However the next president chooses to deal with the policy malfeasance of the past eight years, it will be a difficult time for the American economy and American families.

-Ian McAllister, Research Intern for the Economic Growth and American Strategy Programs

Pakistan: Toward Democracy and Stability

Communications — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 04:15:00 -0400

A New America Event
08/19/2008 - 12:15pm

Ambassador Husain Haqqani will discuss the current situation in Pakistan.

Scripting America's Priorities

Communications — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 03:00:00 -0400

A New America Event
08/15/2008 - 12:00pm

The following are highlights of the event, while an MP3 audio recording of the full 90-minute event can be downloaded below and video can be viewed at right.

Karen Kornbluh

“The Platform Committee itself was almost evenly divided between supports of Senator Clinton and Senator Obama…so what I was warned about is you really don’t want to have a minority report… but this process despite about all that went so smoothly and there was so much unity there was actually in Pittsburgh there was never a vote that was contested, we worked everything out…No matter what you read in the press this was incredible -- this was a testament to how unified the Democratic party is.”

“[The Platform] talks about reforming no child left behind- Barack Obama and the Democrats endorse a lot of the goals of No Child Left Behind but would like to see real changes including putting some money there and not labeling schools as failing then not supporting them. It also talks about teachers and paying teachers more, asking them to do more, giving them more support, accountability… And I don’t want to neglect the preschool, the early education, so many of our kids are left behind before they even get into kindergarten so there’s a real emphasis on the zero to five years.”

Susan Rice

“[Senator Obama] has laid out in very specific detail across a wide range of foreign policy and national security challenges his specific approaches to these problems and if you were to do as I had to do recently and compile all his speeches and fact sheets and articles in detail it's over 150 pages of rich detail…so this seven part strategy or seven goals consists of the following, first ending the war in Iraq responsibly. Second, defeating Al Qaeda and combating violent extremism. Thirdly securing nuclear weapons and materials from terrorists. Fourth revitalizing and supporting our military and indeed our veterans. Fifth, renewing our partnerships to promote common security. Sixth, to advance democracy and development, and seventh to protect our planet by achieving energy security and combating climate change.”

“You will see in this document as well as in a number of Senator Obama’s policy statements a theme that can be put in shorthand as common security and common humanity. The underlying premise is that our security in the 21st century given the nature of transnational challenges is now inextricably linked to the security and well being of people in various parts of the world.”

“It commits to a verifiable ban of creation of fissile material, doubling the budget for IAEA, supporting the ratification of the comprehensive test ban treaty and strengthening the non-proliferation regime.”

“There is a section here on Iran which is very forceful, it says that the world must prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and it posits that this starts with tougher sanctions and aggressive, principled and direct high level diplomacy without preconditions… by gong the extra diplomatic mile while keeping all options on the table we make it more likely that the rest of the world will stand with us to increase pressure on Iran if diplomacy is failing.”

Steve Coll

“What’s happening in a number of areas of this platform is that the ideas and the framework of a prospective Obama president is already shaping the conduct of the permanent American National security by which I mean uniformed military and the intelligence agencies and other sections of the National security bureaucracy.”

“You see this snow in the way Iraq policy is moving. It's already so far ahead of where it was three of four months ago specifically because of the stimulus the campaign has provided it.”

“There is detailed planning that wouldn’t already be occurring about the pace of brigade draw downs and the preparation for flowing into Afghanistan.”

Maya MacGuineas

“When they talk about healthcare, when they talk about savings, when the talk about work, much of this is thinking about how this needs to work for the twenty-first century recognizing all of the changes that have taken place in the way families work, in the way work mobility works and the new challenges of the economy.”

