U.S. senators, representatives, and staff meet with state winners from the Institute's 2003 National Peace Essay Contest on Capitol Hill.
2003 Winners' Week in D.C.
U.S. senators, representatives, and staff continue to meet with students on Capitol Hill. At the end of the day, students attend the Awards Banquet and the top three National winners are announced.Photo By Bill Fitz-Patrick
El 28 de julio, Venezuela celebró una de las elecciones más importantes de su historia. La oposición política del país, liderada por María Corina Machado, superó la desilusión popular, las divisiones políticas y un sistema electoral amañado para obtener una aplastante victoria para su candidato de unidad, Edmundo González Urrutia. Según un grupo de la sociedad civil, los cálculos «extrapolados de los recibos oficiales del conteo de votos» de una muestra representativa de centros de votación locales otorgan a González el 66% de los votos. La oposición venezolana respondió al momento con una inspirada campaña prodemocracia.
Después de meses de arduas negociaciones y diplomacia entre el régimen de Maduro, la oposición venezolana y la comunidad internacional, los venezolanos finalmente acudieron a las urnas en las elecciones presidenciales del país el pasado domingo. Las encuestas habían mostrado consistentemente al candidato opositor Edmundo González camino a una victoria aplastante, y los datos del día de la elección revelaron que los votantes estaban dispuestos a poner fin a más de una década de control de Nicolás Maduro sobre el país.
Earlier this month, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida made the surprise announcement that he would not seek another term. Although he was prime minister for less than four years, Kishida’s foreign policy legacy spans strategic and tactical advances in Japan’s defense and diplomatic posture. His approach represented both a continuation of and divergence from the legacy of his former boss, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, under whom Kishida acted as Japan’s longest-serving foreign minister. Although Kishida’s successes on foreign affairs were overshadowed by domestic political scandals involving his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), as well as lack-luster economic growth, he oversaw increases in Japan’s reputation and popularity in the region and globally, as well as the institutionalization of related partnership gains.
From their base in ungoverned stretches of Southeast Asia, international criminal networks are prowling the Internet, seeking to defraud victims around the world with sophisticated and psychologically devastating scams. Gangsters operating out of Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, relying on forced labor, have spread their tentacles through Asia, Africa and Latin America and increasingly within the United States, stripping gullible prey of at least $64 billion annually. Clearly, to eradicate such a global menace will require a coordinated international response. Even so, the United States is not internally powerless to confront this striking example of how conflict and corrupt governance in distant parts of the world can directly threaten Americans’ security and well-being.
On the sidelines of last month’s NATO summit, the United States and Germany announced that Washington will begin episodic deployments of long-range conventional capabilities to Germany. In 1987, the United States and Soviet Union agreed to eliminate these systems under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, but Russia’s violations led the United States to withdraw from the treaty in 2019. Three years later, Russia invaded Ukraine and has engaged in nuclear saber-rattling since then. Washington plans to deploy these systems to strengthen deterrence, but Moscow has criticized them.