UN Correspondent Tala Dowlatshahi will be attending a UN briefing on women and violence.
The Washington Bureau will be covering a discussion on “Voices of America: U.S. Public Diplomacy for the 21st Century” at the Brookings Institution, a discussion on “World Energy Outlook: Energy Projections to 2030,” a news conference by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group to release its 23rd annual toy safety report, and a conference call on how President-elect Obama can improve the domestic HIV/AIDS situation.

Joy Phumaphi, Vice President for Human Development at the World Bank, says that while economic improvements in poorer countries have been made, the global financial crisis puts those improvements in danger. (0:31)

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The economic crisis has led to 100 million more people starving worldwide according to David Beckman, President of the Bread for the World Institute. In addition to that, Joy Phumahi, Vice President for Human Development at the World Bank said that 44 million more people are suffering from malnutrition as a result of the worldwide financial crisis.
At a presentation held by the Bread for the World Institute, Phumaphi said “all countries are in harm’s way.” In order to try and help global poverty and hunger, Phumaphi felt the U.S. must financially assist in improving health, agriculture, and infrastructure. She also stated that the U.S. must invest in better education abroad. Phumaphi noted that children leaving school as a result of the financial crisis “rarely return to the classroom.” She did acknowledge that there had been positives in poverty globally, especially in Africa, but this crisis had left those improvements “at risk.”
Ken Hackett, President of Catholic Relief Services, said that any foreign assistance should be done in the interest of the poor. He also claimed that foreign assistance has become too “fragmented,” and collaboration should be a priority in improving foreign assistance. He also felt it is “critical” that civil society agencies be used to help assist government in providing relief to poverty-stricken communities globally.
In a report released by the Bread for the World Institute, the institute states U.S. foreign assistance reform should include specific goals of poverty reduction worldwide, partnerships with countries receiving assistance to meet long-term goals, and closer coordination with other international donors worldwide.

In contrast to the American Presidential transition of power, Kathryn Stoner-Weiss argued that the transition of power from Russian President Putin to President Medvedev is not bringing any change at all. Weiss, associate director of research and senior research scholar at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University and former Title VIII supported scholar at the Kennan Institute, made this argument at a discussion on “Medvedev’s Challenges in Governing Putin’s Russia: What a New American President Should Know.”
With the current global economic crisis and Russia’s growing interest in economic development over security, Weiss advises President-Elect Obama to engage with Russian civil society and improve relations with Russia and their European allies.
Weiss said President Medvedev has always been working under Putin, and that Putin is clearly still running the country. Russia is currently proposing to extend the term of president from four years to six years for the next elected president, which Weiss believes opens the door for Putin to come back into office. Weiss argued that the causes of economic growth under Vladimir Putin were independent from the regime change after President Yeltsin, and that the corruption and drawback of freedoms actually worsened under Putin. Transparency International dropped Russia’s ranking by 26 places from last year, tying Russia with Syria and Kenya.
Weiss also believes Putin did not necessarily represent a democracy because he had high approval ratings. She said his high approval was the result of people conflating a leader with an era, and because Putin put restrictions and regulations on the media.

The Heritage Foundation hosted a discussion with Michael Medved about his thoughts on the major falsities surrounding America as developed in his book “The Ten Big Lies about America”. Medved focused on three of his ten lies beginning with the idea that the one solution for economic downturns is to respond with aggressive government programs. Medved singled-out FDR and the New Deal as a perfect example for failure in terms of economic recovery. He believes that the new Obama administration will not “waste a crisis” and will behave in an extremely Rooseveltian capacity.
The second lie Medved specified was that the United States is an imperialist power and a constant threat to world peace. The alleged past of isolationism and pacifism that is believed to have existed at some point in American history is a fabrication that “never existed”, said Medved. He continued to deny America’s imperialist tendencies by pointing out that Canada is still “allowed to exist” almost undefended against our borders.
The final lie believed to distort America’s political dialogue is that America is in a state of “irreversible moral decline.” Medved says that every generation since the inception of America has believed they were the worst generation in the history of the world. However, conservatives can be reassured and encouraged by the passing of legislation like California’s Proposition 8 that created an amendment to ban same-sex marriage in the state, as opposed to the discouragement they felt with the overwhelming support for Democrats.
No matter what, Medved called himself a “tremendous optimist even at the age of the dawn of Obama”. He encouraged the conservative tone of the discussion by invoking the memory of Bill Clinton’s 1992 election. A similar sense of hope and change was in the air at the turn of that election, and by 1994 the Republicans had gained more seats (55 in the House of Representatives) than had ever been gained before in one election. Medved says this brings hope to the Republican Party for the possibilities in 2010.

