Foreign Reports and The Middle East
The Middle East, with its vast reserves of petroleum, was an obvious early focus of Foreign Reports, especially as the firm’s subscribers had substantial equity interests in oil concessions in that volatile part of the world, where Kern remained a frequent visitor to many of the key players—the Shah of Iran, Gamal Abdul Nasser of revolutionary Egypt, Crown Prince Faisal of Saudi Arabia, etc. Kern also maintained close relationships with the leading foreign policy actors in the Eisenhower Administration, notably Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and his brother, CIA Director Allen Dulles, forging a long relationship with U.S. intelligence, both in Washington and in the Agency’s foreign “stations.”
Nathaniel Kern (also Nat Kern) joined his father at Foreign Reports in 1972 after graduating from Princeton University and attending the University of Riyadh from 1970-71 as the first non-Arab student. By the time he graduated and joined the firm, rumblings of the first full-scale “energy crisis” had begun and the role of Saudi Arabia on the world scene began to be transformed.
Within two years of Nat's joining the firm, the world of oil and the Middle East had changed dramatically, with prices skyrocketing and the volumes of crude oil being produced in Saudi Arabia growing steadily. The firm’s business branched out from providing political reporting on oil in the Middle East into also providing business development assistance to firms wishing to break into new markets in the Middle East, primarily, though not exclusively, in Saudi Arabia. The main areas the firm concentrated in were competitive bidding opportunities in the power and desalination markets. This required an understanding of the technologies, engineering and procurement issues inherent in complex projects, and Foreign Reports brought on board the necessary skilled individuals in these areas.
Nat Kern was a frequent visitor to Iraq during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, at a time when U.S.-Iraqi relations were improving, and was tasked by the U.S. government with maintaining ties with certain key Iraqi officials from 1991 onwards, at a time when the U.S. government maintained a policy of shunning any official contact with the Iraqi government.
Read more about this topic: Foreign Reports
Famous quotes containing the words foreign, reports, middle and/or east:
“Maybe it’s understandable what a history of failures America’s foreign policy has been. We are, after all, a country full of people who came to America to get away from foreigners. Any prolonged examination of the U.S. government reveals foreign policy to be America’s miniature schnauzer—a noisy but small and useless part of the national household.”
—P.J. (Patrick Jake)
“The three-year-old who lies about taking a cookie isn’t really a “liar” after all. He simply can’t control his impulses. He then convinces himself of a new truth and, eager for your approval, reports the version that he knows will make you happy.”
—Cathy Rindner Tempelsman (20th century)
“Her little loose hands, and dropping Victorian shoulders.
And then her great weight below the waist, her vast pale belly
With a thin young yellow little paw hanging out, and straggle of a
long thin ear, like ribbon,
Like a funny trimming to the middle of her belly, thin little dangle
of an immature paw, and one thin ear.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“It is the business of thought to define things, to find the boundaries; thought, indeed, is a ceaseless process of definition. It is the business of Art to give things shape. Anyone who takes no delight in the firm outline of an object, or in its essential character, has no artistic sense.... He cannot even be nourished by Art. Like Ephraim, he feeds upon the East wind, which has no boundaries.”
—Vance Palmer (1885–1959)