Foreign Policy

Hollywood movie moguls and Nashville’s country music stars have a lot at stake in the omnibus farm bill currently languishing in Congress. Buried under the legislation’s arcane provisions on food stamps, farm commodity price supports and soil conservation programs lies a ticking time bomb that threatens all owners of intellectual property.
 
As a result of a long-simmering dispute between Brazil and the United States over the trade-distorting effects of U.S. cotton policies, Brazilians may soon be able to pirate movies, copy music CDs, rip off patented drugs and expropriate genetically-modified seed, all with the seal of approval of the World Trade Organization (WTO). And, if that happens, a precedent will be established for developed and developing countries alike to sidestep the protections afforded to holders of copyrights, patents and trademarks.

This summer’s devastating Midwest drought and poor crop conditions in other countries are prompting fears of food shortages and a worldwide spike in prices that could significantly increase hunger in underdeveloped countries.
 
But, as governments attempt to deal with this immediate crisis, a far greater challenge looms in a world population expected to reach 9 billion by 2050. With 2 billion more people to feed, world food production will need to increase by at least 70 percent at a time when farmland expansion has largely been exhausted and crop productivity growth has leveled off.

In the midst of a heated presidential campaign, it seems nearly impossible to pull away from the noise of political personas and consider the issues simply on their own. Yet that is what voters across the nation were asked to do in a poll released Monday, and they made their voices heard. 

Republicans, Democrats, and Independents across the nation were presented with three hypothetical candidates — “Smith,” “Jones,” and “Miller” — with three varying foreign policy stances. Each candidate statement discussed America’s role in the world and the best strategies to advance our interests abroad. When voters were asked who was the most compelling, who would be most likely to earn their vote, a clear favorite emerged. That candidate emphasized one approach above all else: international cooperation.

A lot can change in 13 days. When the presidential debate takes place tonight it will be that long since the last debate, and Gov. Romney will likely change any aspect of his foreign policy stance that he believes it politically expedient to change or minimize. He has been doing a lot of that lately. What he will not be able to change is the fact that his lack of experience, understanding, and credibility on national security and foreign policy would be a detriment to America’s security. We have seen in candidate Romney a leadership void, a string of policies that lack originality, and a dedication to dogma that harkens back to the Bush policies that in the last decade marred the global standing of our nation. 

On September 11, 2012, four Americans, Ambassador Christopher Stevens, Foreign Service Officer Sean Smith and American security officers Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, were brutally attacked and murdered at an American compound in Benghazi, Libya. At the time, the administration blamed this senseless attack on a protest in reaction to an obscure internet video and failed to acknowledge what it really was - an act of terrorism.

On the eleventh anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks on our nation, the brave men and women serving our country at the  U.S. consulate in Bengazi, Libya came under fire, resulting in the death of four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens. The attackers targeted our mission in Libya, a critical undertaking in a nation struggling to rebuild after civil war, because of what it stands for: the very freedoms and rights that define and strengthen our great country – Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion chief among them. Under ordinary circumstances, an attack of this level, with this much devastation, would elicit many routine questions, but the aftermath of this attack left more. 

The tragic loss of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and of three other Americans on September 11 has serious, immediate consequences and ominous implications for diplomat safety. Ambassador Stevens developed a unique personal and professional relationship with the Libyan people. His work in the midst of a revolution was so well received by Libya that it may be difficult to replicate. We may have lost the head start Stevens embodied in making oil-rich Libya a close Arab ally of the United States in the Middle East. Even though Congress is in recess during a presidential campaign, the death of an ambassador and three others warranted a break from congressional campaigning for a careful if preliminary hearing, considering that even the FBI, which is conducting one of two investigations, has gotten only brief access to the Benghazi site.

On the anniversary of September 11, we lost Glen Doherty, Tyrone Woods, Ambassador Christopher Stevens and Sean Smith in a terrorist attack on the American outpost in Benghazi, Libya. In the past month, many facts — and a few fictions — have come to light.
 
Multiple lethal security incidents preceded the September 11 attack in Benghazi. In April a Libyan security contractor who had been recently fired, threw an IED over the wall of the Benghazi compound. In June an IED was placed on the wall of the American outpost, blowing a twelve-foot hole in the compound wall. Two times in the summer of 2012, the International Committee for the Red Cross compound was attacked, and they determined it was not safe to remain in Benghazi without additional security. The British presence in Benghazi also withdrew in the summer of 2012 after an assassination attempt on the British Ambassador in June. They determined it was not safe to remain in Benghazi without additional security.

Turkey -- Lamees is a lanky 14-year old with a ponytail, glasses, and an impressive command of English. She now lives in a Turkish border town with her parents, one sister, and two brothers – all of them refugees from Syria’s civil war. As we sit in the living room of their rented home, two young girl cousins living nearby tiptoe inside, climb onto a couch, and sit there leaning against each other. They are shy about speaking English with us; we eventually get them to confess that they are seven and ten years old, but they say nothing more.

America depends on functioning and secure telecommunications networks. These networks are our nation's backbone for essential communications, and support many aspects of the American marketplace - including the government, state and local entities, law enforcement, critical infrastructure partners, businesses, and private citizens.

These networks hold sensitive and private information, and they are proven targets for foreign governments or other entities attempting to commit economic espionage, steal trade secrets, or access government information in an attempt to gain a strategic advantage over the United States.