Press Room Clears
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The press room here cleared out about 15 minutes ago. Angelina Jolie is in the room next door announcing her new Education Partnership for Children of Conflict, "a historic education partnership to address the needs of children living in conflict, post-conflict refugee, and emergency situations." This alliance has been built out of a long and diverse list of partners including UNICEF, Save the Children, the Sesame Workshop, UNHCR (Angelina's tie-in). They are making the commitment to help 350,000 children go to school and improve the learning environment of another 650,000 -- including 200,000 Iraqi refugees (maybe Angelina advocated for this after her recent trip) and 300,000 children affected by Darfur. As you can see from the photo above, there were many up on the stage, but Angelina got about 80 percent of the questions.

October 10, 2008


A U.S.-UN History Lesson in Georgia
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(The following was originally written in August 2008.)

Commentators looking to explain the recent Russo-Georgian conflict by analyzing American foreign policy have found no dearth of candidate provocations. America's support for Georgian membership in NATO, its recognition of Kosovo's independence, and its open planning to install missile defense programs in Eastern Europe all likely contributed to Russia's willingness to exert its influence in the region by force. By and large, however, these speculations have focused on the proximate causes of the past few months. The most significant American contribution to instability in Georgia, however, may actually have occurred some 15 years ago--and its story provides more resounding lessons for U.S.-UN policy than it does for U.S.-Russia relations.

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