“Likewise the investment section…I think that it’s a remarkable opportunity in the country right now for a renewed investment agenda and what’s very exciting about this platform is that it's not the kind of ‘we’ll build more bridges’ and not looking beyond that again it’s a modern investment strategy so it focuses on energy independence and basic research and development, high speed rails, broadband then need for new technology…”

“I think there are a lot of pitfalls and that happens if we don’t do this smart, targeted and strategic… To talk about what I think is missing, it's hard not to read through this and go, good idea, good idea, good idea… there’s less emphasis than I think what we’ll see in the Republican platform which I think is worth emphasizing which is the economic growth side of this… but there’s a lot to learn from each other and if you compartmentalize less, you could have a pretty terrific vision.”

When Band-Aids No Longer Work

Communications — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 05:15:00 -0400

A New America Event
08/14/2008 - 12:15pm

On August 14, the New America Foundation hosted Pat Choate, Director of the Manufacturing Policy Project, to discuss his new book, Dangerous Business: The Risks of Globalization for America, a tell-all look at the dangers that unfettered globalization poses to America’s security and the American middle class.

Choate began by detailing a few of the threats the United States faces from unfettered international trade. He stated that we continue to import defective and often dangerous consumer goods from nations with little capacity to enforce safety standards while slashing government funding for safety inspections. In fact, the U.S. inspects less than 1% of the goods coming into its ports compared with more cautious nations such as Japan, which inspects 15%.

The United States has also permitted the outsourcing of vital defense research and manufacturing capabilities to foreign nations. Due to the increasingly popular practice of government private sector contracting, of the almost 100 components needed for the assembly of a single bullet, 30 such parts are manufactured overseas, often in nations such as China which may be strategically hostile to United States’ interests. Even sensitive military research is now being outsourced to foreign nations, while American tax and labor policies have done nothing to stop this trend.

Choate argued that if America is to regain its security and prosperity in a globalized world, it needs to reengage its government to control and channel the dangers international trade brings. In addition to wide ranging ethics reforms and a renegotiation of its tax policies vis-à-vis nations that utilize the VAT, the United States needs to substantially reform the workings of the World Trade Organization. These reforms include movement toward proportional voting power based on economic weight, and increased transparency in the arbitration process.

-Ian McAllister, Research Intern for the American Strategy Program

DNC Convention: Can the Next President Make the Middle East Irrelevant?

Communications — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 08:33:00 -0400

A New America Event
08/27/2008 - 9:00am

Panelists will discuss the challenges the next president will face in building a new equilibrium in the Middle East.

The dialogue will be moderated by Steve Clemons and will be advanced by five short provocations delivered by foreign policy experts.

Light breakfast fare and coffee will be served beforehand.

Explicating the Roots of U.S. Foreign Policy

Communications — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 01:15:00 -0400

A New America Event
08/13/2008 - 12:15pm

On August 13, Ted Widmer, director of Brown University’s John Carter Brown Library and former speechwriter for Bill Clinton, discussed his new book, Ark of the Liberties: America and the World, and entertained questions from an audience at the New America Foundation. After a brief introduction by Steve Clemons, director of the American Strategy Program, Dr. Widmer laid out a narrative on the way America’s unique founding circumstances shaped out national outlook and actions for the past two centuries. An MP3 audio recording can be downloaded below, while video is available at right.

America’s founding population, the Puritans, was in many ways a culture of religious extremists. They were propelled to leave Europe and settle in what would become the United States because of their adherence to religious prophecies that saw America as a new world ready to host the founding of a righteous civilization. These millennial views would later become the root of the United States’ view of itself as a unique nation, invested with divine providence to promote freedom and liberty in the world.

Yet these noble goals have often been in opposition to the actions of the United States, creating a tension that has defined much of American foreign policy over the past centuries. American professions of liberty abroad while allowing slavery at home and willingness to engage in hostile acts while claiming peaceful motives are a common theme in the American history.

American belief in the United States’ role to spread freedom continues to this day, with the Obama campaign couching much of its language in a religious tone and appealing toward a Christian imperative to care for the sick and free the oppressed. Even the invasion of Iraq is now defended as a mission to bring freedom to the Iraqi people. As America stands at another crucial juncture in its history, it continues to root its vision of its place in the world in the hopes and views of its puritan founders.