Robert Greenstein, Founder and Executive Director of the research organization The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said that based on unemployment predictions, the amount of people living in poverty may rise by 10.3 million. (0:18)

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Daniel Markey, senior fellow of India, Pakistan, and South Asia, says that recent discussions regarding a reconciliation between the Afghan government and the Taliban is unlikely (0:31).

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Stephen Biddle, Council of Foreign Relations (CFR) senior fellow of defense policy, believes that Afghanistan’s economy is too weak to create and maintain a security force large enough to protect the country (0:36).

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Robert Greenstein, Founder and Executive Director of the research organization The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, announced the center’s predictions on the recent economic crisis’ impact on poverty in the U.S.
“With unemployment projected to reach 9%, the number of people in poverty will rise by between 7.5 and 10.3 million. The number of poor children will increase by between 2.6 and 3.3 million,” said Greenstein during a telephone conference.
The center also predicted an increase in 4.5-6.3 million of those within “deep” poverty, wherein people live below half of the poverty line, marked at around 8,300 dollars a year for a family of three.
“The number of children living in deep poverty will rise between 1.5 and 2 million,” said Greenstein.
Greenstein warned that the center’s predictions may be too hopeful since the economic safety nets provided in previous recessions for the very poorest citizens have been eroded as a result of massive cuts in unemployment insurance and other assistance programs.
According to Greenstein, there are several steps that policy makers can take to mitigate these predictions.
“Helping struggling families is among the most effective stimulus measures that can be taken on a dollar for dollar basis because it [puts] resources in the hands of people who are most likely to spend all of those resources rather than saving them,” said Greenstein.

While Stephen Biddle, Council of Foreign Relations (CFR) senior fellow of defense policy, believes the situation in Afghanistan is better on the ground than it has been portrayed in the U.S., he holds concern over the country’s ability to achieve its long term goal of creating a large, sustainable Afghan security force capable of protecting the population and suffocating insurgency.
“That recipe would work if there was a plausible chance that the Afghan economy could support the kind of A security forces that will be necessary in order to secure the population and I can’t see how they will ever be able to do that,” said Biddle during a telephone CFR conference with Daniel Markey, senior fellow of India, Pakistan, and South Asia on the two senior fellows’ week-long visit to Afghanistan.
Biddle discussed the importance of maintaining peacekeeping forces in Iraq for a number of years, but also stated that in order to help Afghanistan there will need to be a future reallocation of resources
“In the long term, there’s going to have to be a resource swing from Iraq to Afghanistan in order to bring about success in Afghanistan given the limits that I see in the ability of the Afghan security forces to solve the problem themselves.”
According to Biddle, if the creation of the security force was funded by the international community during a war time scenario it would run the risk of establishing a half a million person security apparatus that could not be supported by Afghanistan or receive adequate international funding during peacetime, thus further threatening the stability of the country.
Biddle suggested using a large number of non Afghan troops to negotiate a long term power sharing strategy for the country that would eventually be enforced my smaller, local Afghan forces.
Markey discussed the influence of Pakistan in U.S. dealings in Iraq, claiming that relations between U.S. forces and Pakistan’s military was more positive than what has been reported recently. “In a number of important instances they have actually been able to coordinate fire with their Pakistani counterparts. They have essentially gotten calls from the Pakistani side identify militants that were getting ready to cross across the border,” said Markey.
Markey reported that recent discussion regarding a reconciliation between Moderate Taliban elements and the Afghan government is actually political maneuvering by Afghan President Hamid Karzai rather a realistic approach. “There was a desire by Karzai to push this in order to try and win greater unity within the Pashtun community to help him in his reelection bid,” said Markey.