D1. U.S. CONGRESS, SYRIA ACCOUNTABILITY AND LEBANESE SOVEREIGNTY RESTORATION ACT (PL 108-175), WASHINGTON, 12 DECEMBER 2003.

2004 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 176-182

The measure, which calls for Syria to cease providing support and safe haven to ““terrorist organizations”” and to ““let Lebanon be ruled by the Lebanese people without the presence of [the Syrian] occupation army,”” was one of several put forward by Congress in April 2002 to support Israel and to isolate the Palestinians in the wake of Operation Defensive Shield and other major Israeli operations against the occupied territories (see Quarterly update in JPS 124). Work on the bill was suspended, however, at President Bush's request so as not to ““complicate or even undermine”” efforts to promote an Israeli-Syrian agreement. Following the U.S.-led war on Iraq, the bill was revived in April 2003, with the White House subsequently quietly informing Congress that it would no longer oppose it; Congress rushed to resume debate immediately after Israel's 5 October 2003 air strike on an alleged Palestinian training camp in Syria. The final draft was approved on 15 October by the House (398-4) and on 11 November by the Senate (89-4), and signed into law by Bush on 12 December 2003. Although the act allows the president to waive sanctions on security grounds, Bush informed Congress on 12 February 2004 of his intention to impose sanctions soon. At press time, the administration was reportedly trying to fashion a sanctions package that would be harsh enough to demonstrate resolve to punish Syria, but not so harsh as to cause Damascus to suspend intelligence cooperation with the U.S. on al-Qa‘‘ida. The text is available on the Library of Congress Web site at thomas.loc.gov.

2021 ◽  
pp. 000276422110055
Author(s):  
Marçal Sintes-Olivella ◽  
Pere Franch ◽  
Elena Yeste-Piquer ◽  
Klaus Zilles

What is the opinion held by the European press on the U.S. election campaign and the candidates running for president? What are the predominant issues that attract the attention of European print media? Does Europe detest Donald Trump? The objective of the present study is to analyze the perception European commentators had of the 2020 race for the White House. The media, the audience, and European governments were captivated more than ever before by how the U.S. election campaign unfolded, fixing their gaze on the contest between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Through a combined quantitative and qualitative methodology, a combination of content analysis and the application of framing theory (hitherto scarcely applied to opinion pieces), our research centers on exploring the views, opinions, and analyses published in eight leading newspapers from four European countries (France, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom) as expressed in their editorials and opinion articles. This study observes how the televised presidential debates were commented on, interpreted, and assessed by commentators from the eight newspapers we selected. The goal was to identify the common issues and frames that affected European public opinion on the U.S. presidential campaign and the aspirants to the White House.


2013 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-191
Author(s):  
Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja

Abstract:While Africans are generally satisfied that a person of African descent was reelected to the White House following a campaign in which vicious and racist attacks were made against him, the U.S. Africa policy under President Barack Obama will continue to be guided by the strategic interests of the United States, which are not necessarily compatible with the popular aspirations for democracy, peace, and prosperity in Africa. Obama’s policy in the Great Lakes region provides an excellent illustration of this point. Since Rwanda and Uganda are Washington’s allies in the “war against terror” in Darfur and Somalia, respectively, the Obama administration has done little to stop Kigali and Kampala from destabilizing the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and looting its natural resources, either directly or through proxies. Rwanda and Uganda have even been included in an international oversight mechanism that is supposed to guide governance and security sector reforms in the DRC, but whose real objective is to facilitate Western access to the enormous natural wealth of the Congo and the Great Lakes region.


