Unable to fully secure most facilities, but unwilling to shut them down, State chooses to shut them down temporarily in risky situations
Diplomacy
Oops: John Kerry Gaffes, Washington Backpedals
John Kerry’s week began on a high note, with the resumption of Middle East peace talks after months of dogged effort on the Secretary of State’s part. But it’s closing on a more awkward one, as officials in Washington clean up …
As Kerry Kick-Starts Peace Process, Where’s Obama?
Skeptics wonder if a President burned once by the peace process will really engage again.
After Peace-Process Stumble, Is John Kerry Wasting His Time in the Middle East?
The Secretary of State comes up short for now, but that doesn’t mean he’s failed.
Samantha Power: How the Realists View Her
Today Obama will tap Samantha Power as the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. The move is no surprise to reporter Jacob Heilbrunn, who predicted Power’s new role in his profile of her for the May/June 2011 issue of
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The Queen’s Era Is Drawing to an End as Prince Charles Assumes New Royal Duties
For the first time, the Queen will be accompanied to the annual State Opening of Parliament not only by her doughty husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, but by their son—and her heir—the Prince of Wales
The Ambassador May Wear Prada
Obama weighs appointing big names and fundraisers to patronage posts
Diplomacy in the Age of Twitter
For the second time in seven months, the U.S. embassy in Cairo got itself into Twitter trouble. The unusually combative Twitter feed on Tuesday criticized the Egyptian government’s imprisonment of comedian Bassem Youssef for …
How Barack Obama Brought Turkey and Israel Back Together
Obama pushed for normalization of relations during his trip to Israel, capping years of work by U.S. diplomats to bring the two U.S. allies back together
Secretary of State John Kerry’s First Overseas Trip
A TIME photo gallery of John Kerry’s ten-day inaugural trip.
Netanyahu at the U.N.: Bibi Makes Nice with Obama
In a departure from his recent icy statements aimed at the Obama Administration, Netanyahu took a friendlier approach in his speech at the U.N.
Inside America’s Secret Training of Syria’s Digital Army
Updated: 5:37 p.m.
I have a story in this week’s magazine, available online now and hitting stands this Friday, about U.S. efforts to help Syrian dissidents. The U.S. isn’t arming anybody – as Hillary Clinton on Tuesday accused Russia of doing for Syrian President Bashar Assad – but the State Department is training protesters …
Syria Presents Another Predicament for Kofi Annan and His U.N. Legacy
Kofi Annan has seen a lot of genocide. He hasn’t been the monster pulling the trigger, or ordering the deaths. But to hear his critics tell it, as head of the United Nations Peacekeepers in 1994 and 1995 he failed to prevent the Rwandan genocide and the massacre at Srebrenica in former Yugoslavia. The 2003 Darfur genocide began during …