A question and answer session followed with questions on the underpinnings of the militarization of US foreign policy, the continuing importance of providential self perception in American politics, and the continuing failure of civilian oversight on military spending.

-Ian McAllister, Research Intern, American Strategy Program

Steve Clemons on KCRW Radio | 'Fighting in Georgia Spreads'

Communications — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:14:00 -0400

New America in the News:

Russian forces have moved further into Georgia's rebellious province of South Ossetia, despite Georgia's call for a ceasefire. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili ran for cover, saying Russian planes were flying over the presidential palace in his capital city. Russia's Prime Minister Putin has flown home from the Olympics, but President Bush was still in Beijing when he denounced Russia's "disproportionate" response” to explosive hostilities in the region. We catch up with events and get the background on a long running local dispute with international implications. What are America's interests in a dispute between Russia and a former Soviet Republic? What's the possible impact on the campaign for president? LINK to audio

Guests:

Paul Rimple: Reporter, Christian Science Monitor
Edward Lozansky: Founder and President, American University in Moscow
Janusz Bugajski: Director of the New European Democracies Project, Center for Strategic and International Studies
Steve Clemons: Director, American Strategy Program, New America Foundation

Steve Clemons in McClatchy Newspapers | 'Could Lieberman Be McCain's Most Potent VP pick?'

Communications — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 10:24:00 -0400

New America in the News:

This much is clear: Lieberman, who long ago broke with Democrats on the Iraq war but has a solid party-line voting record on nearly everything else, is playing such a key role in McCain's White House bid that a VP bid is possible.

Political analyst Stuart Rothenberg called Lieberman a "near perfect pick." Steve Clemons, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, a centrist public-policy group, said such a move would be "game changing." LINK

Tom Daschle and Leo Hindery: Health Care Debacle is a Burden to Competitiveness

Communications — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 07:47:00 -0400

To watch their full remarks, click here.

Comprehensive health care reform is necessary to free our businesses and families from rising health care costs and to compete in the global economy. American auto companies spend $1500 on health care per vehicle they produce, while Germany spends $450 per car, and Japan $150. The average health care cost is now close to $8,000 per person per year. We must solve the health care challenge to improve the competitiveness of corporate America and secure the incomes of the middle class. New America's Smart Globalization Initiative and Health Policy Program are working hard… more

America's Floundering, Cross-Eyed Post-9/11 Strategic Confusion (POSTPONED)

Communications — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 09:15:00 -0400

A New America Event
07/30/2008 - 12:15pm

This event has been postponed until further notice. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.

Please join us for a conversation with Derek Chollet, whose new book, America Between the Wars, examines the bureaucratic battles, ideological confusion, and policy paralysis that defined the period between the Cold War and The War on Terror.

America's Health Care Debacle

Communications — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 08:15:00 -0400

A New America Event
07/30/2008 - 4:15pm

Featured Speakers

The Hon. Tom Daschle
Former Senator (D-SD) and Senate Majority Leader
Special Policy Advisor, Alston+Bird

Leo Hindery
Economic Advisor, Obama for President
Managing Director, InterMedia Partners
Former CEO, AT&T Broadband and Yankee Entertainment & Sports Network

Moderator

Steve Clemons
Director, American Strategy Program New America Foundation
Publisher, www.TheWashingtonNote.com

For more information, please see the New America Foundation/Health Policy Program Report, Employer Health Costs in a Global Economy.

This program is sponsored by New America Foundation's Smart Globalization Initiative and the Health Policy Program.

Did America Shift too Far to the Right?

Communications — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 05:15:00 -0400

A New America Event
07/31/2008 - 12:15pm

On Thursday, July 31, 2008, the New America Foundation hosted Sidney Blumenthal, Senior Adviser to Senator Hillary Clinton and Senior Fellow at the NYU Center on Law and Security, to discuss his new book, The Strange Death of Republican America: Chronicles of a Collapsing Party. He was joined by New America’s Steve Clemons, Director of the American Strategy Program, and Michael Lind, Senior Whitehead Fellow. An MP3 audio recording can be downloaded below, while video is available at right.

