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Diplomacy and International Institutions

The World Next Week: Obama Diplomacy in High Gear

By experts and staff

Published
  • James M. LindsayCFR Expert
    Mary and David Boies Distinguished Senior Fellow in U.S. Foreign Policy
President Barack Obama delivers a speech about U.S. policy in the Middle East and North Africa today at the State Department on May 19, 2011.
President Barack Obama delivers a speech about U.S. policy in the Middle East today at the State Department. (Jim Young/courtesy Reuters)

The World Next Week podcast is up. Bob McMahon and I talked about President Obama’s speech today on the Middle East; his trip to Europe next week; and what will be on the agenda when he stops in Deauville, France for the G8 summit. We also introduced a new feature called “Figures of the Week.”

[audio: https://www.cfr.org/content/publications/media/podcast/2011/20110519_TWN…]

The highlights:

Bob and I aren’t the only commentators weighing in on these current events. Aaron David Miller, a veteran of the Mideast peace process, previews tomorrow’s Obama-Netanyahu summit and argues that the prospects for a peace deal in this climate are dim. Reuters covers the missile defense issue that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is likely to bring up with Obama at the G8 summit, and the Economist discusses French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s leadership of the group. The Guardian previews Obama’s efforts at transatlantic diplomacy and speech at Westminster Hall and the Belfast Telegraph discusses Obama’s planned speech in Dublin.