Despite all the fanfare around Obama’s trip to China, he failed to make any headway with the country in securing support for serious emissions targets, says Steve Clemons. As a result, Copenhagen is now dead.
Diplomacy
China fails to fall in love with Obama
US President Barack Obama is on a diplomatic visit to China, but is struggling to win the country’s citizens over with his usually irresistible charms. Perhaps it’s because he’s being kept on a tight leash and well away from the media spotlight.
Stop sucking up to Israel, America
Israel is spoiled, arrogant and condescending country, says Gideon Levy, and it will continue to behave like one until the US stops flattering and fawning all over it. Washington needs to learn to say “no”.
rumour 
White House and Fox News call a truce
According to a “very reliable source”, Fox News SVP Michael Clemente and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs have met to bury the hatchet over on their recent spat. Aww, just when it was getting good!
How Clinton convinced Karzai to cave
Negotiations with Afghani President Hamid Karzai to enter into a runoff election have been underway for months, but according to the Times, it was a telephone call three days ago from Hillary Clinton that finally saw him relent.
Has the US agreed to stop criticising Russia’s human rights abuses?
According to Russian newspaper Kommersant, the White House has agreed to stop mentioning Russia’s shabby human rights record, and ease up on the “democracy” evangalising, in return for better relations with the country.
Turkey and Armenia kiss and make up (just don’t mention the genocide)
Armenia and Turkey have ended almost a century of mutual hatred, signing a peace deal that will see them open their borders to each other. But the two countries went immediately back to squabbling again. One step forward, two steps back?
Unlike Bush, Obama gives Dalai Lama the cold shoulder
They used to be BFFs, but worried about upsetting China, US President Obama has now put off meeting with exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama, drawing criticism from both sides of politics. Even Dubbya didn’t risk that kind of bad karma.
Are we over-reacting on Iran?
The West must stop exaggerating the Iranian threat, says Newsweek editor Fareed Zakaria: the Middle East has had nuclear weapons for decades, and the world hasn’t ended yet. There’s no need to go in with all guns blazing.
My dinner with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
He’s possibly the world’s most hated man — and The Guardian’s Stephen Kinzer just broke bread with him. So what does a table of journos and diplomats discuss with Iran’s embattled leader? Not the Holocaust, for one.
Hillary’s secret conference on Iran
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently held a secure video conference to discuss Iran with 20 State Department officials from around the world. Foreign Policy dishes the inside dirt.
Clinton just another pawn in North Korea’s nuclear game?
Bill Clinton’s sudden swoop in to North Korea to rescue a pair of US journalists may seem like a victory for diplomacy, freedom and the American Way, but for North Korea, it was simply a successful propaganda project — and the US played right into its hands, says John R. Bolton.
Let’s invite China to the space party
China has spaceships, scientific know-how, money and man-power. Could bringing them into orbit with the US’s space program build a base for better relations between the two countries?
Rudd’s China headache
Kevin Rudd is facing his first big diplomatic crisis, and unfortunately for him, it’s with his BFF, China. But it’s a situation entirely of his own making, says Tory Maguire.
So much for a Mandarin-speaking PM
Rudd has tried to dismiss the boiling diplomatic issue of Australian Stern Hu’s ongoing detention in China as “a consular case”. As if, says Jennifer Hewett: “This is a full-blown, fast-moving crisis.”
Crikey Says: A few words on diplomacy with China
A Chinese proverb for Kevin Rudd: A rat who gnaws at a cat’s tail invites destruction.
Guy Rundle: How the US is brewing imperialism with disengagement
Media around the world have been screaming that Biden had given the green light for an attack on Iran in his interview on ‘This Week’ with George Stephanopolous.
New trouble flares between Iran and Britain
Tensions have flared between Iran and Britain, with the arrest of local British embassy staff in Iran. But this is just the latest stoush in an ongoing history of aggression and mistrust between the two countries, says Ian Black.
Who’s willing to talk with North Korea?
With two US journalists facing 12 years in North Korean labour camps, someone needs to start talking to the reclusive dictatorship. Enter Bill Richardson, Al Gore and Jesse Jackson.
Speaking the language of diplomacy
If only a quarter of our diplomats speak a language other than English, it is hard to see how our diplomatic service is being as effective as it could be, says Andrew Bartlett.
Mungo: Rudd’s world tour is no junket
No one could seriously consider Kevin Rudd’s 17 day trip to America, Europe and Japan as a junket, and no one has criticised it as one, writes Mungo MacCallum.
Crikey Says: Crikey Says
We are talking here about the rotating 10 elected seats on the Security Council. Which is to say that in five years time we might be taking the seat recently vacated by Michel Kafando, the ambassador from Burkina Faso.
