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Below you will find a chronological list of current Council projects. You can search by issue or region by selecting the appropriate category. In addition to this sorting control, you can search for specific subjects within the alphabetical, regional, and issue categories by choosing from the selections in the drop-down menu below.
Each project page contains the name of the project director, a description of the project, a list of meetings it has held, and any related publications, transcripts, or videos.
Annual Corporate Conference—New York, NY
The annual two-day Corporate Conference, held at the Council’s New York headquarters, addresses the most pressing international business concerns. The 2008 Corporate Conference featured keynote speakers Timothy F. Geithner, president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank. Panels of experts spoke on timely topics such as global corporate citizenship, geopolitical risks, the economic view from abroad, and the shifting political landscape of America in 2008, while smaller breakout sessions examined variables for growth in the BRICs and "frontier economies."
The Council's 2009 Corporate Conference will be held on Thursday, March 5 and Friday, March 6.
March 6, 2008—March 7, 2008
The 2008 Corporate Conference "New Exposures, New Approaches: Considering the Geopolitical Portfolio," featured keynote speakers Timothy F. Geithner, president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank. Panels of experts spoke on timely topics such as global corporate citizenship, geopolitical risks, the economic view from abroad, and the shifting political landscape of America in 2008, while smaller breakout sessions examined variables for growth in the BRICs and "frontier economies."
June 12, 2008—June 12, 2008
A discussion of maternal health as a foreign policy issue.
June 2008—to present
A Corporate Program Series Sponsored by 
This series will focus on the burgeoning trend of best-in-class companies originating from emerging market countries, and by virtue of their global reach and often unconventional business models, reinventing the nature of global competition. At the inaugural session of this series, participants identified the macroeconomic and political transformations that have provided the foundation for these emerging enterprises to grow and thrive on a global scale. A transformation of the global business environment, including changes in trade policy, integration of financial markets, and the spread of liberal economic reforms in developing countries all played a part in creating the conditions that allowed emerging enterprises to thrive. Follow-up sessions in this series will take place in 2008-2009 and will focus on the emerging enterprises themselves--their strategies, organization, and challenges.
May 27, 2008—Present
| Director: | Michelle D. Gavin, Adjunct Fellow for Africa |
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This roundtable series will meet periodically over the course of 2008 to explore changing political and security dynamics on the African continent, often with a special emphasis on U.S. policy options and responses. Extra effort will be devoted to drawing in new voices and perspectives on critical African issues.
January 30, 2008—Present
| Chairs: | William J. Perry, Professor, Center for International Security and Cooperation, Stanford University Brent Scowcroft, President and Founder, The Scowcroft Group |
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| Director: | Charles D. Ferguson, Philip D. Reed Senior Fellow for Science and Technology |
The Council has convened a new Independent Task Force on U.S. Nuclear Weapons Posture, chaired by former Secretary of Defense William J. Perry and former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft. The Task Force will take a fresh look at current U.S. nuclear doctrine and policy, determine the purpose of America's nuclear weapons, and make recommendations for the future of arms control and nonproliferation.
During its first meeting in January 2008, the group debated the purpose of U.S. nuclear weapons and discussed other core issues such as the size and composition of the U.S. nuclear arsenal and the effect of U.S. nuclear policy on preventing proliferation and nuclear terrorism.
Charles D. Ferguson, Council fellow for science and technology, serves as the project director. The group aims to produce the report in the fall of 2008, in anticipation of the new incoming presidential administration.
May 2008—– Present
| Staff: | Stewart M. Patrick, Senior Fellow and Director, Program on International Institutions and Global Governance |
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The Council on Foreign Relations has launched a comprehensive five-year program on international institutions and global governance. This cross-cutting initiative will explore the institutional requirements for world order in the twenty-first century. It is motivated by recognition that the architecture of global governance—largely reflecting the world as it existed in 1945—has not kept pace with fundamental changes in the international system. These changes include accelerating global economic integration; a shift in global power to non-Western countries; the rise of transnational security threats; the emergence of agile non-state actors; a proliferation of failing states; and evolving norms of state sovereignty. Existing multilateral arrangements thus provide an inadequate foundation for addressing today’s most pressing threats and opportunities and for advancing U.S. national and broader global interests.
