For years, American foreign policy strategists have articulated the importance of constructively engaging our allies around the world. According to a fascinating new study, this could be good politics as well.
In The Hill, pollster Mark Mellman reveals details of a new survey which shows that Americans, by a wide margin, prefer multilateral approaches to the most daunting foreign policy challenges facing the United States.
"With armed conflicts raging around the world, prevention is too important to be left in the hands of governments alone, senior United Nations officials told the press in New York today on the eve of a General Assembly debate on Secretary-General Kofi Annan's recent report on the issue.
NYT: "Secretary General Kofi Annan said Monday that the United Nations would mediate talks on the release of Israeli and Hezbollah prisoners.... Mr. Annan said the talks would be conducted discreetly, with the goal of setting up the "mechanism" to effect the release of prisoners from both sides, which he said he hoped would be the first step in more thorough-going talks involving Israel and Lebanon. He also said he would insist on control of the negotiation and no interference from outside."
"The Sudanese government has dramatically intensified the war in Darfur in a bid to finish off the tenacious, three-year-old rebellion before a U.N. peacekeeping force can deploy there, say analysts, rebels and officials from the African Union monitoring mission.... The U.N. Security Council last week approved a peacekeeping force of up to 22,500 that would take the place of the African Union troops, but Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has sought to block it from being deployed." More
"The United Nations strongly condemned the slaying of an international Red Cross driver in Darfur and demanded factions in the war-torn Sudanese region protect humanitarian workers." More
Also: New round of fighting is feared in Darfur - UN votes to send peacekeepers
BBC: "The UN's most senior humanitarian official has warned that Sudan's Darfur region faces a new humanitarian disaster owing to lack of security.
Jan Egeland spoke as the Security Council considered a US and UK plan to send 22,000 UN troops to Darfur."
"Repeating his earlier calls for an end to the fighting that erupted in the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) following Sunday's provisional election results, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has also called for all opposing forces to withdraw from the streets of Kinshasa.
In a statement issued by his spokesman, Mr. Annan underlined the "responsibility of President Joseph Kabila and Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba to resolve the situation through dialogue and peaceful means, and urges them to meet as quickly as possible to ease tensions." More
"The Sudanese Government seems to be determined to pursue a major military offensive in strife-torn Darfur, building up its armed forces in the region as the situation there deteriorates ... In a closed-door briefing, Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hedi Annabi also warned the Security Council that Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has reiterated his opposition to a United Nations peacekeeping force in Darfur and vowed that the Sudanese armed forces would fight any UN force dispatched to the region." [More]
![Lebanon.jpg](https://undispatchnew.wpengine.com/archives/Lebanon.jpg)
![Lebanon.jpg](https://undispatchnew.wpengine.com/archives/Lebanon.jpg)