Georgie Anne Geyer
Articles by Georgie Anne Geyer
GEYER: Pakistan teeters on edge of war
"The Swat Valley taken over ... The Taliban is 60 miles outside of Islamabad ... The whole Punjab could go." Published April 25, 2009
GEYER: Open up, but keep cool on Cuba
At a small dinner in a downtown restaurant just before Easter, we were discussing where our country was going, when a friend who has served for years in Republican administrations suddenly began speaking about the one area of the world that nobody pays any attention to. Published April 18, 2009
GEYER: Ancient strategies lead growth
In 1983, a long quarter-century ago, I made my first trip to China and found a country barely emerging from ancient days. Published April 11, 2009
GEYER: ‘Anchoring institution’
Thirty years ago, I found myself on a NATO tour for American journalists in West Germany and, through a throw of the dice, I was chosen to go on a helicopter ride over East Germany. Wow! At least I could say I had been over, if not in, the forbidden communist kingdom. Published April 4, 2009
GEYER: War comes closer to home
Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. shocked people by saying before the inauguration that an Obama presidency would be "tested" within six months, and all eyes turned to the Middle East and to the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan. President Obama soon duly sent 17,000 additional American soldiers to Afghanistan to turn the tide. Published March 29, 2009
GEYER: Outlaws vs. stability
In the mid-1980s, while covering most of the developing world, I began to realize something was happening that seemed, at least at the time, counter to the common wisdom. Published March 28, 2009
GEYER: Time for righteous anger
They tell us we are being very, very good. The pollsters report you and I are now finally saving more than we did before our economic meltdown (and congratulations to us!). Published March 10, 2009
GEYER: Afghanistan abstracts
In recent days, I have listened to some of our best analysts and military leaders expound on the war in Afghanistan, now 8 long years old and a war one might rationally suppose would eventually face some resolution. Published March 5, 2009
GEYER: Preaching vs. pragmatism
A curious juxtaposition of styles between two of President Obama's closest compatriots could tell us a great deal about where the nation is heading: Eric Holder has reverted to the old Bill Clinton style of ideological pronouncement-as-policy while Hillary Clinton has instead dropped the Clinton administration's mantra and adopted a policy position of pragmatism and self-interest (and, in this particular case, that ain't easy!). Published February 28, 2009
GEYER: Death of a humanitarian
For humanitarian workers and foreign correspondents, one of the greatest fears is that they will survive wars, revolutions, civil conflicts, dictatorships, floods, tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanoes - and then come home and die in a car crash. Published February 19, 2009
GEYER: Trouble with Kyrgyzstan
If you haven't ever heard of Kyrgyzstan, the pivot of our newest foreign policy problem, don't feel embarrassed - most Americans have not. Published February 14, 2009
GEYER: One-state solution hints
Exactly 40 years ago this year, I went to the Middle East for the first time, and I was easily, and not surprisingly, as enchanted with the sloe-eyed beauty of the region as I was with its hopelessness. Published February 4, 2009
GEYER: Time for diplomacy
Five years ago, while traveling in Africa, I found myself in Kampala, the capital of the agriculturally rich but historically troubled country of Uganda, riding in the cab of a particularly able local taxi driver. Published January 29, 2009
GEYER: Recapturing the past
Among religious people and others, there was a lingering, evocative sense here in the nation's capital over the last few days of this Inaugural that great leaders are often "sent" in difficult times to answer a people's prayers -- and that this may well be happening to America now. Published January 24, 2009
GEYER: Mideast diplomacy
As Gaza continues to explode, every day offering up handfuls of unfathomable new dangers, one of our finest specialists on the Middle East outlined for the new administration a provocative new strategical approach to the region. Published January 16, 2009
GEYER: Change stirring in Cuba
World history is filled with dramatic, often heartbreaking and occasionally redemptive stories of great marches. Published January 8, 2009
GEYER: Parting thoughts
Nobody knew exactly what Julius Caesar thought as he "left office" - the assassination was too swift! People are still speculating as to what John F. Kennedy was really thinking. One favorite topic of political discussion still bandied about is whether the adored president would have gotten us out of Vietnam quickly. Published January 1, 2009
GEYER: An unfamiliar Christmas spirit
What a strange and somehow discombobulated Christmas. Spiritually, the Christian faith tells believers that we are to celebrate the birth of the peaceable Christ child. But on the day-to-day level, we live in a world that is falling apart, beset by immorality. Published December 25, 2008
GEYER: ‘Forgotten’ war awaits
By all accounts, President-elect Obama will be sworn into office on Jan. 20, swearing himself to transform the country. His words, his appointments and his actions all arrive, carried upon a cleansing wind that the American people hunger for. Published December 22, 2008
GEYER: Undermining newspapers
The next time someone tells me, and it is usually smugly, that he or she "reads news only on the Internet," I may just take a slug at the miscreant. People like this seem to think it is all quite amusing. Probably, such people also think the financial collapse that the country is undergoing is amusing. Why on Earth can it be that I do not? Published December 20, 2008
