Mike Bloomberg on Foreign Policy Mayor of New York City (Independent)

Partner with World Bank: reduce traffic fatalities worldwide

Around the world, road traffic injuries are taking the lives of 145 people every hour of every day. That adds up to something like 1.3 million people dying on the world's roads each year--and a further 20 to 50 million people suffering injuries, often debilitating ones. But make no mistake about it: this is a problem that affects us all--especially the world's poorest. 90% of these fatalities occur in the world's rapidly urbanizing low- and middle-income nations.

Our record of improving safety in New York encouraged me to try to replicate this same success around the world, and it also inspired us to act at the fact that road safety has not typically been a top priority--yet the number of lives that could potentially be saved is incredible.

Visited Israel for first time just before candidacy

Bloomberg's advisers bristle at that interpretation. The company's expanding good works, and new focus on city news, were extensions of Bloomberg L.P.'s growth and prosperity in its hometown.

Maybe so. But the policy still had political value, spreading his name and goodwill.

Bloomberg exposed himself to his spreading network of advisers and local factotums. A secular Jew who had dutifully contributed to NY's many Jewish causes, he even visited Israel for the 1st time 2 months before declaring his candidacy. (He had, just 5 years earlier, quipped to a reporter for the "Jerusalem Report" that he saw no reason to go to Israel because "there's no good skiing there," boasting that he had said precisely the same directly to Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's future prime minister, then the Likud leader.)

Peace is fragile and democracy is fragile

2008: I know foreign policy from negotiating deals worldwide

Maintains mayoral office for UN relations, run by his sister

Of course, being the Mayor of NYC--the world’s most international city--is a bit like presiding over the UN every single day of the year

Four trips abroad in first four months of 2007

Earlier this year, Bloomberg visited England, Ireland, and Israel, and he has shown up in the presidential swing states of Ohio and Florida. He made a high-profile visit to Los Angeles in September. Last week, he appeared in Jersey City flanked by mayors and police officers to announce an advertising blitz for his national campaign targeting illegal guns.

Officials said today’s trip was planned to allow Bloomberg to examine Mexico’s program that pays impoverished families for meeting certain health, education, and employment goals. Bloomberg has reached into his own pocket to help pay for a pilot program starting in N.Y. this fall that is modeled on one in Mexico.