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Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Obama's phone calls show urgency of world crises

During times of international crisis, President Obama and Vice President Biden are quick to pick up the phone and call world leaders. Here are the top 10 countries each has called since 2009 and the current leaders of those nations:

Mounting crises in Ukraine and the Middle East have driven a surge in President Obama's telephone diplomacy, as the president has made more calls in July to world leaders than in all but one month of his presidency, according to White House records

Records also show how some nations rise and fall in importance and the evolving division of labor between Obama and his vice president, Joe Biden, whose phone calls to foreign leaders have also spiked this year. While Obama speaks most often with the leaders of the United Kingdom, Germany, Israel, France and Russia, Biden's portfolio includes Iraq, Ukraine and — increasingly — Turkey.
There's a tendency for leaders on both sides to overestimate what they can accomplish in a short phone call, Aliriza said. "Ultimately, international relations is about things that are done and not things that are said on the phone," he said. "It's a substitute for real diplomacy or real diplomatic interaction."
Biden has spoken with Erdogan four times in recent weeks.
The White House declined to comment about Obama's telephone diplomacy but did provide a written statement in response to Erdogan's complaint.

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