Blumenthal began by observing that the Republican Party has become progressively more radical since the beginnings of its surge to power. This radicalism reached its apex under the current administration of George W. Bush, who used partisan politics and legally dubious machinations to fuse Karl Rove’s idea of political realignment with Dick Cheney’s idea of the imperial presidency. At the same time, failure in the war in Iraq and growing discontent with conservative ideals such as deregulation and international trade have further shifted the political center away from the current Republican Party.

Michael Lind discussed the current shifting tide in terms of cycles of American history. He observed that the dominance of conservative or liberal political thought tends to occur in 72 year cycles, with each side dominating an approximately 36 year period. The coming ’08 election is shaping up to be another transition between waning conservative thought and resurgent liberal ideals, possibly setting the stage for a period of prolonged liberal dominance.

A question and answer session followed that included questions on the growing divide between the pro-business and traditional values wings of the Republican Party, whether the coming election will be considered a ‘mandate for change’ by the Democratic Party, and the lessons that the Republican downfall holds for Senators John McCain and Barak Obama in the coming election.

-Ian McAllister, Research Intern for the American Strategy Program

What Would Nixon Do on U.S.-Cuba Relations?

Communications — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 03:30:00 -0400

A New America Event
07/28/2008 - 12:30pm

Monday’s event brought together Dimitri Simes of the Nixon Center, Julia Sweig of the Council on Foreign Relations, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson -- former chief of staff to General Colonel Powell -- and New America’s Flynt Leverett and Steve Clemons to discuss the future of Cuba policy. An MP3 audio recording can be downloaded below, while video is available at right.

Dimitri Simes started the event lightly, speaking to Nixon’s love of Cuban cigars -- which he would enjoy quietly in the residence offered his closest guests, Simes recounted -- but quickly moved to heavier issues, offering that “Nixon was very angry with the way the United States was allowing key foreign policy decisions to be made by single interest groups. He thought it was very unfortunate that the U.S. only had a stick, and could not offer any kind of carrot.” Simes also addressed a recent statement made in Moscow, issued by a former Air Force Chief of Staff, regarding the stationing of strategic bombers in Cuba. The move, he conjectured, was a feeler, aimed garnering a political response from both Cuba and local power hubs, and suggested the move -- even if unlikely to advance -- should remind the U.S. of the remaining importance of Cuba in geo-strategic terms.

Julia Sweig suggested two steps the next administration might take to advance relations with Havana: first, legalize thirteen categories of licensed travel between the two states, thus allowing “American citizens under the rubric of churches, educational institutions, and civil society organizations to travel to Cuba.” Such a change, she suggests, would provide an “opportunity to get to know one another again, Cubans and American, to get into one another’s rolodexes. To know what makes the each other tick.” Second, she suggested the next administration make it clear to the new Congress that it will not veto any legislation that peals back the embargo. Helms Burton, she explained, left power to move against the embargo squarely in the hands of congress. Though difficult to repeal the legislation in its entirety, she thinks the measures, if disaggregated, might move faster than expected now that “the Cuban American community is no longer a single voting block” in her view.

She also stressed the critical role Naval Base Guantanamo Bay has played as a symbol to Latin America, and the broader world, of failed U.S. policy. She advocated not only closing the detention center, but also the repatriation of the base to Cuban sovereignty as a possible important and symbolic step along the path to reconciliation.

Flynt Leverett cast his remarks in strategic terms. He spoke to the rise of a new wave of the political left in Latin America, led by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, and suggested the best way to undermine such an advance lie in engagement with Havana
Leverett perhaps captured the hue of discussion best offering: “This is a topic that is not just important in terms of us interest in Latin America, the issue of Cuba policy raises one of the most fundamental questions we need to address about foreign policy… should American foreign policy be set on the basis of American national interests….or will foreign policy be set on the basis of something else. That something else is most likely to be the agenda of some domestic interest group or constituency.”

