Does progress on the Millennium Development Goals enhance American national security interests? The Obama administration apparently thinks so. They even included the MDGs and other development themes in their recent National Security Strategy:
Continuing my parsing of John Kerry's pronouncements on Afghanistan, note these remarks Senator Kerry delivered at the opening of a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Afghanistan this afternoon:
This is cool. There’s a big survey going on, to help inform the estimate of the global burden of disease - in layman's terms, how much sickness and ill-health affect the world. The survey is in support of the Global Burden of Disease study, which aims to “measure the impact of different diseases, injuries, and risk factors on people's health worldwide.”
The survey is going to help decide how different health conditions should be ranked for severity. For example, what has more health impact: severe pain, or blindness?
IUN Foundation CEO Kathy Calvin testified on the MDG hearing in the House of Representatives this morning about how partnerships between the public sector and private corporations and philanthropies can add value to the common effort to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Here is her testimony, as prepared.
Testimony of Kathy Calvin; CEO, United Nations Foundation
Before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight
In the next few weeks the Obama administration will unveil its plan for the Millennium Development Goals. As I write, diplomats at the UN are putting together an "outcome document" for an MDG summit of heads of state in New York in September. How can the United States make the most of this global moment for the MDGs? At a hearing on Capital Hill this morning, John McArthur from the Millennium Promise sketched out seven items that the United States ought to bring to the UN as a part of a "U.S.
The Israeli government just released an update to its internal review of the Israeli Defense Force's conduct during Operation Cast Lead.
Peter Slevin takes a look at the Obama administration's policy for dealing with illigal immigrants in custody and finds a sharp increase in the number of migrants the United States is deporting. From the Washington Post:
The reactions to the massive Wikileaks document dump will be fascinating to view during the next few days. So far, the administration's response is to condemn the leaks while also noting that most of the revealed documents stem from the Bush era. Specifically, the White House advised reporters:
"The period of time covered in these documents (January 2004-December 2009) is before the President announced his new strategy. Some of the disconcerting things reported are exactly why the President ordered a three month policy review and a change in strategy."
The people who brought you An Inconvenient Truth have set their sites on nuclear terrorism. Countdown to Zero opens in theaters across the United States today. From David Corn's review in Mother Jones: