Good Ship USA – a remembrance of Ambassador Shirley Temple Black

I’m a Shirley Temple fan. Not a big fan of her movies; they seemed more suited for my sister. I’m a fan of her diplomacy in Czechoslovakia. I was a Newsweek reporter living in Prague between the 1989 “Velvet Revolution” and 1991 when I saw up close how Ambassador Shirley Temple Black worked it. That’s how I became a fan. (Disclosure: I like ambassadors, my wife was U.S. ambassador to Hungary 2010-13.)

America has had many notable diplomats dealing with Czechoslovakia, or the more modern Czech Republic, a country split from Slovakia in 1993 following a “Velvet Divorce.”

But Shirley Temple Black’s watch came at a seminal moment in modern Czechoslovak history and she was, perhaps unexpectedly, the right person at the right time. (read more)

Hoffman, heroin and the war in Afghanistan

In the movie “Charlie Wilson’s War,” Philip Seymour Hoffman played a CIA officer determined to help Afghans win back their country from occupying Soviets in the 1980s. The helicopter-killing missiles that Hoffman’s character promoted for mujahedeen fighters – and procured with Charlie Wilson’s congressional support – were decisive in turning the tide against the Soviet Red Army.

Francois Duhamel/

Philip Seymour Hoffman played a CIA agent in “Charlie Wilson’s War,” about covert operations in Afghanistan, where most of the world’s heroin is produced.

But there is a cruel twist of ironic fate in the drug-addicted Hoffman’s recent heroin overdose death. Most of the world’s heroin – about 80 percent – is currently produced in the country where the United States has fought its longest war: Afghanistan. (read more) 

The reality about water and the rest of the world

A decade ago, I would represent Gov. Gray Davis at some Sacramento meetings with international dignitaries when the governor was out of town. In my role as vice chairman of the California State World Trade Commission, I once met with a young African prime minister at a business hotel near the majestically flowing Sacramento River. As per protocol, I asked what California could offer the prime minister’s country, Cape Verde, in terms of trade and commerce. His response that evening still takes me aback.

Were Capo Verdians interested in Silicon Valley technology? How about introductions to the entertainment industry, where his country’s Cesaria Evora sang and swayed her way to international success? Surely, increased educational opportunities and exchanges for their youth must be of interest? Prime Minister José Maria Neves looked me in the eye intently. His answer in Portuguese was unequivocal and needed no interpretation:

"Agua"

(read more)

Dennis Rodman and sports diplomacy gone awry

HE can still dunk like a butterfly, but in the personally tragic case of former basketball pro Dennis Rodman in North Korea, the embrace of Kim Jong Un and his policies sting like a bee. Rodman is the most recent example of sports diplomacy gone awry. With the Sochi Olympics starting, a new cadre of unpredictable athlete diplomats will likely take the stage.

It is a time-honored tradition to use athletes as diplomats. They are some of the most recognizable global personages whose participation can lead to substantial bilateral benefits. In the 1970s, for example, U.S. President Nixon successfully promoted a team of American pingpong players to open up a dialogue with Mao Zedong’s China.

When sports diplomacy goes wrong, however, it can go very wrong. (read more)

Bring Edward Snowden home

Regardless of whether Americans consider Edward Snowden a hero or a traitor, anyone concerned with the national security of the United States should want one thing: to get him back. 

How to get him back is fraught with unsavory compromises and unfortunate consequences, but he is more valuable to the United States in the United States than he is running around elsewhere. America needs him back both to stop the leaking of secrets and to understand fully the potential damage caused by his NSA revelations. (read more)

Associated Press

Snowden, capital punishment and why the West won't get him back

The heated debate surrounding NSA leaker Edward Snowden usually revolves around two extreme positions: Some consider him a hero and a whistle-blower worthy of clemency, while others consider his acts treasonous and believe he should be subject to the harshest punishment in our penal system.

Ironically, that very same penal system makes getting Snowden back to the United States nearly impossible.

The reason? The punishment meted to traitors can include death. And nearly all our allied nations and many others refuse to extradite criminal suspects to the United States if they are potentially subjected to capital punishment.

Which is why in the case of Snowden, Attorney General Eric Holder wrote a letter to the Russian Justice Minister last year saying that he would not seek the death penalty in his case. The letter, which accused Snowden of theft and espionage, was intended to erase the death penalty extradition hindrance. Holder went on to clarify that “the United States would not seek the death penalty even if Mr. Snowden were charged with additional death penalty-eligible crimes.” (read more)