An Open Letter to Secretaries Blinken and Austin Regarding Afghan SIVs Signed by 100 Former Foreign Service and Military Officers
An Open Letter to Secretaries Blinken and Austin Regarding Afghan SIVs Signed by 100 Former Foreign Service and Military Officers
Note: The below letter was sent to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III on May 10, 2021. MEI s Senior Vice President Gerald Feierstein, Distinguished Senior Fellow on National Security General (ret.) Joseph Votel, and MEI Afghanistan and Pakistan Program Director Marvin G. Weinbaum are among the signatories.
We are a group of former diplomats, military officers, and civil servants. Many of us have helped manage and support U.S. engagement with Afghanistan over the past twenty years. We are writing to you today to add our voices to the many Americans who have already expressed concern, both publicly and privately, about the fate of the many thousands of Afghans
9 May 2021
Author: Chas W Freeman Jr, Brown University. Chas W. Freeman, Jr. In Chinese: 傅立民, is an American retired diplomat and writer. He served in the United States Foreign Service, the State and Defense Departments in many different capacities over the course of thirty years. Most notably, he worked as the main interpreter for Richard Nixon during his 1972 China visit and served as the U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 1989 to 1992, where he dealt with the Persian Gulf War, and the assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs. The points he made in the following are highly likely that they can stand the test of time.
By Bola Akinterinwa
AFRICOM is the acronym for Africa Command, and also a short form for United States Africa Command, which was created within the framework of the reorganisation of the US Military Command structure in February 2007, under the George W. Bush administration. As explained by the first Commander of the AFRICOM, General William ‘KIP’ Ward, the rationale for establishing the AFRICOM was to enable good governance in Africa without undermining the national sovereignty of any country. What is good governance in this case?
President Bush explained the mission statement of the AFRICOM thus: ‘this new Command will strengthen our security cooperation with Africa and help to create new opportunities to bolster the capabilities of our partners in Africa. Africa Command will enhance our efforts to help bring peace and security to the people of Africa and promote our common goals of development, health, education, democracy, and economic growth in Africa.’ In fact, as Pre
Director of Turkey Program and Senior Fellow, Frontier Europe Initiative
Gönül Tol is the founding director of the Middle East Institute’s Turkey program and a senior fellow for the Frontier Europe Initiative. She is also an adjunct professor at George Washington University’s Institute for Middle East Studies.
After three years of field research in Germany and the Netherlands, she wrote her dissertation on the radicalization of the Turkish Islamist movement Milli Gorus in Western Europe.
She was also an adjunct professor at the College of International Security Affairs at the National Defense University. She has taught courses on Islamist movements in Western Europe, Turkey, world politics, and the Middle East.
Updated 02 May 2021
May 02, 2021 12:11
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia is on course to meet the aims laid out in Vision 2030 following five years of success so far, senior representatives were told.
The chairs of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 Realization Program Committee – including the Ministers of Health, Tourism, Finance, Economy and Planning met in Riyadh on Saturday.
Health minister Tawfiq Al-Rabiah said there had been a marked improvement in the health sector since the start of Vision 2030, which later saw the introduction of the Mawid and Sehhaty apps.
“In 2015, People used to struggle to book an appointment, but now any citizen can book an appointment via Mawid and Sehhaty applications,” he explained.