Page 41 - Barbara Leaf News Today

The following story originally appeared in as an online exclusive for the W&M Alumni Magazine. - Ed. William & Mary alumni have a long history of service at the highest levels of government — a legacy stretching from George Washington (who received his surveyor’s license at William & Mary in 1749) to our current Chancellor, Bob Gates ’65, L.H.D. ’98, former Secretary of Defense. President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Vice President Kamala Harris have already appointed several William & Mar...

She is also deputy assistant secretary of state for Levant affairs

SHARE Early signs from the Biden administration suggest the Syrian conflict, which is approaching its 10th year, will not be a priority for the new US team. But it could be re-evaluated, with time running out on the diplomatic clock, an ISIS resurgence and fragile ceasefires threatening to dissolve. The administration of President Joe Biden is Americas fourth to face the Syrian conflict, which has killed about 400,000 and displaced about 10 million. Experts and former officials predict continui...

SHARE US Secretary of State Antony Blinken highlighted the Biden administration’s emphasis on great power competition with China and Russia, criticising their human rights records on Monday. The administration’s sharp emphasis on China, coupled with a recent White House downsizing of its National Security Council team devoted to the Middle East, indicate that President Joe Biden hopes to focus more on Asia. It suggests that he wants to avoid the protracted Middle East military conflicts tha...

BICOM 22nd January 2021 What happened: Israel’s political leaders have congratulated President Joe Biden entering the White House as Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, started the role of ambassador to the US yesterday. Erdan welcomed US President Biden’s executive action to return the US to the Paris Climate Agreement. He wrote on Twitter: “Climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing our planet and we must all fight this ...

The pandemic put those hopes on hold. News of climate change was eclipsed by Covid-19. I do sincerely hope, however, that 2020 was just a bump in the road, a matter of opportunities delayed rather than thwarted. In fact, with the world pinning its hopes on a post-Covid ‘green recovery’ fuelled by infrastructure spending, I believe that this year we are looking at opportunities to enact real, long-term change and limit global warming to 1.5°C by the end of the century. Unchecked climate cha...

Barbara Leaf is set to join other Obama-era officials with established Middle East policy credentials.