March 25, 2008—Special One-Day Symposium
This is a three-part symposium on the role of religion in an open society, made possible by the generous support of the Henry Luce Foundation.
April 23, 2008—Present
| Director: | James M. Goldgeier, Whitney Shepardson Senior Fellow for Transatlantic Relations |
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This symposium was made possible by the generosity of the European Commission and the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
May 5, 2008—Present
| Directors: | David G. Victor, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Science and Technology M. Granger Morgan, Head, Department of Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University John D. Steinbruner, Director, Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland Jay Apt, Distinguished Service Professor, Engineering and Public Policy, Executive Director, Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center, Carnegie Mellon University |
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March 8, 2007—March 9, 2007
The Council’s Corporate Conference 2007, Beyond the Next Quarter: Forces Shaping the Future, featured global leaders and scenario-based approaches to consider the current forces that may affect the future of international business and policy. Speakers at the conference included Exxon Mobil Chairman and CEO Rex W. Tillerson, a panel featuring NYSE Group CEO John Thain and Chicago Mercantile Exchange CEO Craig Donohue, and an opening lunch panel that looked at “The Economic View from Abroad,” which featured Fred Hu, managing director and co-head of China investment banking at Goldman Sachs (Asia), and Tulio Vera, managing director, head of emerging market macro and debt strategy at Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., and Andrew Crockett, president, J.P. Morgan Chase International. Leading thinkers on climate change were also featured in a panel, including Fred Krupp, president of Environmental Defense, Elizabeth Economy, the Council's C.V. Starr senior fellow and director for Asia studies, and Meg McDonald, president, Alcoa Foundation.
October 1, 2007—Present
| Director: | James M. Goldgeier, Whitney Shepardson Senior Fellow for Transatlantic Relations |
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The goal of the America, Europe, and the World roundtable series is to examine how America and Europe can move forward with a constructive transatlantic agenda for managing problems that arise outside of North America and Europe.
November 2007—Present
| Director: | Paul B. Stares, General John W. Vessey Senior Fellow for Conflict Prevention and Director of the Center for Preventive Action |
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The meeting series focuses attention on situations that are increasingly discernible as "flashpoints" for violent conflict. At each on the record meeting, experts from government, private sector, and nongovernmental communities present different perspectives on and address discrete elements of the problem. The goal of the "Flashpoints" series is to raise public awareness of potentially explosive places and to offer practical recommendations for preventive action in the discussed state or region.
December 10, 2007—Special One-Day Symposium
| Director: | Paul B. Stares, General John W. Vessey Senior Fellow for Conflict Prevention and Director of the Center for Preventive Action |
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Timed with the tenth anniversary of the release of the final report of the widely regarded Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict, the symposium, titled "The Future of Conflict Prevention," assessed what we -- the United States, UN, and international community -- have and have not accomplished in terms of conflict prevention (theory and practice) over the last decade, and looked forward to new challenges and requirements for successful preventive action.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007—Thursday, November 15, 2007
| Fellow: | James P. Dougherty, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Business and Foreign Policy |
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Presented by the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies and hosted by
Edmund S. Phelps 2006 Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, McVickar Professor Political Economy, Columbia University; Director, Center on Capitalism and Society
James P. Dougherty Adjunct Senior Fellow for Business and Foreign Policy, Council on Foreign Relations
January 2007—Present
| Staff: | Sebastian Mallaby, Director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies and Paul A. Volcker Senior Fellow for International Economics |
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This roundtable series brings together policymakers, scholars, and journalists to explore current policy challenges that have both economic and national security dimensions.
