NATIONAL SECURITY
Reestablishing American Power

In a major speech Wednesday at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington DC, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton described her vision of American diplomacy and how it fits into the Obama administration's approach to the use and maintenance of American power abroad. Clinton described the international agenda as "unforgiving," but said that "the same forces that compound our problems -- economic interdependence, open borders, and the speedy movement of information, capital, goods, services and people -- are also part of the solution." Reviewing the speech, The New Republic's Peter Scoblic wrote that "the difference between this approach and the previous administration's is stark. ... The secretary seemed to be saying that, despite the grave dangers we face -- indeed, because of the very character of those threats -- the emphasis in U.S. foreign policy today must be on cooperation rather than conflict."

ROBUST MULTILATERALISM: Though previews of the speech had predicted undertones of a Bush-era approach to national security, the speech itself described a vision of American power embedded within a robust system of multilateral institutions. Explaining her vision of "smart power" -- a concept described by Center for American Progress-affiliated scholar Suzanne Nossel in a 2004 article in Foreign Affairs as "a blend of principle and pragmatism" -- Clinton said, "It means the intelligent use of all means at our disposal, including our ability to convene and connect. It means our economic and military strength; our capacity for entrepreneurship and innovation." Back on July 10, Clinton announced that she would be launching "an effort to study the mission, posture and resourcing of the State Department and USAID every four years, called the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review," which is modeled on the Defense Department's Quadrennial Defense Review. Clinton said on Wednesday that the purpose of the new QDDR was to "explore how to effectively design, fund, and implement development and foreign assistance as part of a broader foreign policy."

ENGAGEMENT IS NOT OPEN-ENDED: A willingness to talk with adversaries is a key component of the Obama administration's foreign policy approach. Even though Clinton had previously criticized Obama's statements that he would be willing to sit down and deal with the Iranian regime, as his Secretary of State, she has embraced Obama's contention that engagement represents an assertion of American strength, rather than of weakness. Calling Iran's crackdown on demonstrators protesting Iran's recent elections "deplorable and unacceptable," Clinton said, "We know that refusing to deal with the Islamic Republic has not succeeded in altering the Iranian march toward a nuclear weapon, reducing Iranian support for terror, or improving Iran's treatment of its citizens." Clinton noted, however, that "we remain ready to engage with Iran, but the time for action is now. The opportunity will not remain open indefinitely."

THE PRESIDENT'S AGENDA: Clinton stressed that her vision of smart power fell within Obama's larger foreign policy vision. "President Obama," she said, "has led us to think outside the usual boundaries. He has launched a new era of engagement based on common interests, shared values, and mutual respect." As he made clear in his speech in Prague,  Obama has put "nuclear deterrence to the top of the national-security agenda" -- a reflection of his interest in nuclear issues going back to his university days. As shown in his speech to Moscow's New Economic School last month, Obama's perception of the Cold War, and the way it ended, involves robust and painstaking cooperation between governments and between peoples, rather than the simple exercise of power by one nation alone. As with Clinton's, it is a vision of foreign policy that puts people at the center.

Under the Radar

MILITARY -- ONE-THIRD OF VETERANS ENROLLED IN THE VA ARE DIAGNOSED WITH MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS: The New York Times reports that a new study by researchers at the San Francisco Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), "found that more than one-third of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who enrolled in the veterans health system after 2001 were diagnosed with a mental health problem, the most common being post-traumatic stress disorder and depression." The study also found that that these mental health problems became more likely the longer they were out of the service. The study's lead author, Dr. Karen Seal, cautioned that the results can't be "extrapolated to the roughly 1.6 million veterans who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan because about 60 percent of them were not receiving health care through the veterans system." As the Center for American Progress noted this past Memorial Day, only 53 percent of those suffering from PTSD or major depression have seen a physician. Active-duty soldiers are also facing difficulties. Earlier this year, the Army reported the highest number of suicides among its soldiers since it began tracking the rate 28 years ago. In fact, this past May, more soldiers killed themselves than died in combat and twice as many active-duty soldiers committed suicide in May than in April. The new VA/UCSF study comes out two months after President Obama acknowledged in a weekly address that "we, as a nation, have failed to live up" to "the responsibility" of serving America's veterans "as well as they serve all of us." During his Senate confirmation hearings, Secretary of Veteran Affairs Gen. Eric Shinseki (ret.) promised to make the VA a "21st-century organization" that meets the needs of a growing population of wounded veterans. Obama's 2010 budget for the VA emphasizes a Veteran-centric commitment by expanding services by 15.5 percent over 2009, the largest percentage increase for the VA requested by a president in more than 30 years.

Think Fast

Last night, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow debated her colleague Pat Buchanan on the role of affirmative action in the Supreme Court nomination of Sonia Sotomayor. When Maddow pointed out that 108 of 110 Supreme Court justices have been white, Buchanan responded, "White men were 100 percent of the people that wrote the Constitution, 100 percent of the people that signed the Declaration of Independence, 100 percent of the people who died at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, probably close to 100 percent of the people who died at Normandy. This has been a country built basically by white folks."

In his first speech before the NAACP since taking office, President Obama told the audience that, while "the pain of discrimination is still felt," there's "never been less." He also issued a challenge to African-Americans: "We've got to say to our children...you will face challenges [but]...that's not a reason to get bad grades, that's not a reason to cut class, that's not a reason to give up on your education and drop out of school."

Senators "friendly to labor" have decided to drop card-check, the central provision of a bill that would have made it easier for workers to organize simply by signing cards saying they wanted a union. Several "moderate Democrats opposed the card-check provision as undemocratic." Instead, "the revised bill would require shorter unionization campaigns and faster elections."

The House Ways and Means Committee passed a health care reform package that includes a robust public option. To pay for it, the plan includes a surtax on the wealthy. "We're very, very proud of what we've done," Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY) said. The American Medical Association has endorsed the plan.

"The American Conservative Union asked FedEx for a $2 million check in return for the group's endorsement in a bitter legislative dispute, then flipped and sided with UPS after FedEx refused to pay," Politico reports. After FedEx turned down the offer, ACU signed on to a letter supporting UPS's position on legislation that would have FedEx "negotiate union contracts for individual locations."