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.
February 2008—Present
| Director: | Sheila A. Smith, Senior Fellow for Japan Studies |
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November 2008—Present
| Director: | Steven Simon, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies |
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October 2008—Present
| Director: | Peter Beinart |
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October 2008—Present
| Director: | Matthew C. Waxman, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Law and Foreign Policy |
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Taking place in New York during the 2008-2009 programming year, this series serves as a venue for policymakers, scholars, legal professionals, and journalists to exchange ideas and reach conclusions on issues at the intersection of law and United States foreign policy. Particular attention is given to matters of international legal policy involving the rule of law.
September 2008—Present
| Director: | Sheila A. Smith, Senior Fellow for Japan Studies |
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November 2008—Present
| Directors: | Martin N. Baily, Brookings Institution Andrew B. Bernard, Dartmouth College John Y. Campbell, Harvard University John H. Cochrane, University of Chicago Douglas W. Diamond, University of Chicago Darrell Duffie, Stanford University Kenneth R. French, Dartmouth College Anil K Kashyap, University of Chicago Frederic Mishkin, Columbia University Raghuram G. Rajan, University of Chicago David S. Scharfstein, Harvard University Robert J. Shiller, Yale University Hyun Song Shin, Princeton University Matthew J. Slaughter, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Business and Globalization René M. Stulz, Ohio State University |
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The Squam Lake Working Group on Financial Regulation is a nonpartisan, nonaffiliated group of fifteen academics who have come together to offer guidance on the reform of financial regulation.
The group first convened in fall 2008, amid the deepening capital markets crisis. Although informed by this crisis—its events and the ongoing policy responses—the group is intentionally focused on longer-term issues. It aspires to help guide reform of capital markets—their structure, function, and regulation. This guidance is based on the group’s collective academic, private sector, and public policy experience.
To achieve its goal, the group is developing a set of principles (along with their implications) that are aimed at different parts of the financial system: at individual firms, at financial firms collectively, and at the linkages that connect financial firms to the broader economy.
October 2008—Present
| Staff: | Scott G. Borgerson, Visiting Fellow for Ocean Governance |
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February 2008—September 2008
| Fellow: | Edward Alden, Bernard L. Schwartz Senior Fellow |
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On September 10, 2001, the United States was the most open country in the world. But in the aftermath of the worst terrorist attacks on American soil, the U.S. government began to close its borders in an effort to fight terrorism. The Bush administration's goal was to build new lines of defense against terrorists without stifling the flow of people and ideas from abroad that has helped build the world's most dynamic economy. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way.
The Closing of the American Border is based on extensive interviews with the Bush administration officials charged with securing the border after 9/11, including former secretary of homeland security Tom Ridge and former secretary of state Colin Powell, and with many of the innocent people whose lives have been upended by the new border security and visa rules. A pediatric heart surgeon from Pakistan is stuck in Karachi for nearly a year, awaiting the security review that would allow him to return to the United States to take up a prestigious post at UCLA Medical Center. A brilliant Sudanese scientist, working tirelessly to cure one of the worst diseases of the developing world, loses years of valuable research when he is detained in Brazil after attending an academic conference on behalf of an American university.
Edward Alden goes behind the scenes to show how an administration that appeared united in the aftermath of the attacks was racked by internal disagreements over how to balance security and openness. The result is a striking and compelling assessment of the dangers faced by a nation that cuts itself off from the rest of the world, making it increasingly difficult for others to travel, live, and work here, and depriving itself of its most persuasive argument against its international critics—the example of what it has achieved at home.
This project was made possible by a grant from Bernard L. Schwartz.
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.
September 5, 2008—8:30 am to 1:30 pm
| Staff: |
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On September 5, 2008, the Council on Foreign Relations convened some of the country's top experts on Iran. Over the course of three sessions, the symposium sought to understand Iran as a global player and identify policy options for the next U.S. administration.
This symposium was made possible through the generous support of
the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
This page contains video, audio, and transcripts of the three sessions, as well as related readings.
