Foreign Policy

NEW YORK - Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin defended her remark that the close proximity of Russia to her home state of Alaska gives her foreign policy experience, explaining in a CBS interview yesterday that "we have trade missions back and forth. " Palin has never visited Russia, and until last year the 44-year-old first-term Alaska governor had never traveled outside North America. She also had never met a foreign leader until her trip this week to New York. Palin's foreign policy experience came up when she gave her first major interview, on Sept.

WASHINGTON -- Senator John Kerry slammed Mitt Romney as naive and wrong for asserting that Russia is the nation's top enemy, saying that the United States has much bigger problems in the Middle East. Kerry, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also criticized the former Massachusetts governor and presumed GOP presidential nominee for being "inappropriately threatening" when the two countries should be seeking cooperation on a host of issues. Earlier this week, former Secretary of State Colin Powell cautioned Romney about describing Russia as a "foe.

BOURNEMOUTH, England - Britain's new foreign policy chief promised a shift in how the country approaches international relations yesterday, citing humbling lessons of the Iraq war and signaling a fresh path from that of his graying predecessors. David Miliband, the first Cabinet minister to write an online blog and one of the youngest at 42, told the annual conference of his Labor Party that he wants to keep talking with adversaries such as Iran, to empathize with Muslims, and to rid his department of stodgy aura.

WASHINGTON - Mitt Romney says that if he is elected Congress should wait until he takes office to block automatic spending cuts and to keep tax cuts from expiring. In an interview with Time magazine Wednesday, the Republican presidential candidate said he wants Congress to deal with major issues to keep the nation from going over a "fiscal cliff" after the January swearing-in. Romney said he wants permanent legislation to deal with those problems instead of a temporary effort.

NASHUA - As he touched down in New Hampshire yesterday to campaign before Tuesday's Republican presidential primary, Ron Paul was greeted by what has become a familiar sight - a large, enthusiastic crowd, about half of them younger voters. Perhaps the most striking statistic to come out of the Iowa caucuses, where Paul finished a close third, was entrance poll data showing that the 76-year-old Texas congressman captured 48 percent of the vote among those under the age of 30 in a six-candidate field.

The specter of a China with rising influence in the world has long provoked anxiety here in America. Like a speeding car that suddenly fills the rearview mirror, China has grown stronger and bolder and has done it quickly: Not only does it hold colossal amounts of American currency and boast a favorable trade deficit, it has increasingly been able to play the heavy with other nations. China is forging commercial relationships with African and Middle Eastern countries that can provide it natural resources, and has the clout to press its prerogatives in more local disputes with its...

DO YOU know where "Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan" is? According to Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, who seemed giddy in promoting his lack of knowledge on foreign affairs, it's somewhere out there with a lot of other insignificant countries. It doesn't exist, but even if it did, the details don't matter: How, Cain wondered, is knowing about the world "going to create one job?" Cain's view of economic policy and foreign policy as entirely separate realms - leading to a choice between domestic jobs and engagement in foreign affairs - was laughable, but seemed...

WASHINGTON –Mitt Romney announced his campaign's national security and foreign policy team this morning, a group crowded with former Bush administration officials, counter-terrorism experts and advocates of a powerful US presence overseas. "America and our allies are facing a series of complex threats. To shape them before they explode into conflict, our foreign policy will have to be guided by a strategy of American strength," said the former Massachusetts governor. The advisers include Michael Hayden, who directed the CIA from 2006 until 2009 and led the...

WHILE THE economy will be the central issue of the presidential campaign, foreign policy and national security should be a close second. 2012 is shaping up to be a dangerous year for America's international interests — with Iranian saber-rattling, North Korean threats, and concerns over stability in Iraq emerging since New Year's Day alone. If Republicans hope to unseat Barack Obama, they will need to nominate a candidate who can match the president's impressive international record and hold his own in the general election debates on America's daunting global agenda.

