As the United States moves forward this year with a new president, will the world's perceptions of this country change? With so many problems besetting the nation at home, will the Obama administration be successful at stepping up to the global challenges and improving the country's reputation abroad?
Already, President Obama is charting a new course of action for Iraq, closing Guantanamo, and working to improve the diplomacy toward the Middle East. From these changes, are attitudes toward America shifting?
Join panelists as they share their thoughts on America's foreign relations.
Bio
Carlos Felix Corona
Carlos Felix Corona is Consul General of Mexico. Corona works in Divisions of National Treaties and UN Political and Security Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Mexico City.
Gloria Duffy
Gloria Duffy is President and CEO of The Commonwealth Club of California.
Gloria Duffy previously served as US Special Coordinator for Cooperative Threat Reduction and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Clinton Administration. Her mission was to convince the countries of the former Soviet Union to give up their weapons of mass destruction, and to prevent the spread of their nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and material.
In years prior, she was the first Executive Director of Ploughshares Fund, a public charitable grant making foundation in San Francisco; Assistant Director of the Arms Control Association, a public interest group in Washington, DC; editor of Arms Control Today, and a resident consultant at the RAND Corporation.
A San Francisco native, Dr. Duffy holds M.A., M. Phil. and Ph.D. degrees in political science from Columbia University in New York, and an A.B. magna cum laude from Occidental College in Los Angeles. Gloria has also worked with the MacArthur Foundation in Chicago, and been a member of Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation since 1980.
H.E. Hesham el Nakib
Hesham el Nakib is Consul General of Egypt. Hesham el Nakib serves various posts at the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Hon Yasumasa Nagamine
Yasumasa Nagamine is Consul General Yasumasa Nagamine graduated from Tokyo University and joined Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1977. He graduated from Oxford University in 1980.
Mr. Nagamine has worked in the Asian Affairs Bureau, Treaties Bureau, European Affairs Bureau, North American Affairs Bureau and Foreign Policy Bureau. His overseas assignments have included the Embassies of Japan in Washington D.C., New Delhi and London. He began his tenure as the Consul General of Japan in San Francisco in September 2007.
Rolf Schuette
Rolf Schuette, the German Consul-General in San Francisco, has a long and distinguished career in the German diplomatic service, having served in Russia, in Israel, and at the United Nations, among other posts. He is also well known as a speaker on human rights issues.
He has worked extensively to promote German-Jewish dialogue and his publications include an important essay, "German-Jewish Relations, Today and Tomorrow," which was published by the American Jewish Committee in 2005.
Akiva Tor
Akiva Tor is Consul General of Israel in the Pacific Northwest. Tor is the previous World Jewish affairs advisor to the President of Israel.
Unfortunately the panel is misrepresented by counsels from BRIC countries (Brazil-Russia-India-China). Although not pure democracies, these country’s attitudes and opinions towards Obama’s presidency are vital for future collaborations on the most urgent global affairs including Iran, North Korea and Afghanistan. Other than that, it’s a very insightful discussion. In relation to it, here’s a great article summarizing the first 100 days of Obama’s foreign policy http://www.rferl.org/content/With_Fi...d/1618285.html
Obama seems to be popular all over the world during his honeymoon period. The test is to cautiously engage Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan and resolve the upcoming North Korean crises. Otherwise, his approval ratings among world community will drop soon enough.
Counsel General of Mexico doesn’t have any idea on what’s going on in other parts of the world besides Latin America. He came unprepared. Japanese provided some useful insights on learning from economic downturn.
member. 