Leverett also spoke to the issue of Cuba’s recently discovered Hydro Carbon reserves, suggesting that every major energy corporation headquartered outside the U.S. has engaged with Cuban government in regard to the reserves. Leverett surmised, “If you take energy security seriously, this posture simply makes no sense.”

Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson offered two problems with the history of U.S. Cuban relations. First, he stated, we must not have a “moron” in the White House, and second, Cuba policy must be made an issue worthy of attention. Cuba, he argued, has simply been too low of a foreign policy priority for President’s in recent years. He suggested that the U.S. take a much more serious look at foreign policy in the western hemisphere at large, starting with Cuba, an arena in which gains will resonate loudly. “We need a substantiate foreign policy for the western hemisphere, and the way to do that is with a full rapprochement with Cuba.” Wilkerson also stated that Cuba, in both the war on terror and anti-narcotics efforts, has played a more helpful role than any other nation in Latin America. An assistance we, without surprise, have failed reciprocate.

-Brian Till, Research Associate for the American Strategy Program

This event was co-hosted by the New America Foundation and The Nixon Center.

Steven Clemons on Democracy Now! | 'Obama's Wall Speech Should Have Been About Israel, Not Berlin'

Communications — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 15:32:00 -0400

New America in the News:
(Democracy Now!)--Barack Obama spoke before an audience of over 200,000 people in Berlin, Germany on Thursday in the largest rally held by any presidential candidate this year. In his address, Obama discussed the importance of the Berlin Wall being torn down. We speak with Steve Clemons of the New America Foundation, who writes, “Had he given those remarks in Israel, at any of the checkpoints that have been added since the Annapolis process began, or at the large dividing wall Israel has constructed, or just about anywhere frankly in Israel or Palestine—it would have been a ‘game-changing speech.’” We also speak with author and journalist Tim Shorrock about his article, “Hawks Behind the Dove: Who Makes Obama’s Foreign Policy?”...

AMY GOODMAN: To talk more about Senator Barack Obama’s tour of the Middle East and Europe, I’m joined by Steven Clemons in Washington. He’s the director of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation, runs the popular blog thewashingtonnote.com.

Your thoughts on, well, this historic presidential candidate address? I don’t know if any other has ever gathered that many people outside the United States, not president, like John F. Kennedy, but presidential candidate, Barack Obama in Berlin. Steven Clemons?

STEVEN CLEMONS: Well, good morning, Amy. This speech and Barack Obama’s tour have been mesmerizing to watch and to see. It’s very strange in American politics when you see the need that a candidate feels he has, in this case, to connect with so many foreign citizens beyond our borders as a way to prove to American citizens that their future in foreign policy and national security issues will be different than what they’ve seen under President Bush. And I think Barack Obama delivered that on this tour, and he punctuated it with his speech yesterday. What—it was a terrific oratory, and I think that he should be given enormous applause for it.

What I found a little disappointing in his call for a world without walls, however, was that this speech nonetheless was still a safe speech. It was given in a safe place. If he had given this kind of speech in Israel or Palestine and talked about a different sort of walls and a divided society, it would have been even a greater game changer in that environment. So, on one hand, I certainly applaud Barack Obama for this speech and what he’s been able to achieve, and I think it shows—it’s a real foil to the kind of world we’re living in under the George W. Bush administration. But it also reminds us that the Middle East, which I think is the defining challenge for America in this era, remains quite complicated with walls and settlements and a divided society that is echoing and ricocheting through the Middle East and creating, I think, an enormous hemorrhage in the region and for us that his speech might have addressed there, rather than in the safe venue of Berlin.

