The World Wants Obama Coalition

Our friends at Avaaz, the global online movement for social change, have arranged for a live stream of the inauguration tomorrow, with the opportunity to discuss the event, the issues as Barack Obama becomes the 44th US president.Event coverage starts at 11am (local time), Tuesday January 20th live...

Both Kenya and Southern Sudan declared today (November 6th) to be a spontaneous public holiday in celebration of President-elect Obama's victory.

Delving back into history a little, Barack Obama will not be the first President from Illinois to receive international moral support...

Refering to the "arc of instability from the Mediterranean to Islamabad", veteran British columnist Simon Jenkins, on a visit to Lebanon, writes: "At last this exhausted region is energised - by its old foe...

Building on all the anecdotal evidence of improving views of America around the world since the election, here is some hard opinion data...

Reuters has filmed a series of video messages from people in a dozen countries congratulating Barack Obama on his election victory and offering suggestions, requests and advice. You can submit your own video message on YouTube, tagging it postcardstopresident...

At Newseum you can browse the front pages for 5th and 6th November of over 300 newspapers around the world (thanks to Ben at Avaaz for a pointer to this). Here are a few of our favourites:

In his historic acceptance speech last night, President-elect Obama addressed us as well: "And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces, to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world, our stories are singular, but our destiny...

Check out the President-elect's new website, the appropriately named www.change.gov. It has pages outlining Obama's plans on foreign policy, Iraq and the environment...

There are lots of sites to look at. The BBC has an hour-by-hour guide for the night ahead, and the big US news networks all have pages to display results and will call states for either candidate as soon as most of the votes are counted including CNN and Fox...

The Economist (based in the UK but with an global circulation), arguably the most influential international news weekly, has strongly and reflectively endorsed Senator Obama. In the past it has endorsed a mixture of Republican and Democrat candidates. Extracts from the editorial:"Obama....

It is hardly worth posting articles from endorsing Obama, there are too many to begin to enumerate and link too...

All around the world, plans are being made by international Obama supporters - both Americans abroad and non-citizens - to gather to watch the results come in on Tuesday and then party through on Wednesday, when we trust we will all have something to celebrate...

Our friends at Avaaz, the global advocacy group, have created an excellent video in which people from many countries speak about what is good about America, and call on Americans to vote for a change from the disastrous Bush years...

British Obama supporter Malcolm Clark, who was blogging for TWWO from the Democratic Convention a few months ago, is now in Ohio helping with the final week of campaigning. For an international perspective on the ground check out his blog...

This may be premature, but with the pollsnow showing that Americans at last seem to be in agreement with the rest of us... maybe now's the time to say "Welcome Back America!" Welcome back to the America of Washington, Lincoln & King...

We can't do it, but relying on American citizens to do the right thing, as below (from an absentee ballot cast by an American in Britain). After a worrying Palin bounce a few weeks ago, things are looking good now. The excellent FiveThirtyEight.com is currently predicting an 85% chance for a win...

Simon at French graphic design collective Agent Actif has adapted his great Obama t-shirt design with a post-racial message...

No issue is more contentious than the Israeli-Palestinian conflict...

I spent the last week at British Labour Party Conference, in Manchester. I proudly wore my Obama buttons - I brought enough for a different badge each day - and consequently had lots of conversations about the US elections...

There are a host of websites which enable non-US citizens around the world to cast symbolic votes (see our left sidebar). Now, no less an authority than the Economist newspaper has weighted in by creating an online "Global Electoral College"...

Widespread uproar at Senator McCain's initial pledge to skip the first debate meant he did participate in the end. The first 30mins focused on the financial crisis and the last hour on foreign policy. You can watch it via the BBC and here is a full transcript...

Since we started tracking and networking people around the world paying particular interest in the US elections, the phenomenon of global excitement about Senator Obama has been contrast with the equally striking lack of interest in other candidates, particularly as far as internet presence goes...

Gisèle in France has emailed us about her "Pray for Obama /Prions pour Obama" blog, which she's running in both French and English versions:"The next President of the United States of America will make decisions that will affect the lives of billions of people worldwide...

If Senator McCain wins the US election, the strained relationship with Iran is likely to continue in its current deadlock. However an Obama victory could have a profound effect on Iran's policy and politics...

Lord Paddy Ashdown, one of the most highly regarded British diplomats, has been critical of the international community's limited committment to Afghanistan and has called for a regional peace conference for Afghanistan, similar to the Dayton conference which successfully laid the framework for...

Here's another amusing story with a serious point - emphasising the high regard in which Senator Obama is held in Brazil (which is likely to overtake Canada soon as the 2nd largest economy in the Americas)...

The BBC is running an excellent radio series on American history, written by David Reynolds, Professor of International History at Christ's College, Cambridge. The series starts this week and can be listened to online and will probably be available as a podcast...

A dramatic new poll commissioned by the BBC demonstrates that Senator Obama remains the favourite candidate...

As we remember the murder of 2,974 people in the 9/11 attacks seven years ago, we also recall a time when the world united in solidarity behind America...

As the US election focus narrows, and John McCain's campaign manager states flatly that "this election is not about issues", Avaaz.org - with 3.3m members globally - is launching a campaign to remind US voters to think of the issues and the world before they vote...

So the conventions are over, the VPs are chosen, and it's now less than two months until election day. Here are some resources to help keep up to date with developments...

Ibrahim from Gaza just messaged us with the news that his group of friends, who have been making calls to Americans on skype to explain why they support Senator Obama, have been filmed by Middle East Wire...

The Bridges for Obama movement, initiated by Meredith Wheeler in France, has really caught on as a way of rallying people around the world - both American expats and non-citizens (including many people linked to TWWO Coalition) - to visually represent Senator Obama's ability to bridge divides...

Thanks to Dominique Migisha for letting us know about the Belgian support committee of Barack Obama. He writes: "We are convinced that his vision, his program and his personality represent a revival for the United States.....

The phenomena of songs around the world about/inspired by Senator Obama has even caught the attention of Newsweek which runs this piece in their latest edition: "Even though they can't cast votes in November, artists around the globe are cranking out tunes in homage to the Democratic presidential...