Diplomacy and International Politics

Foreign Affairs has recently published a number of articles on how the United States should engage with the Taliban government in Afghanistan, extremist forces within the regime, how the West can help ordinary Afghans, and the fate of the country’s women. To complement these essays, Foreign Affairs asked a broad pool of experts for their take. As with previous surveys, Foreign Affairs approached dozens of authorities with expertise relevant to the question at hand, along with leading generalists in the field. Participants were asked to state whether they agreed or disagreed with a proposition and to rate their confidence level in their opinion. Two Belfer Center experts participated, International Security Executive Editor Jacqueline L. Hazelton and Future of Diplomacy Project Senior Fellow Paula Dobriansky.

Ownership of reforms by citizens is often presented as important for success. This paper explores media engagement and support for economic reforms in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries using text analysis techniques on publicly available sources. Results show that while reform efforts have intensified in recent years in the GCC, these efforts tend to focus on stronger rather than weaker policy areas, potentially limiting the growth-enhancing effect of reforms. Social media analysis using Twitter shows that the population’s support for reforms has been declining. The analysis of traditional
news media points to more engagement by international than by local media. However, sentiment from international media is less positive about economic reforms in the GCC. Sentiment in international media and social media matters, as evidenced by its positive and strong correlation with FDI inflows into the GCC.

Social media is changing not only the atmosphere in which international negotiations take place; it is also changing the very substance of the deals. Because of the pace and proliferation of social media, negotiators must read “weak signals” early on—and anticipate a quickly organized, highly motivated opposition. However, diplomatic negotiators still lack the tools to engage in this sort of anticipatory strategy design. 

Former U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson offered his take on global leaders and hotspots, from Iran and Saudi Arabia to North Korea and Syria. He was joined by Professor Nicholas Burns, Professor James Sebenius and Professor Robert Mnookin.

NPR's David Greene talks to Amanda Sloat of the Brookings Institution, and David Rennie of The Economist magazine, about the global standing of the U.S. The G-7 meetings in France wrap up Monday.

After the G7 Summit, President Trump is now saying he would be open to a meeting with Iran if the circumstances were correct and they were "good players." He also claimed China wants a trade deal very badly and talks were "elevated" last night. Plus the president became salesman-in-chief when asked about next year's G7 summit - which he wants to host at his resort in Doral, Florida. NBC's Kelly O’Donnell, Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson, former Commerce Secretary and former U.S. ambassador to China Gary Locke, and former U.S. ambassador to NATO Nick Burns join Andrea Mitchell to discuss.

President Trump is continuing to raise the issue of readmitting Russia to the G7, and is still blaming President Obama for throwing Moscow out of the group. Former U.S. ambassador to NATO and Washington Post foreign columnist David Ignatius join Andrea Mitchell to discuss.

Over the years, China has become increasingly powerful politically, diplomatically, militarily. Xi acknowledged China’s intention of reaching the top position in a number of key-sectors such as robotics, AI, electric cars, biotech and aviation. Moreover, China expanded its programs such as the Belt and Road Initiative. This strategy has been met with a strong pushback from America as well as a number of countries in South Asia, Central Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa.