Yesterday, the USGLC was on the road in South Carolina hosting a forum in Columbia with Governor Mike Huckabee on why development and diplomacy are so critical to our economy and our values as a nation.  Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich stopped by the event, with both Fox News and CNN covering the event and his remarks live.

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USGLC in the News

Gingrich touts rebuilding U.S. manufacturing (Adam Beam, The State)

Newt Gingrich said Wednesday that he wants Walmarts in China to sell goods that were made in America, and he says South Carolina can make that happen. Speaking at a foreign policy forum at the Columbia Hilton, Gingrich said one of his goals is to “develop natural gas offshore from South Carolina to develop jobs here and free us from the Middle East.” The foreign policy forum was organized by the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition and the University of South Carolina. It featured a keynote address from former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, the Fox News host who finished second in the 2008 SC Republican primary.

Huckabee, Gingrich attend foreign policy forum (Zoheb Hassanali, Midlands Connect)

South Carolina business, military, faith, and non-profit leaders came to Columbia for a foreign policy summit on Tuesday. Among the topics discussed at the forum were America’s role in the world as well as the importance of defense, diplomacy, and development in regards to other nations. The keynote speakers included former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who encouraged guests to help under developed countries, and Presidential Candidate Newt Gingrich.

Who’s in the News

Rice: Sudan is deliberately preventing aid to civilians affected by crisis and near-famine (Colum Lynch, Turtle Bay)

Susan Rice, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, warned the U.N. Security Council that Sudan’s restive South Kordofan region faces the prospects of famine if Khartoum does not allow international aid workers into the region to provide relief to more than 500,000 needy civilians.  “It is the United States’ firm belief that, if the government of Sudan does not allow immediate meaningful humanitarian access to the conflict zones in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile so life saving humanitarian assistance can be provided to civilians in need, we will likely see famine conditions in parts of Sudan,” Rice wrote in a letter to the president of the U.N. Security Council.

Smart Power

Not Time to Attack Iran: Why War should be a Last Resort (Colin H. Kahl, Foreign Affairs)

Some will undoubtedly claim that highlighting the potential risks associated with war will lead the Iranians to conclude that the United States lacks the resolve to use force. As Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told CNN late last December, the United States has a viable contingency plan for Iran if force is ultimately required. But given the high costs and inherent uncertainties of a strike, the United States should not rush to use force until all other options have been exhausted and the Iranian threat is not just growing but imminent. Until then, force is, and should remain, a last resort, not a first choice.

Politics/Foreign Policy

Clinton on democracy push in West Africa (Josh Rogin, The Cable)

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is on a trip to West Africa this week to promote and encourage new African democracies, while two of her top aides fan out to two countries where democracy is teetering — Russia and Afghanistan.  “2011 was a good year for democracy in West Africa, as it was for many places across Africa,” a senior administration official told reporters on the plane ride to Liberia on Sunday, the first stop before Clinton moved on to Cote d’Ivoire, Togo, and Cape Verde.  “The administration, since it has been in office, has placed a high priority on strengthening democratic institutions, promoting good governance, holding good, free, fair elections, and encouraging conflict reconciliation and post-conflict reconciliation and reconstruction. This trip is about all of those agendas and trying to promote them,” the official said. “All three of the countries that we are visiting are countries that are now a part of Africa’s democratic success story.”

Yemeni Official Suggests Delay in Presidential Vote (Kareem Fahim, New York Times)

Adding to fears of a worsening political crisis in Yemen, a top government official hinted at a possible delay in presidential elections set for February that would mark the formal end of President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s 33-year rule.  During an interview broadcast Tuesday on Al Arabiya, Yemen’s foreign minister, Abu Bakr al-Qirbi, said it would be “difficult” to hold the elections on Feb. 21 as planned because security in the country was deteriorating. The elections are a condition of a power-transfer deal that Mr. Saleh signed in November, and Yemeni officials have called them a critical step toward ending the crisis.