September 2007—Present
| Director: | Charles D. Ferguson, Philip D. Reed Senior Fellow for Science and Technology |
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| Author: | Bruce W. MacDonald |
This report will provide options and make recommendations to Congress and the broader public on U.S. military and diplomatic steps to address the national security challenges posed by China's current and projected military space capabilities. The report will also highlight options that China should consider that would enhance both its own and U.S. security interests as well.
June 2007—October 2007
| Staff: | Michael Levi, David M. Rubenstein Senior Fellow for Energy and the Environment and Director of the Program on Energy Security and Climate Change |
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| Author: | Joshua W. Busby |
Connections between climate change and national security are receiving unprecedented attention from policymakers and analysts. In March 2007, Senators Richard Durbin and Chuck Hagel introduced a bill requesting that the National Intelligence Council draft a National Intelligence Estimate to assess the security implications of climate change. In April 2007, the CNA Corporation released a report overseen by retired generals that documents the links between climate and national security. The British government initiated a similar discussion in the United Nations Security Council in the same month.
This Council Special Report (CSR) will move the discussion from broad assessments of the links between climate and security to a plan for action. It will examine whether climate change poses a direct security threat to the United States, and will identify the security assets that will be affected by climate change. Finally, it will outline the policies that the United States should adopt to protect critical infrastructure, and military bases from these effects.
October 2007—Present
| Staff: | Amity Shlaes, Senior Fellow for Economic History |
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| Author: | Douglas A. Irwin, Robert E. Maxwell ’23 Professor of Arts and Sciences, Department of Economics, Dartmouth College |
This CSR will aim to survey the foreign policy implications of U.S. trade policy and how the current U.S. approach to trade affects the achievement of its foreign policy goals. It will argue that a retreat from America's leadership role in fostering trade liberalization will not only have potentially serious and detrimental economic effects, but adverse foreign policy ramifications as well.
April 2007—October 2007
| Director: | Edward Alden, Bernard L. Schwartz Senior Fellow |
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| Author: | David M. Marchick Matthew J. Slaughter, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Business and Globalization |
In the past three years, many countries have adopted or expanded regimes to review inward foreign direct investment (FDI) for either “national” or “economic” security purposes. The U.S. Congress recently passed legislation reforming the Committee on Foreign Direct Investment with the United States, which is charged with reviewing the security risk posed by inbound investments. France has adopted a new regulation requiring reviews of foreign investments (excluding EU investments) in nineteen sectors of their economy. Russia is close to adopting a law, modeled largely on the CFIUS process, requiring reviews in thirty-nine sectors. China has adopted a regulation allowing the government to block investments that harm “economic security,” and Korea and Canada are debating new restrictions.
State-owned multinationals are increasingly prominent, especially in developing countries. In 2005, twenty-four of the top 100 multinationals headquartered in developing countries were majority state-owned. Of particular note is the rising number and size of developed-country firms being acquired by developing-country sovereign funds of central banks and/or fiscal authorities. The recent Chinese investment in the U.S. private-equity firm Blackstone is one notable example.
This CSR will examine the scope, nature, causes, and consequences of rising restrictions to inward FDI around the world. It will discuss what best practices and principles should guide governments in formulating and implementing policies to govern national security reviews of FDI inflows, including how to prevent legitimate national security reviews from becoming tools for economic protectionism. It will also consider what should be the policy responses from advanced countries and important leadership groups, such as the G-8, APEC, and the OECD, to the emergence of new FDI restrictions. The recommendations will also cover ways to avoid actions in the United States being used as justification for other countries to restrict foreign investment.
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In Termites in the Trading System, Jagdish Bhagwati reveals how the rapid spread of preferential trade agreements endangers the world trading system.
America Between the Wars explores how the decisions and debates of the years between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Twin Towers shaped the events, arguments, and politics of the world we live in today.
In The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State, Noah Feldman tells the story behind the increasingly popular call for the establishment of the sharia—the law of the traditional Islamic state—in the modern Muslim world.
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