"What we need is a multi-pronged, explicit strategy that employs all of the elements of our national power and our allies, and that ties together multiple lines of operation, including direct diplomacy with the Iranians, into a coherent plan of action for the months ahead that has goals and schedules and teeth,"

VOA: standard.2009.04.28

As Afghanistan has shown, it can (and often should) be unilateralist in military matters, but it needs a more co-operative, even consensual approach for other purposes, including diplomacy, intelligence-gathering, financial tracking and above all in the battle for hearts, minds and ideas.

ECONOMIST: Fighting terrorism

From all this, a new realism is likely to emerge, including tougher diplomacy on both sides.

ECONOMIST: Brazil's affair with China is going off the boil

First, Congress controls the federal government's purse strings, including for diplomacy and the armed services, so foreign policy is in fact part of the job description.

ECONOMIST: Peter Galbraith��s smaller stage