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.
March 10, 2005—March 11, 2005
March 9, 2006—March 10, 2006
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.
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."
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 2009 Corporate Conference featured keynote speakers Robert Greifeld, president and chief executive officer of the Nasdaq OMX Group, and Neville Isdell, chairman of the board, The Coca-Cola Company. Panels of experts spoke on timely topics such as geopolitical risk, the financial markets, global trade, and corporate citizenship, while smaller breakout sessions examined the long-term outlook of emerging markets and pressing issues in today's business landscape.
The Council's 2010 Corporate Conference will be held on March 4-5, 2010.
November 6, 2008—Present
This series provides a forum for leading global CEOs to share their priorities and insights before a high-level audience of CFR members. The series aims to educate the CFR membership on the private sector's important role in the policy debate by engaging the global business community's top leadership. Members benefit from hearing CEOs' perspectives as well as interacting with them in an informal setting; in turn, CEOs have the opportunity to highlight the work of their organization and strengthen their relationship with CFR. Recent sessions have featured CEOs such as Samuel J. Palmisano of IBM, speaking on globally integrated enterprises, James W. Owens of Caterpillar focusing on the financial crisis and the U.S. economy, and Neville Isdell of The Coca-Cola Company discussing capitalism in the 21st century.
March 1, 2002—Present
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.
June 2008—to present
A Corporate Program Series Sponsored by 
Basic Element is Russia's leading diversified investment company striving to conduct business in Russia and around the world in an effective and responsible manner. Basic Element's main assets are concentrated in six economic sectors - Energy, Resources, Manufacturing, Financial Services, Construction and Aviation.
Basic Element through its affiliates owns significant stakes in and operates dozens of companies. Many of them play key roles in their respective market segments in Russia and internationally, including UC RUSAL, GAZ Group, Transstroy and Ingosstrakh.
Basic Element is one of the largest, most dynamic and effectively-run business groups of modern Russia. With more than 100 companies in six industry sectors, in recent years its revenues were consistently growing at a rate of more than 40 percent a year. As the global crisis unfolds, all companies in the group are implementing a cost- and expense-cutting program. With market demand falling, this effort is geared towards maintaining and improving profitability. About 300,000 people work at the Group's companies in Russia, the CIS, Africa, Australia, Asia, Europe and Latin America.
November 8, 2006—June 27, 2007
In 2007, the Corporate Program and Manjeet Kripalani, the Council’s 2007 Edward R. Murrow press fellow and current bureau chief of BusinessWeek in India, hosted this new and important series to explore India’s role in the global economy. Corporate members examined issues ranging from India’s infrastructure problems to its thriving outsourcing sector. Featured speakers includedNandan M. Nilekani, CEO and managing director of Infosys Technologies Limited, Vilas Rao Deshmukh, chief minister, Maharashtra State, Republic of India, and L. Brooks Entwistle, managing director and CEO of Goldman Sachs (India) LLC.
March 18, 2008—Present
A Corporate Program Series Sponsored by
This series highlights the depth and diversity of women leadership in the world today. The inagaural meeting of this series honored Sadako Ogata, the president of Japan International Cooperation Agency, and the former United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Follow-up sessions in this series will take place in 2008-2009 and will highlight prominent women leaders who have made an impact on a global scale.
The corporate headquarters of Merck & Co., Inc. are located in Whitehouse Station N.J., USA
The “View from Abroad” Conference Call series examines global issues from the non-U.S. perspective and the impact on business and policy communities abroad. The calls draw speakers from foreign governments and policy communities, business analysts, and geoeconomic experts as well as journalists and others who know the issues from the local perspective.
The “Window on Washington” Conference Call series examines current international issues in the nation’s capital and what they mean for business. The calls cover Congress, the administration, and other major players in Washington, drawing speakers from not only these groups, but also journalists and others who know the issues and Washington better than anyone else.
June 18, 2008—Washington, DC
| 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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On June 18, 2008, the Center for Preventive Action convened an expert workshop in Washington, DC, to take stock of the existing research and practical experience relating to the challenges of preventing conflict in weak and failing states. The event was made possible by the generosity of the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
October 2007—Present
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.
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.
June 25, 2009—Present
| Chairs: | Richard L. Armitage, President, Armitage International, L.C. Samuel R. Berger, Chairman, Albright Stonebridge Group |
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| Director: | Daniel Markey, Senior Fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia |
The Council has convened a new Independent Task Force on Pakistan and Afghanistan, chaired by former deputy secretary of state Richard L. Armitage and former national security adviser Samuel R. Berger. The Task Force aims to assess current U.S. policy toward South Asia and make recommendations on how to meet the urgent and long-term challenges the United States faces in the region. In its analysis, the Task Force will consider the conduct of counterinsurgency and counterterrorism operations, non-military assistance strategies, the Pakistani nuclear program, prospects for strengthening and reforming political leadership and governance, and the role of regional and global actors and institutions.
Daniel Markey, senior fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations, serves as the project director. The group aims to produce a report in early 2010.
May 22, 2007—May 22, 2007
| Staff: | Shannon K. O'Neil, Douglas Dillon Fellow for Latin America Studies |
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An estimated twelve million illegal immigrants live in the United States, up from five million just ten years ago. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, in 2005 some 78 percent of this population was from Latin America. Despite these startling statistics, U.S. immigration law has not changed in twenty years. There is agreement across the political spectrum that the status quo does not work and that immigration reform is necessary, said Deborah W. Meyers, senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute. Yet as migration policy experts, immigration lawyers, and journalists discussed in a recent symposium hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations, “The Dynamics of Immigration and Integration in the Western Hemisphere,” the specifics of how to reform U.S. immigration law have provoked heated debate. Panelists discussed the contentious dynamics of U.S. immigration reform from the perspectives of U.S. policymakers, the general public, and immigrants themselves. The symposium was the final event in this year’s “Latin America, America Latin” series at the Council, organized by Council Fellow for Latin America Studies Shannon O’Neil and made possible by the generosity of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
April 17, 2006—Present
The Potential Conflict Roundtable, quarterly events sponsored by the Center for Preventive Action, convenes experts from government, private sector, nongovernmental, and civil society to analyze weak or fragile regions and states at risk of conflict in the next two to five years and to devise approaches to work with practitioners to build early policy responses to address those situations.
Identifying "hot" conflicts around the world is relatively straightforward. A more difficult task is identifying the situations, or "warm" spots, where there is high-risk of deterioration of political, economic and social conditions but not yet a digression into active social chaos, inter-community polarization, state collapse, and/or violent conflict. Greater effort at monitoring and assessing these incipient conflicts and worst-case scenarios in the coming two to five years is sorely needed. It is in these situations that preventive action initiatives can make a real difference.
While practitioners understand that preventive policies and actions have the greatest chance of reversing deteriorating situations when implemented early and swiftly, a wide gap persists in connecting early warning systems to early policy responses. To help fill this gap, conflict prevention efforts need to engage politicians and practitioners to assist with and promote the formulation and implementation of early responses to potential conflicts.
Policymakers in the early twenty-first century have a range of alternatives—short of all-out war—designed to influence the behavior of nations that have violated international law or denied fundamental rights to their citizens. Increasingly, countries and institutions have drawn on these measures to try to head off or halt a conflict and mitigate its aftermath. The United Nations has taken the lead in mounting various missions, but other institutions—the African Union (AU) in the Darfur crisis in Sudan and the European Union (EU) in Bosnia—have also expanded their roles as peacekeepers and humanitarian helpers.
Visit our Center for Preventive Action website.
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