China's growing thirst for oil is one of the primary reasons the government of Sudan has been able to continue its support of the bloodthirsty Janjaweed militias' genocidal rampages in Darfur, according to Peter Navarro, a business professor at the University of California, Irvine. The Chinese ties to the atrocities in Darfur are one of the blatant examples of the hypocrisy of Chinese foreign policy underscored by Navarro in his new book, "The Coming China Wars. " In this comprehensive examination of China's mushrooming economy, Navarro masterfully illuminates the dark...

"C'mon, Mitt, think. " So said Colin Powell on Wednesday as he assessed Mitt Romney's foreign policy views. Powell, appearing on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," said he wondered what Romney was thinking when he heard that Romney had declared that Russia was the top geopolitical foe of the United States. Powell said Romney's comment about Russia was "catching a lot of heck from the more regular GOP foreign affairs community who were kind of taken aback by it. " Powell, who served as secretary of state in the administration of George W. Bush, endorsed...

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney and U.S. Sen. Scott Brown publicly support each other and even share key advisers. But on many topics, from foreign policy to social issues, the Massachusetts Republicans take very different positions. ABORTION: Romney opposes abortion rights and says the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion should be reversed so states can be free to craft their own abortion laws. Brown opposes federal funding for abortions, but thinks women should have the right to choose to have the procedure.

If polls are to be believed, leftist Francois Hollande will soon be French president, and will tell Barack Obama next month that France is speeding up its withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan — bucking NATO's slower timetable. Conservative French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has trailed Hollande for months in the polls, is arguably the most America-friendly French leader in a half-century. He has aligned with Washington on Iran and Syria, upped France's military presence in Afghanistan and took a major role in NATO's air campaign over Libya that helped oust Moammar...

The intense attention this week to the one-year anniversary of the death of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, attests not only to the signficance of the event, but to the Al Qaeda leader's continued hold on the fears of Americans, and on American foreign policy. While the terrorist mastermind is dead, his story may never truly die. There are books and movies about the daring raid that killed bin Laden, and about President Obama's determination to get the man who had eluded his predecessor; the Obama reelection campaign, sensing a chance to showcase...

Vice President Joe Biden says Republican Mitt Romney's views on foreign affairs would return the United States to the policies of former President George W. Bush. Biden was set to deliver a campaign foreign policy speech Thursday in New York. The Associated Press received a draft of his remarks. The vice president is warning against returning to a foreign policy that he says "would have America go it alone. " Biden has delivered several speeches defending the Obama administration's record against Republican attacks in recent weeks.

Vice President Joe Biden is calling the foreign policy outlined by presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney shallow, ill-informed and dangerous and says it would return the United States to "the past we have worked so hard to move beyond. " President Barack Obama will gladly stack accomplishments such as killing terror mastermind Osama bin Laden against Romney's rhetoric, Biden said in remarks prepared for delivery at an overtly partisan campaign event on Thursday.

LONDON -- Britain's support for the war in Iraq was a "major tragedy" for the world, and the Bush administration has been "the worst in history" in international relations, former President Jimmy Carter said in two interviews yesterday. On British Broadcasting Corp. radio, Carter criticized Prime Minister Tony Blair's unwavering support for President Bush, saying it has contributed to the troubled aftermath of the Iraq invasion. Asked how he would judge Blair's support of Bush, the former Democratic president said: "Abominable.

From his final hideout in the briny deep, Osama bin Laden has clarified what is wrong with the way foreign policy is addressed in the US presidential campaign. His seized documents tell us that bin Laden had ordered the assassination of President Obama, whom he condemned as "the head of infidelity. " But as we know, the boss of all al Qaeda bosses was rubbed out on orders from the White House, and so was Ilyas Kashmiri, the capo who was supposed to carry out the hit on Obama. Yet Mitt Romney has insisted on portraying Obama as a chief executive who goes around the world apologizing for America.

Saying Mitt Romney has "the resume and background for the job," former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani endorsed the likely Republican nominee for president today. Giuliani, who like Romney vied unsuccessfully for the GOP nomination in 2008, announced his support during an appearance on the Fox News Channel. The endorsement comes a day before New York and four other states hold their presidential primaries. "I think he has an understanding of the economy that's far deeper than the president and far deeper than most people," Giuliani said, "and I think he...