George Packer writes in the "Comment" column of the New Yorker: "the perception has been established: this Administration will devote its energy to repairing relations with foreign governments, and will not risk them for the sake of human rights. Where the stakes are low, as in the West African nation of Guinea, the Administration speaks out against atrocities, with positive effect; but where there's a strategic interest, as in Ethiopia, which has jailed dozens of journalists and opposition politicians, the policy is mainly accommodation." In Egypt, for example, "the U.S. has reduced funding for programs that support local democracy activists, and, at Cairo's insistence, has cut most aid for civil-society organizations (such as independent election monitors) that are not officially registered—that is, groups that aren't tools of the regime."
We realize this is far afield from our usual subject matter here at the FutureOfCapitalism, but it struck us as newsworthy in terms of the American political climate in which Mr. Obama operates.