Marco Vicenzino represents a new generation of independent foreign policy thinkers that combines successful international private sector experience with profound insight into contemporary geo-politics to produce an informed global strategic perspective on issues, events and developments that drive world affairs in the 21st century. As a graduate of Oxford University and Georgetown University Law Center, Vicenzino has constantly distinguished himself through his ability to master and inter-connect a wide range of international topics and speak authoritatively on diverse media outlets around the world.
Vicenzino has provided commentary on CNN, BBC, NBC Nightly News, Fox, Al Jazeera, National Public Radio and many others. His writings and views have appeared in leading publications/websites including the New York Time- International Herald Tribune, Financial Times, U.S. News & World Report, Le Figaro, El Pais, Daily Star, Al Hayat, South China Morning Post and many others.
Vicenzino is a regular guest speaker, panelist, panel moderator and participant at international conferences, forums and institutes around the world. His public-speaking engagements on topics of global concern have included appearances in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the Americas. He also regularly hosts public and private high-level gatherings and roundtables.
As part of the State Department’s Strategic Speakers Initiative, Vicenzino is regularly called upon by the State Department to speak on world affairs in different countries around the world. One State Department official recently referred to a series of speeches given by Vicenzino in Europe about U.S. foreign policy and Afghanistan as “a complete success”. Vicenzino is also a guest speaker for the
Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO), an international organization of company presidents from around the world. Vicenzino’s appearances in the US include the Department of Defense, US Naval Academy at Annapolis, World Bank, Council on Foreign Relations, Columbia University, Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, Northwestern’s Graduate School of Journalism and other venues. He has also been called upon to testify before the Permanent Council of Organization of American States.
Vicenzino is director of the
Global Strategy Project and senior advisor to PFC Energy and Quantum Financial Advisors. He is also a fellow of the
Foreign Policy Association and strategic advisor to the
Afghanistan World Foundation. Vicenzino served as strategic communications consultant to the World Bank and Deputy Executive Director for the Washington, DC office of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS-US).
As an attorney admitted to the New York Bar, Mr. Vicenzino focused on international business transactions and government relations and taught International Law at the School of International Studies at American University in Washington, DC. As a business entrepreneur, Mr. Vicenzino served as founding member, general counsel and head of business development of the MapNetwork, an international technology enterprise, which is today owned by Nokia. As a social entrepreneur, Mr. Vicenzino has dedicated extensive time and efforts as an advocate and activist for humanitarian causes, particularly for the plight of Afghanistan. He continues to serve as an advisor to corporations and non-profits seeking expansion and opportunities in the U.S and overseas.
Vicenzino’s professional associations have included Term Membership of the Council on Foreign Relations, National Press Club, French-American Foundation, Atlantik Brucke, US-Spain Council, BMW Foundation, German Marshall Fund, Aspen Institute's Socrates Society, Aspen Berlin, Aspen Italia and the German Council on Foreign Relations. His languages include Spanish, Italian and Portuguese and he provides regular commentary in these respective languages.
Just as Hurricane Katrina dealt a fatal blow to the credibility of President George W. Bush in the second year of his second term, the question swirling in political circles is whether the BP oil spill will deal a similar fate to the administration of President Barack Obama in the second year of his first, and potentially only, term.
Like Katrina, the current crisis focuses on America’s Gulf coast, and particularly on Louisiana. Federal, state and local authorities are overwhelmed. Although the current calamity’s pace is slower, its fallout will be greater. Since the beginning, finger pointing largely focused on the private sector, that is, BP and the oil-services companies it contracted.
Armed by apparent public support early in the crisis, federal officials took the high road. A congressional hearing including a panel of the private sector culprits was a political bonanza for legislators and the White House. However, the tables are suddenly turning. The finger pointing is beginning to spill over into the public sector, particularly when it was recently discovered that federal agencies were complicit in the private sector’s ability to cut corners.
President Obama attempted to short-circuit the blame-game by taking full responsibility for the matter by declaring “the buck stops with me.” To save face, the president simply had no other option. In hindsight, it may prove too little, too late.
The rhetoric has also changed dramatically since the calamity’s start when Interior Secretary Ken Salazar promised the administration would keep its “boot” on BP’s “neck until the job gets done”. Now mounting public pressure may keep a boot on the neck of the Obama administration until the task is fully completed. Whether justified or not, the growing perception of the president’s inability to effectively address the crisis risks sticking to the administration like the spilled oil on the shores of the Gulf Coast.
Beyond caring rhetoric and recent visits, sentiment of a behind-the-curve president detached from local realities threatens to spread from local to national levels, with potentially disastrous implications for Mr. Obama’s international agenda. The president’s standing would be dangerously weakened on all fronts. In a time of crises brewing from all corners of the world, the timing could not be worse.
The administration’s admission that the spill may continue until August, coupled with forecasts that the upcoming hurricane season may prove the worst on record, is a recipe for further disaster. Unless the spill is quickly stopped or significantly reduced, the president faces a long, hot and politically decisive summer. Any perceived gains from his recent legislative initiatives, and accompanying momentum, will rapidly fade. The worst-case scenario is permanent and irreversible loss of credibility resulting in a lame-duck presidency in less than two years from inauguration.
As President Obama struggles to seize the political initiative nationally, Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana is attempting to gain momentum locally. With an eye for a reversal of political fortune on the national stage, the 38-year old governor will seek to convert this crisis into an opportunity to recover and boost the capital he lost during his lackluster official Republican response to the President Obama’s speech to Congress in February 2009.
Get Marco Vicenzino Feed
Loading ...
Sign up for free Daily Caller News Emails