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.
| Staff: | John Campbell, Ralph Bunche Senior Fellow for Africa Policy Studies |
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| Fellows: | Princeton N. Lyman, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Africa Policy Studies Bronwyn E. Bruton, 2008-2009 International Affairs Fellow in Residence |
Africa is the poorest continent and has long suffered war, famine, and disease. But African leaders and international players are creating ways to restore peace, promote good governance, and upgrade health across the continent’s 53 countries. African leaders have formed stronger regional and sub-regional institutions and committed their countries to policies and programs to stimulate economic growth and increase funding for education, health, and infrastructure.
| Director: | Elizabeth C. Economy, C.V. Starr Senior Fellow and Director for Asia Studies |
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| Fellows: | Adam Segal, Maurice R. Greenberg Senior Fellow for China Studies Evan A. Feigenbaum, Senior Fellow for East, Central, and South Asia Daniel Markey, Senior Fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia Sheila A. Smith, Senior Fellow for Japan Studies Joshua Kurlantzick, Fellow for Southeast Asia Jerome A. Cohen, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Asia Studies Scott A. Snyder, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Korea Studies |
| Staff: | Kim Barker, Edward R. Murrow Press Fellow |
Asia will play an increasingly leading role on the international stage in this century. Some of the most pressing issues in East, South, and Central Asia—the rapid economic rise of China and India, North Korea’s nuclear program, slowly warming relations between nuclear-armed rivals Pakistan and India, the potential for conflict between China and Taiwan, Japan’s adjustments to its changing economic fortunes, and the ongoing attempts to rebuild Afghanistan—will significantly affect the course of global events.
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| Directors: | Hillary Rodham Clinton |
The 2008 race will be a non-incumbent or "open seat" election in which a sitting President is not a candidate. Assuming Cheney completes his term in full, the 2008 race will be the first time since 1928 that neither the sitting President nor the sitting Vice President will run for President.
| Staff: | Gene B. Sperling, Senior Fellow for Economic Policy and Director of the Center for Universal Education |
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As of July 1, 2009, the Center for Universal Education has moved to Brookings Institution. For more information, please visit CUE’s new website at: www.brookings.edu/universal-education
| Director: | Sheila A. Smith, Senior Fellow for Japan Studies |
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The Japan studies program is excited to announce a new project initiative, China and India as Emerging Powers: Challenge or Opportunity for the United States and Japan? This project will examine the rise of China and India in global affairs and study the economic, security, and environmental implications of global governance. Particular focus will be given to the implications for the United States and for Japanese policymaking. A core group of experts will be invited to a planning workshop in early 2009 to define policy discussions that will be held in the second and third years of the project. Envisaged policy discussion topics include: the global consequences of Chinese and Indian economic growth and the effect of the countries’ simultaneous rise on global economic management; how the countries’ growth will shape their global and regional military influence; the international coordination needed to manage competition for energy resources and to ameliorate the environmental consequences of global warming; and the types of influence the world might expect to see emanate from these two new globalizing power centers.
This project is made possible by a grant from the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership.
Congress and U.S. Foreign Policy Program The Congress and U.S. Foreign Policy program engages members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate and their staffs on a wide range of international and economic issues. It offers a distinctive, nonpartisan forum that convenes policymakers with CFR fellows and experts who are leaders in their fields. The program brings CFR experts to the Hill for briefings, roundtable discussions, and to deliver congressional testimony. It also produces a regular eNewsletter for congressional staff.
For more information about the Congress and U.S. Foreign Policy program, please contact:
Chelsi Stevens
Associate Director
Congress and U.S. Foreign Policy,
cstevens@cfr.org
202.509.8458
Corporate members have the opportunity to participate in more than 25 conference calls each year with Council fellows and other experts speaking on timely international issues. Additionally, the “Window on Washington” and “View from Abroad” call series provide members with inside perspectives on DC and critical regions abroad.
Ended January 2007
In 1985, when the U.S. current-account deficit stood at 2.8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), foreign governments owned 8 percent of U.S. government debt. In 2004, with the current-account deficit at 5.7 percent of GDP, foreign governments own a much higher 22 percent of debt. This is a cause for concern, both because it represents a greater concentration of holdings and because political factors are more likely to motivate selling by government holders of U.S. debt than by private holders.
Visit our Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies website.
The Elihu Root Lecture was inaugurated in 1958 to honor a founder of the Council on Foreign Relations who served as its Honorary President from 1921 to 1937. This lecture invites a distinguished American to reflect on his or her professional experience and how it applies to contemporary American foreign policymaking. Past Root lecturers have included Robert McNamara, Jacob Javits, William Fulbright, George Kennan, George Ball, and MacGeorge Bundy, among others.
| Fellows: | James M. Goldgeier, Whitney Shepardson Senior Fellow for Transatlantic Relations Stephen Sestanovich, George F. Kennan Senior Fellow for Russian and Eurasian Studies Charles A. Kupchan, Senior Fellow for Europe Studies Jeffrey Mankoff, Adjunct Fellow for Russia Studies |
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The breakup of the Warsaw Pact and the collapse of the Soviet Union did away with issues that had long challenged Europe and Russia but also created new ones. The centrifugal forces that pulled apart the Soviet Union left in its place fifteen newly independent states. The 1990 reunification of Germany anticipated the unification of Europe itself. But the seemingly unstoppable momentum toward European unity hit a major roadblock in mid-2005, when voters in France and the Netherlands voted down a proposed European Union (EU) constitution. Their emphatic rejection silenced, at least temporarily, most talk of further European convergence.
| Fellows: | Laurie A. Garrett, Senior Fellow for Global Health Peter Navario, Fellow for Global Health |
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In a globalized world, health issues that were once confined to a single region have the potential to threaten millions of citizens everywhere. The availability of international air travel allows contagious diseases like SARS or avian flu to be spread easily and quickly from one continent to another. Authorities around the world are also increasingly concerned about bioterrorism, the possibility terrorists could kill thousands by deliberately unleashing a deadly disease. All of these new worries have put issues of global health, science, and technology—including the spread of deadly new viruses, the proper registration of virus strains, and the distribution of vaccines—high on the global foreign-policy agenda.
| Director: | Julia E. Sweig, Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Latin America Studies and Director for Latin America Studies |
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| Fellow: | Shannon K. O'Neil, Douglas Dillon Fellow for Latin America Studies |
Leaders of the nations of the Western Hemisphere are working to manage regional democratization, problems associated with the challenges of globalization, and new and longstanding security threats. Political and economic shocks—Argentina’s financial crisis, Venezuela’s polarization, Haiti’s unrest, upheaval in the Andean region—have shaken democratic consolidation, tested democratic institutions, and weakened public faith in both democracy and liberalizing economic reforms. The United States and Canada continue to try to resolve trade disputes and to repair relations damaged by the war in Iraq. Mexico has largely recovered from its 1994 financial crisis, but crime and official corruption remain obstacles to further political and economic development.
| Directors: | Barnett R. Rubin, New York University David A. Hamburg, Cornell University Medical College |
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As the name implies, Lessons Learned examines past conflict situations in an effort to understand why events occurred and how lessons from those experiences can be applied to current or future events.
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