1998 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 8-13
Author(s):  
John F. Clark

Both continuity and change capture the evolving role of the Clinton White House in the formulation and implementation of U.S. foreign policy toward Africa. Elements of continuity are reflected in a familiar pattern of relationships between the White House and the principal foreign policy bureaucracies, most notably the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Department of Defense (Pentagon), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and more recently the U.S. Department of Commerce. As cogently argued in Peter J. Schraeder’s analysis of U.S. foreign policy toward Africa during the Cold War era, the White House has tended to take charge of U.S. African policies only in those relatively rare situations perceived as crises by the president and his closest advisors. In other, more routine situations—the hallmark of the myriad of U.S. African relations—the main foreign policy bureaucracies have been at the forefront of policy formulation, and “bureaucratic dominance” of the policymaking process has prevailed. Much the same pattern is visible in the Clinton administration, with the exception of President Clinton’s trip to Africa in 1998. Until that time, events in Somalia in 1993 served as the only true African crisis of the administration that was capable of focusing the ongoing attention of President Clinton and his closest advisors. Given that the United States is now disengaged from most African crises, Africa has remained a “backwater” for the White House and the wider foreign policymaking establishment.


2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
David Belt

Why, in the aftermath of 9/11, did a segment of the U.S. popular security experts, political elite, media, and other institutions classify not just al-Qaeda but Islam itself as a security threat, thereby countering the prevailing professional consensus and White House policy that maintained a distinction between terrorism and Islam?Why did this “politically incorrect” or counternarrative expand and degenerate into a scare over the country’s “Islamization” by its tiny Muslim population? Why is this security myth so convincing that legislators in two dozen states introduced bills to prevent the Shariah’s spread and a Republican presidential front-runner exclaimed:“I believe Shariah is a mortal threat to the survival of freedom in the United States and in the world as we know it”? This analysis offers a framework that conceptualizes popular discourses as highly interested fields of political struggle, deepens the prevailing characterization of this part of the U.S. popular discourse as “Islamophobia,” and analyzes how it has functioned politically at the domestic level. Specifically, it examines how a part of the conservative elite and institutions, political entrepreneurs already involved in the ongoing culture wars, seized upon Islam in the emotion-laden wake of 9/11 as another opportune site to advance their struggle against their domestic political opponents, “the Left,” and the more progressive societal institutions and culture in general.


2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 179-225
Author(s):  
Paul Karolyi

Published annually, the Congressional Monitor summarizes the bills and resolutions pertinent to Palestine, Israel, or the broader Arab-Israeli conflict that were introduced during the previous session of Congress. The Monitor identifies major legislative themes related to the Palestine issue as well as initiators of specific legislation, their priorities, the range of their concerns, and their attitudes toward regional actors. It is part of a wider project of the Institute for Palestine Studies that includes the Congressional Monitor Database at congressionalmonitor.org. The database contains all relevant legislation from 2001 to the present (the 107th through the 114th Congresses) and is updated on an ongoing basis. Material in this compilation is drawn from congress.gov, the official legislative site of the Library of Congress, which includes a detailed primer on the U.S. legislative process titled “How Our Laws Are Made.”


Author(s):  
Adrian Miller

This chapter itemizes and elaborates on four different component parts (described in the book as "ingredients") that make-up presidential foodways. The first ingredient relates to the president: his or her palate, food philosophy, schedule, wealth and prerogative. The second ingredient involves the people who surround the president: the First Lady, the president's physician, and those who procure food for the White House. The third ingredient is White House culture: the workspace, kitchen equipment and technology, co-workers, perks, presidential pets, wildlife in and outside of the White House and racial attitudes. The fourth ingredient is the unexpected influences: the U.S. Congress, public perception, food gifts from the public, and the climate in Washington, D.C. The chapter includes recipes for roast ducks, popovers (a quick bread), and sweet potato cheesecake.


Author(s):  
Theresa Keeley

This chapter examines the murders of the churchwomen and how Reagan officials' critiques, which revealed that intra-Catholic conflict had become an integral part of United States–Central America policy with Reagan's ascension to the White House. It looks at remarks that bolster the Salvadoran junta's reputation or diminish the murders' impact on the protest movement against U.S. policy. It also discusses that the murdered churchwomen symbolized the church's championing of the poor and a U.S. foreign policy that was morally corrupt and politically unsound for training and arming their killers. The chapter cites that two murdered Maryknollers were members of a Catholic order and represented a dangerous trajectory for U.S. foreign policy and the church. It elaborates how the U.S. government aligned with conservative U.S. and Central American Catholics and amplified their perspective.


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