Word: year
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...This strategy is a conscious rejection of the Bush Administration's approach, which was never big on deference. The challenge for the President is that with almost a year in office, he has little to show for his global charm campaign beyond a Nobel Prize, soaring international poll approval and the promise of many more diplomatic dialogues to come. As Obama's foreign policy ambitions move beyond the introductory phase, harder questions are coming to the fore: When does politeness lapse into passivity? When does seeking common ground erode the soil that anchors American priorities...
...terms of definitive progress, the Obama Administration will end the year having made little more headway than its predecessor: there will be no international climate pact this year, and the deadline for a nuclear-arms deal with Russia will slip into 2010. China offered no concessions on key issues like trade imbalances and human rights. (In fact, its authoritarian government prepped for Obama's arrival by detaining still more dissidents.) Elsewhere in the world, North Korea remains defiant, and Israel - spurning Obama's requests - has announced further settlement expansion. (See pictures of life in the settlements...
...Obama on whether the U.S. will increase troop levels in Afghanistan, the remaining British consensus on the issue is threatening to dissolve. Public support for Britain's contribution to the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan has curdled as the body count of British troops has spiraled, reaching 98 this year alone. An opinion poll taken earlier this month after an Afghan policeman shot dead five British soldiers at a checkpoint in Helmand province revealed that three-quarters of the British public want U.K. forces to withdraw within a year...
...Karzai launched into a lengthy speech promising a renewed commitment to peace and stability in Afghanistan. Sidestepping the issue of fraud that had marred the election, he instead praised the courageous Afghans who braved Taliban threats to vote and promised to strengthen democracy. By the end of his five-year term, Afghan security forces would be "capable of taking the lead in ensuring security and stability across the country," he said. Corruption and bribery, he announced, "constitute a very dangerous problem," one that he would combat through legal reform and the strengthening of anticorruption institutions in government...
Similarly, until she was appointed Britain's European Commissioner last year, only hardened London politicos were familiar with Baroness Catherine Ashton's name. But she is now the E.U.'s Foreign Minister-designate, with the unwieldy title of High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. (See the 10 greatest speeches of all time...