AMY GOODMAN: You mean tearing down the walls in the West Bank, in—

STEVEN CLEMONS: Well, between—yeah, in the West Bank and really—you know, the most powerful part of the speech was the part calling for walls between Christians and Muslims and Jews to come down. And to some degree, I think that’s what we need to see in a lot of the Middle East.

But nonetheless, I had Mustafa Barghouti in Washington yesterday, one of the former presidential aspirants for Palestine and a good guy, a secularist who’s trying to move forward an internal issue in Palestine, and he shared with me—he says, you know, Barack Obama was in Ramallah for forty-five minutes and in Israel for about thirty hours. And had he given that kind of speech—a lot of Muslims listened to that speech yesterday—they would have loved to have heard any comment of that sort in Israel. And again, I’m not highly critical of Barack Obama. This is an election season, and you need to stage a lot of visuals. But his speech was so powerful, so important, that it was sad that echoes of it did not play in Israel.

AMY GOODMAN: You also talk, Steven Clemons, in your pieces about, well, where, yes, Barack Obama is going, has gone, and where he’s not going in Europe.

STEVEN CLEMONS: Yeah, exactly. You know, one of the things I found interesting is in his—really, I mean, I think he’s checked off a lot of countries, and I think it was great to get him out on the international stage and not to be shy about it. But at the same time, Europe is vital to us as a place. It is becoming, I think, increasingly important in showing other societies around the world what civil liberty creation and civil society creation can look like as Europe expands.

But Europe’s institutional heart is no longer Berlin or Paris or London. While those are power centers, Brussels is. And so, when you’re reaching out to 500 million people and trying to show what the promises tomorrow of what Europe is struggling to become, not to spend a couple of hours and check off that Brussels box, I think, was a big mistake.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re talking to Steve Clemons, director of American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation. Now, Barack Obama has an interesting position in the Senate. He’s chair of the European Subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Explain its significance.

STEVEN CLEMONS: That’s right.

AMY GOODMAN: Explain its significance.

STEVEN CLEMONS: Well, any committee in the United States Senate has very important subcommittees that deal with various topics. And when the Democrats came into the majority in the Senate, Barack Obama became chairman of the European Subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. This same subcommittee was the one that Joseph Biden used to chair in the past.

And I wrote a piece once where I was trying to look at the executive skills of legislators and comparing, at the time, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. I had assumed that Hillary Clinton hadn’t had much time for these and that Barack Obama, who was relatively new to the Senate, would have been drilling into some of the policy issues by chairing committees and hearing them. And I found somewhat the opposite. It wasn’t an effort to try and undermine Obama, but I was astonished that he had never chaired a policy hearing in the subcommittee.

And when I dug deeper, I talked to Senator Obama’s advisers; they said, “You know, Steve, you realize we have to get permission from the chairman”—meaning Joe Biden—“to hold these committees.” And I dug into it. Senator Biden would have been happy to provide any of that permission. So, the important thing is, this subcommittee could have talked about anything dealing with Europe, or Europe or NATO’s responsibilities. And most importantly, those responsibilities, in the near term, had been Afghanistan.

And I think that it was just a part of Barack Obama’s profile that he hadn’t filled out yet. And I think he responded honestly. He said when he got his campaign going, he didn’t have a lot of time and didn’t do it. But I think it’s very important, and I think the Obama team realizes it’s important, that when they have responsibilities of that sort, they need to run in a lot of parallel tracks, particularly given his Senate responsibilities and his government responsibilities, to—you can’t just focus on one area and then neglect a portion of your key responsibility as chair, which I think, unfortunately, was the case.

But I think this has been a little bit overplayed in the press. I do think that he knows quite a bit about Europe. And I suspect that before the year’s out, even before he runs, you’ll find a subcommittee hearing this next season.... LINK to full transcript and online media

Steve Clemons on Democracy Now | 'Obama's Berlin Speech'

Communications — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 08:55:00 -0400

New America in the News:
Steven Clemons, director of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation, discusses presidential candidate Barack Obama's recent tour of the Middle East and Europe. LINK to video and transcript