September 30,2010
spread 9
ries toward foreign nations
dipiomacy, humanitarian issues
Iran
Leader: President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
US Ambassador: n/a
No formal relations exist between the two
countries based on previous decades of negative
relations. However Iran maintains an interests
section at the Pakistani embassy in Washington, D.C.
while the United States maintains its interest
section on Iran at the Swiss embassy in Tehran.
Colombia
Leader: President
Juan Manuel Santos
US Ambassador: Peter McKinley
Colombia and the United States maintain a
proactive partnership in which the two countries work
together to promote respect for human rights and fight
against the major drug problems in Colombia.
Both countries also work together to fight
terrorism, communism, and human rights.
Rwanda
Leader: President Paul Kagame
US Ambassador: W. StuartSymington
Since the 1994 Rwandan genocide, US policy
toward the country shifted from a strictly
humanitarian concern to sustainable development
and a strong partnership with its government. A
major focus of relations is the US Agency for
International Development (USAID) program,
which works actively in Rwanda to improve the
country’s economic, social, and medical issues.
North Korea
Leaden
Supreme Leader Km Jong-Il
US Ambassador: n/a
North Korea-United States relations currently do
not exist because of suspicions regarding North
Korea’s nuclear programs. Sweden currently acts
as the protecting power of the United States’s
interests concerning North Korea.
China
Leader: Chairman Hu Jintao
US Ambassador John Huntsman, Jr.
Sino-American relations are complex and some
what ambiguous. China is the United States’s
biggest competitor in many economic aspects.
Many Americans feel animosity towards China
because of its issues concerning human rights and
Tibet. Politically, Sino-American pohcy is one of the
most important bilateral relationships of the century.
Mexico
Leader: President
Felipe Calderon
US Ambassador: Carlos Pascual
Mexican-United States relations remain semi-
peaceful, however recent developments in the
Mexican drug wars are currently causing a stir.
The drug wars and illegal immigration continue
to be issues of contention in diplomacy.
Afghanistan
Leader: President Hamid Karzai
US Ambassador: Karl Eikenberry
Signing a long-term relationship agreement for a
strategic partnership with Afghanistan in 2005,
the US oversaw all reconstruction in Afghanistan
by providing billions of dollars for various projects.
Even so, in 2009, the Obama administration criti
cized Afghan President Hamid Karzai for not
cracking down on government corruption.
France
Leader: President Nicolas Sarkozy
US Ambassador: Charles Rivkin
Anti-French sentiments from 2003 eventually
thawed with French-American cooperation on the
matter of extremism and the Cedar Revolution in
Lebanon. The election of Nicolas Sarkozy as
President of France greatly improved diplomatic
relations, and Sarkozy even counts President
Obama as one of his “buddies.”
Spain
Leader: Prime Minister
Jose Luis Zapatero
US Ambassador: Alan Solompnt
When Spain agreed to take prisoners after the
closing of Guantanamo Bay, and President Obama
met with Bang Juan Carlos I, current relations
became more positive. Recent diplomatic policies
between Spain and the US are more intense and more
productive than those of the Bush administration.