The United States hosted the NATO Summit May 20-21, in Chicago, Illinois. President Barack Obama welcomed leaders from NATO member and partner nations to his hometown for the Summit of the world's most successful Alliance. At the NATO Summit, leaders discussed the next major phase of transition in Afghanistan as well as steps to ensure NATO has the capabilities necessary to meet the challenges of the 21st… more »
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More nations will participate in NATO's Chicago Summit than ever before. This Sunday and Monday, almost 60 nations, including over 30 NATO partners, will come together in Chicago. With the help of many of these partners, the Alliance will define an important milestone in its operation in Afghanistan, and consider how to address future security challenges together.
You probably know that NATO has 28 Allies who are bound to collective defense. What you might not know is that over 40 other countries work with NATO on a broad array of issues from counter-piracy, to energy security, counter-terrorism, promoting the role of women in peace and security, and more. These countries are not members of the Alliance, but have decided to work with NATO to promote international peace and security,… more »
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![Special Representative for Commercial and Business Affairs Lorraine Hariton meets Maltese Minister of Finance, Economy, and Investment Tonio Fenech in Malta, April 26, 2012. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2012_0507_matla_libya_m.jpg)
Against a backdrop of beautiful gardens and sunshine, I was honored to be welcomed by both Deputy Prime Minister Tonio Borg and Minister of Finance, Economy, and Investment Tonio Fenech when I arrived in Malta last week. I made the journey to discuss possible areas of cooperation between Malta and the United States with a view to commercial activity in North Africa, especially Libya.
Minister Fenech explained that, over the years, Malta has built an important relationship with Libya that cuts across all sectors. I learned the security situation in Libya continues to improve, and that investment and development opportunities exist. Both the U.S. and Maltese governments hope to build on this meeting to develop Malta's potential as a commercial engagement hub for North Africa.
Minister Fenech described the visit as the foundation stone for a Maltese-American… more »
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![Nobel Peace Prize winner and human rights activist Tawakkol Karman of Yemen speaks at City Hall in in Oslo, Norway Dec. 10, 2011. [AP File Photo]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2012_0504_karman_m.jpg)
Swarms of photographers surrounded a woman, blinding those near her with their flashes. Officials and journalists alike waited eagerly in a makeshift line to greet this woman who clearly was revered by those at the opening session for World Press Freedom Day in Tunis.
The woman at the center of this attention was Tawakkol Karman, was a 33 year old Yemeni journalist, known in her country as the mother of the revolution, and now known throughout the world as one of three women to share the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011. She has been in and out of jail, but still speaks out.
"We have risen for freedom of the press," she told a rapt audience from all over the world. "The young have sacrificed themselves while writing, filming and texting in alleys,… more »
Posted under: Near East and Asia
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![Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and First Lady Michelle Obama pose for a photo with the 2012 International Women of Courage Awards Ceremony winners: the Honorable Maryam Durani, Kandahar Provincial Council Member (Afghanistan); Major Pricilla de Oliveira Azevedo, police officer, Rio de Janeiro Military Police (Brazil); Zin Mar Aung, political activist and NGO co-founder (Burma); Jineth Bedoya Lima, investigative journalist (Colombia); Hana Elhebshi, architect and political activist (Libya); Aneesa Ahmed, gender-based violence (GBV) activist and former Deputy Minister of Women's Affairs (Maldives); Shad Begum, human rights activist and founder/executive director of Anjuman Behbood-e-Khawateen Talah (the Union of Women's Welfare) (Pakistan); Samar Badawi, political activist (Saudi Arabia); Hawa Abdallah Mohammed Salih, human rights activist (Sudan); and the Honorable Safak Pavey, Member of Parliament (Turkey), at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., on March 8, 2012. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2012_0309_IWOC_m.jpg)
This week's "Photo of the Week" comes to us from Michael Gross, who serves as the official photographer at the U.S. Department of State. In this photograph, Gross captures Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and First Lady Michelle Obama with the 2012 International Women of Courage Award winners: Maryam Durani, Kandahar Provincial Council Member (Afghanistan); Major Pricilla de Oliveira Azevedo, police officer, Rio de Janeiro Military Police (Brazil); Zin Mar Aung, political activist and NGO co-founder (Burma); Jineth Bedoya Lima, investigative journalist (Colombia); Hana Elhebshi, architect and political activist (Libya); Aneesa Ahmed, gender-based violence (GBV) activist and former Deputy Minister of Women's Affairs (Maldives); Shad Begum, human rights activist and founder/executive director of Anjuman Behbood-e-Khawateen Talah (the Union of Women's Welfare) (Pakistan);… more »
