US Election: Palin to Get a Taste of International Diplomacy During Un Visit

Sarah Palin has thrown herself into a 36-hour crash course in foreign diplomacy as she makes a highly-publicized visit to the UN in New York this week in an attempt to shrug off the perception that she is an international affairs ingnue.

The Republican vice-presidential candidate, who obtained a passport to travel outside North America for the first time only last year, is meeting a raft of leaders from several of the world's current hotspots.

But her cramming timetable fails to include any scheduled encounter with a major European leader.

Her induction begins tonight with attendance at a cocktail party held by President George Bush at the city's Waldorf-Astoria hotel.

Lebanese president Michel Suleiman and other leaders, carefully selected for their goodwill towards America, were on the guest list.

Even before Palin takes her first steps tomorrow morning into the UN's international territory on the east side of Manhattan, she has walked into controversy.

She had been billed to make an appearance at a rally outside the UN building organized by New York Jewish groups protesting the arrival of the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, at the annual UN general assembly.

But Palin's invitation was withdrawn by organizers following a public spat with Hillary Clinton. The senator for New York had accepted a previous offer to attend but pulled out complaining that Palin's late inclusion on the speaker list would have politicized the event.

The New York Sun today published the speech that Palin would have made had she appeared at the rally. In it, she calls for action to thwart Ahmadinejad who she says should be held accountable under international law for the crime of inciting genocide.

"He must be stopped," the speech says.

Since her appointment as John McCain's presidential running mate last month, Palin has faced stiff criticism, and even ridicule, for her lack of international experience. Democratic opponents have pointed out that she is just one heartbeat away from taking over the US presidency herself should McCain fall ill in office.

The McCain campaign unwittingly fanned the flames of the criticism by emphasizing that as governor of Alaska she was knowledgeable about neighboring Russia.

The theme was picked up in a Saturday Night Live spoof in which Tina Fey as Palin says: "I can see Russia from my house".

Bloggers have also gone to town on her the moment in a television interview when she was flummoxed by a reference to the "Bush doctrine", the argument that pre-emptive strikes against threatening states or terrorist groups can be justified.

The main work of dispelling the impression of naivety will begin tomorrow morning when Palin enters the gladiatorial ring of the UN. In a succession of meetings that will continue into Wednesday, she will meet leaders from many of the most sensitive regions of the world.

But according to the list put out by Reuters, there will be no western European leaders among her engagements. It has been confirmed that the British government has neither been approached by the Palin team, nor sought any contact with it.

The only UK minister she could meet casually is Kim Howells, the junior foreign office minister, who will attend the Bush cocktail party.

She will meet the presidents of Afghanistan and Iraq, Hamid Karzai and Jalal Talabani, in recognition of the two wars the US is engaged in, as well as the leader of the main US ally in Latin America, Alvaro Uribe of Colombia. The new Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari is on the list, as is the Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh.

There is no seat at the Palin table for China or notably Russia following the conflict in Georgia, though the presidents of Georgia itself, Mikheil Saakashvili , and Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko, are included.

Peter Beinart, senior fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, said the cast was unsurprising for the deputy of McCain.

"These are all leaders of countries considered friendly to the US. McCain is a more Us-versus-Them kind of guy than Obama, and you can see that reflected on the list."

The other interesting entry on the list is Henry Kissinger, who Palin will meet tomorrow. The former US secretary of state under Richard Nixon was once highly divisive, but now occupies a lofty position as elder statesman and has been frequently consulted by Bush.