Foreign Policy | featured news

In the second of his two campaign appearances Wednesday, Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan sharpened his critique of President Obama's handling of the unfolding crises in Egypt and Libya.

Mitt Romney’s attempt to exploit the violent anti-U.S. demonstrations in Egypt and Libya to portray Obama as soft on America’s enemies backfired almost immediately, when it became clear the statement from the US Embassy in Cairo he had cited was issued before the demonstrations began.

Mitt Romney got the capital of Libya wrong in his opportunistic statement this morning criticizing the President about his handling of the attacks against the US embassy in Cairo and the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

Mitt Romney's sharply-worded attack on President Obama over a pair of deadly riots in Muslim countries last night has backfired badly among foreign policy hands of both parties, who cast it as hasty and off-key, released before the facts were clear at what has become a moment of tragedy.

Mitt Romney took up the cudgels again against Russia on Monday, telling a radio interviewer that “almost everything we try to do globally, they try and oppose.”

President Obama, seeking to quell a storm of criticism from Republicans and pro-Israel groups, directed the Democratic Party on Wednesday to amend its platform to restore language declaring Jerusalem the Israeli capital.

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is in Beijing to press Chinese authorities to agree to peacefully resolve disputes with their smaller neighbors over competing territorial claims in the South China Sea.

Some of Mr. Romney’s most provocative language — calling Russia the nation’s pre-eminent foe, promising a virtual trade war with China and rattling sabers for a possible strike on Iran — seems calculated at least in part to appeal to conservatives eager for a more muscular policy. Mr. Romney will surely feel compelled by his own campaign language to enact tougher policies than Mr. Obama in those areas once in office, and conservatives have made clear they will hold him to his words.

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the voice of the United States in world affairs "has been muted" under President Barack Obama, creating a chaotic and dangerous security environment.

President Obama’s warning to Syria that the use of chemical weapons would cross a “red line” for the administration drew criticism Tuesday, with experts saying that the remark could provide President Bashar al-Assad cover to continue battling the opposition with tanks, warplanes and other conventional weaponry.