About the Author: Ambassador Mark P. Lagon is Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State and Director of the U.S. Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.
Last month, in my role as envoy to combat modern-day slavery, I traveled to Greece, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Jordan. These countries were noted in this year’s annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report as grappling with the trafficking of migrants for both commercial sex and forced labor.
The 2008... Read Full Story
Today, NATO Defense Ministers agreed to allow their troops in Afghanistan to target drug traffickers who financially support Taliban fighters. The UN estimates that the Taliban earns about $100 million per year from the drug trade.
What other measures can we take against those who fund terrorism but do not directly engage in it?
Read Full Story
About the Author: John Matel is a U.S. Foreign Service Officer who served as Team Leader of the Al Asad Embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team in Iraq.
It is always like this when I come back from an overseas post. One day you are in the midst of a place, its events, culture and environment. It seems like the whole world. Then you are not. Iraq is like that, only more so, because being in Iraq is so unusual and so intense. You work long hours every day of the week, and you are... Read Full Story
About the Author: Ambassador Charles S. Shapiro serves as the Senior Coordinator of the State Department’s Western Hemisphere Affairs Free Trade Task Force.
I spent last week in Colombia -- in Bogotá (the capital), Medellín (the former murder capital of the world, now a prosperous manufacturing center), and Quibdó (the capital of the poorest state in Colombia and an area which is predominately Afro-Colombian).
Workers on flower farms in the outskirts of Bogotá were pleased that their... Read Full Story
About the Author: Adam Zerbinopoulos serves as the Deputy Refugee Coordinator at the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok.
BANGKOK, September 25 -- Even though it’s 5 a.m., Myint Myint (not his real name) has been on the move for hours. It was a long way from the refugee camp to the hotel yesterday, and he had to wake up at 2 o’clock this morning to get to the airport on time.
But this is only the latest stage in a journey that has lasted years. Myint Myint and his family, members of the Karen... Read Full Story
About the Author: Bridget Hunter works in the Bureau of International Information Programs.
In a new kind of public-private partnership, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs James Glassman launched the State Department’s Democracy Video Challenge on September 15 at U.N. headquarters. The launch was timed to coincide with United Nations’ first International Day of Democracy. Partners for the online video contest include the State Department, democracy and youth... Read Full Story
This week, the U.S. Congress approved an agreement that allows for U.S.-India cooperation on peaceful uses of nuclear energy. The agreement has been described as bringing together the world’s oldest continuous democracy with the world’s largest democracy.
What are the implications (diplomatic or geopolitical) of the U.S.-India agreement on nuclear energy?
Read Full Story
About the Author: Ambassador Gaddi H. Vasquez is the 8th U.S. Representative to the United Nations Organizations in Rome.
Across the board, all of the development professionals in Colombia have told me that internal displacement affects children most. They pointed out that individuals and families are generally not displaced once but multiple times. With each move, the displaced restart a vicious cycle of uncertainty, hunger, fear, and despair.
I wrapped up my three-day visit to... Read Full Story
About the Author: Brian H. Hook serves as Acting Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations Affairs.
The 63rd UN General Assembly (UNGA) is now nearly two weeks old. Most heads of state have returned to their capitals. Many of the formalities are now coming to a close, and action will soon shift to the General Assembly, where a range of issues will be debated in the coming months. For me, as for others, UNGA is a great opportunity to meet bilaterally with counterparts... Read Full Story
About the Author: Ambassador Gaddi H. Vasquez is the 8th U.S. Representative to the United Nations Organizations in Rome.
Around the port city of Cartegena today I traveled in and out of poor neighborhoods that would make even the most optimistic person despair. Urban slums with precarious living conditions: putrid water seeping down crevice-filled dirt roads and pooling in front of makeshift houses without windows, donkeys attached to carts, young kids in their underwear standing in... Read Full Story
