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Potomac Institute for Policy Studies Senior Fellow Amb. David Smith says friendly overtures from the US and EU toward Georgia bear watching. In a recent issue of the Georgian publication 24 Saati, he notes that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and European Union High Representative Catherine Ashton have all visited Georgia in recent weeks and professed their support. Amb. Smith writes that western nations have security and energy interests in the region, at the same time that quiet skepticism may be growing about Russia's motives. "In contrast," he writes, "Georgia is looking better." But how far will western nations go to back up their newfound friend if Russia decides to intervene? Click below to read the article in full.
Potomac Institute for Policy Studies Senior Fellow David Smith writes in a recent issue of the Georgian publication Tabula about deadly bombings carried out against Ugandan fans gathered to watch the World Cup. Amb. Smith writes that the terrorist group that claimed responsibility, Somalia's Al Shabab, is not only a product of the failed Somalian state but also shows signs of becoming increasingly radical and violent. "In some senses, Afghanistan has come to East Africa," writes Amb. Smith, who warns that the international community must carefully calibrate its response. Click below to read the article in full.
Potomac Institute for Policy Studies Senior Fellow Tevi Troy, PhD, is a former deputy secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services. In a recent article for Politico, he scrutinizes the Obama administration's reaction to the BP oil spill - and argues that too many layers of bureaucracy are muddling both the response to the disaster and subsequent investigations into how it happened. Writes Dr. Troy, "The problem is that if everyone is responsible for the response, ultimately, no one is." Click here to read the article in full.
A Discussion Forum, "Intelligence Management and Oversight: How Are We Doing?" at the Institute on July 26 posed provocative questions about challenges facing the intelligence community, especially in the current "culture of disclosure" represented by the WikiLeaks case. The program was presented by the Advanced Technical Intelligence Association in conjunction with the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies and the Intelligence and National Security Association, and featured guest speaker Rep. Mike Rogers of Michigan. Click here to watch C-SPAN's coverage of the program in full.
James Barnett is a retired Navy rear admiral and a Senior Research Fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies. He is currently serving as Chief of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission. In a recent op-ed for Radio Resource Magazine, he writes that nearly nine years after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, we still haven't developed an acceptable level of interoperability for public-safety communications. Now, RDML Barnett writes that the FCC's new national broadband plan proposes a possible solution that is also affordable, but only if we act quickly. Says RDML Barnett, "We only have one brief chance to incorporate interoperability into a nationwide public-safety broadband network from the beginning of a new 4G technology rollout in America." Click here to read the full article.