Michele Kelemen
Michele Kelemen has been with NPR for two decades, starting as NPR's Moscow bureau chief and now covering the State Department and Washington's diplomatic corps. Her reports can be heard on all NPR News programs, including Morning Edition and All Things Considered.
As Diplomatic Correspondent, Kelemen has traveled with Secretaries of State from Colin Powell to Mike Pompeo and everyone in between. She reports on the Trump administration's "America First" foreign policy and before that the Obama and Bush administration's diplomatic agendas. She was part of the NPR team that won the 2007 Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award for coverage of the war in Iraq.
As NPR's Moscow bureau chief, Kelemen chronicled the end of the Yeltsin era and Vladimir Putin's consolidation of power. She recounted the terrible toll of the latest war in Chechnya, while also reporting on a lighter side of Russia, with stories about modern day Russian literature and sports.
Kelemen came to NPR in September 1998, after eight years working for the Voice of America. There, she learned the ropes as a news writer, newscaster and show host.
Michele earned her Bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master's degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Russian and East European Affairs and International Economics.
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The kingdom decided it will not take a two-year rotating seat on the United Nations Security Council, calling the body incapable of ending wars and resolving conflicts. -
The U.S. is supposed to allow everyone to come to the annual United Nations General Assembly, which opens next week. But Washington has yet to rule on the visa application by Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese president who's been indicted on genocide charges by the International Criminal Court. -
Secretary of State John Kerry announced that the U.S and Russia have agreed on a plan to rid Syria of its chemical weapons by the middle of 2014. But the plan gives Syria only a week to detail its chemical arsenal.
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The Obama administration is deploring the military-backed interim government's use of violence against protesters, but it's not punishing the Egyptian military by cutting off aid. -
The U.S. secretaries of state and defense met their Russian counterparts for a day of talks in Washington on Friday. They hope to find common ground despite U.S.-Russian friction over the Edward Snowden asylum case. -
Russia has become a relations nightmare for the United States, and its offer of temporary asylum to the NSA leaker and fugitive is only the tip of the iceberg. -
The ouster of Mohammed Morsi puts the U.S. in an awkward position. As the administration considers its next steps, analysts are quick to point out the many missteps in U.S. policy toward Egypt up to now. -
Secretary of State John Kerry sets off for what he calls "a long overdue" trip to Russia on Monday, and Syria is likely to top the agenda. But U.S.-Russian relations are frosty these days. The U.S. is imposing targeted sanctions on Russian human rights violators, while Moscow is preventing American families from adopting Russian children. -
The tiny Gulf nation of Qatar has been "punching above its weight" diplomatically in the region in recent years. Now, it's taking a prominent role in Syria, arming rebels there. The U.S. wants to see such aid go to moderates. Qatar has its own approach. -
In the coming weeks, the Obama administration will ply host to the leaders of several Middle Eastern nations. They are coming, in part, to register their concerns about the ongoing violence in Syria and to nudge the Obama administration to do more to tip the balance in favor of the rebels trying to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad.
