The Republican National Convention that wrapped up last night made two things clear: foreign policy will be at best a secondary theme in the GOP push to unseat President Barack Obama, and when the Romney campaign does turn to foreign policy, it will be heavy on criticism and light on specifics about its preferred policies. Read more »

The tension between an inward- and outward-looking Russia has been on sharp display this week. On the same day that Moscow slammed Western governments for criticizing the prison sentences given to the members of the oppositionist punk band, Pussy Riot, Russia formally became the 156^th member of the World Trade Organization. My colleague Anya Schmemann says the Obama administration is right to criticize the prison sentence and to press Congress to approve permanent normal trade relations with Russia. Read more »

The World Next Week podcast is up. Bob McMahon and I discussed Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi’s decision to cashier several generals; the impending expiration of the UN observer mission in Syria; World Humanitarian Day; and Russia joining the World Trade Organization (WTO). Read more »

CNN’s Jamie Crawford has a nice piece summarizing Paul Ryan’s foreign policy views. Besides offering a sense of some of the countries the GOP vice presidential nominee has visited in recent years, the post has a link to an interview that Ryan gave back in May to the Washington Examiner. Two of the questions dealt with foreign policy: Read more »

The weekend’s big news is that Mitt Romney picked Paul Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, to be his running mate.  Republicans are ecstatic over the choice. So are Democrats. One of the two is mistaken. Read more »

The World Next Week podcast is up. Robert McMahon gave up his seat this week so that Toni Johnson and I could discuss Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to Turkey; the Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) meeting in Mecca; the UN Clean Development Methodology Panel’s meeting in Bonn; and Puerto Rico’s referendum on its political status. Read more »

The World Next Week podcast is up. Bob McMahon and I discussed where things stand in Washington as Congress recesses for the summer; the continued violence in Syria; the 67^th anniversary of the Hiroshima atomic bombing; and the upcoming Mars landing of NASA’s rover, Curiosity. Read more »