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While the 2011 Libyan uprising against the Qadhafi regime drew attention to the security challenge posed by at-risk conventional weapons, the conflict also resulted in large quantities of unexploded ordnance and landmines scattered throughout the Libyan countryside. In response, the United States has allocated $3 million to two international implementing partners: Mines Advisory Group (MAG) and the Swiss Foundation for Mine Action (FSD) to safeguard Libyan communities through emergency clearance of 1.5 tons of explosives from former battlegrounds and partnering with Libyan authorities to survey remaining ammunition… more »
Posted under: Near East and Asia
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![Flags of NATO members states seen in front of NATO headquarters, Brussels, June 11, 2009. [AP File]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2011_0307_nato_flags_m.jpg)
In early January, I had the opportunity to engage with European policy-makers and analysts in Brussels, Vilnius, and Copenhagen. Given President Obama's announcement of the new defense strategy guidelines on January 5, my visit provided an opportune moment to share U.S. perspectives on the state of the transatlantic alliance as well as policy objectives for the coming year. My central message was clear: three years into the Obama Administration, the strategic alignment between the United States and Europe has never been greater. This theme… more »
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Just as my Department of State colleagues witnessed the entrepreneurial spirit of the Arab Spring with Jordanian entrepreneurs in Washington, D.C., I experienced that same spirit energizing the halls of the Ryad Mogador Agdal in Marrakech, Morocco.
I recently participated in the second U.S.-Maghreb Entrepreneurship Conference, initially launched one year ago in Algeria just weeks before the uprisings in Tunisia that sparked the… more »
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![Attendees of the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship listen as President Barack Obama speaks, April 26, 2010, in Washington. [AP File Photo]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2012_0118_young_entrepeneurs_m.jpg)
In the midst of the political and economic revolutions and evolutions of the Arab Spring, there is a theme emerging. It isn't as popular to talk about as the power of social media for mobilization, and it hasn't received the same media coverage as the crowds in city squares across the Middle East and North Africa, but it's a vital part of what is happening in our world.
As venture capitalist Craig Hanson so aptly stated in the San Jose Mercury News, "Entrepreneurship is the next phase of the Arab Spring."
We talked about Craig's message a great deal yesterday when we hosted the 25 entrepreneurs from Jordan who accompanied His Majesty King Abdullah II on his visit to meet with President Obama this week. At a luncheon here at the State Department, we connected these… more »
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![Children play in a narrow alley in Tunis, Tunisia, March 14, 2011. [AP File Photo]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2012_0112_children_tunisia_m.jpg)
When I served as Political-Economic Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Tunisia in the late 1990s, noisy and crowded diplomatic events -- dinners, receptions, national day parties -- were the best place to meet with Tunisians who assumed that President Ben Ali's mukhabarat had bugged all offices. They believed the safety of the noise and crowds at diplomatic events protected candid conversations. But sometimes, even diplomatic receptions didn't work out as planned: one night, my wife and I hosted a reception at our residence in Gammarth, where a large number of human rights and civil society activists showed up, probably to the horror of the few Tunisian government officials who dared attend. At the end of the reception, the mukhabarat arrested a number of guests whom we had gathered in one location, inadvertently facilitating a crackdown.
Foreign diplomats cynically nicknamed… more »
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May 23: The State Department, through its office of the U.S.-Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), is pleased to announce $1.5 million in funding to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to support open governance and political participation in the Middle East and North Africa. more »
May 23: Today, Russia was invited to join the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) at a ceremony hosted by its parent body, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris. ã more »