Symposium Summary Report (Downloadable PDF)
Speakers:
Presider:
Despite a sagging economy and a public that has grown weary of the ruling regime, Iran's conservative camps retain a firm grip on power nearly three decades after the Iranian Revolution. Farideh Farhi, an adjunct professor of political science at the University of Hawaii, said at a CFR symposium on U.S. policy toward Iran that the next U.S. president should prepare to negotiate with an increasingly fractious camp of conservative Iranian lawmakers. But Ali Ansari, professor and director of the Institute for Iranian Studies at the University of St. Andrews, said conservative infighting has not impacted the office of Iran’s Supreme Leader ability to influence the domestic agenda. The last decade has seen “the exponential growth of the leadership office,” Ansari said. “What you see is the growth of this shadow government, or this revolutionary government as oppsed to the orthodox republican organs of government, and they’ve started essentially to take over.” An examination of Iran’s budgets offers evidence. For instance, Ansari said, recent governmental spending on welfare organizations increased by 3.2 percent while spending on religious foundations more than doubled. “When you have that shift in financial wealth …it shows where the balance of power is going,” he said. “The leader is now taking on the role essentially as a monarch.”
Video Highlight
Full Video | Audio | Transcript
Speakers:
Presider:
The Bush administration has long-warned that an Iranian nuclear weapon would rank near the top of risks to national and global security. But after years of diplomatic efforts to derail Iran's nuclear program, Washington may have to come to grips with an inevitable fact: if Tehran wants a nuclear bomb, it will most likely get one. "I don’t think we’ll be able to talk them out of it," Gary Samore, Council on Foreign Relations Vice President, Director of Studies, and Maurice R. Greenberg Chair, said during the second session of a CFR symposium on U.S. policy toward Iran. The best the United States can do, Samore said, "is create a package of incentives or disincentives to at least convince them to stop or at least slow down." Hawks within the Bush administration have hinted that military force could put a stop to Iranian nuclear ambitions. But Ashton B. Carter, codirector of the Preventive Defense Project at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, said not even military action can solve the problem. "The only other option, of course, is to invade," Carter said. "We’ve had plans to invade Iran for as long as I’ve been associated with the Department of Defense. I just don’t think we have the ground forces to do it." Additionally, Carter said he sees a "50-50" chance that Israel—a sworn enemy of Iran—will unilaterally attack Iran's nuclear facilities between the U.S. presidential election and Inauguration Day.
Video Highlight
Full Video | Audio | Transcript
Speakers:
Presider:
Unlike George W. Bush, whose administration focused exclusively on containing Iran’s nuclear program, the next U.S. president should broaden its bilateral relations with Tehran to include talks on sanctions, regional stability, and energy security, experts said during the third session of a CFR symposium on U.S. policy toward Iran. "Iran can go down two roads: Japan of the 1930s, or the road of India, " said Vali R. Nasr, Council on Foreign Relations adjunct senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies. "Part of the use of aggressive diplomacy should be to interject ourselves into that debate, to have a say in which way they go," Nasr said. The need for a reversal in strategy toward Iran is evidenced in the Bush administration's flawed strategy of containment, the speakers said. Ray Takeyh, a Council on Foreign Relations senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies, said the approach has left no regional Arab consensus on how to handle Iran, and attempting to craft a containment strategy similar to the one employed against the Soviets during the Cold War "is not practical. " The isolation approach has forced Tehran into closer ties with Europe and Asia, and especially China and Russia. "Iran is not a country that is isolated like North Korea," Takeyh said. "We might not have the keys to" isolate Iran with sanctions or economic pressure.
Video Highlight
December 1, 2008—New York, NY
| Director: | Sheila A. Smith, Senior Fellow for Japan Studies |
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This symposium was cosponsored by Council on Foreign Relations and the Asahi-Shimbun.
Widely acclaimed as the most respected and credible source of news in Japan and the Asia-Pacific region, the Asahi Shimbun is one of Japan’s oldest and largest national newspapers, with a daily circulation of over eight million. Based in Tokyo, its overseas network includes five general bureaus covering America from Washington DC, Europe from London, the Middle East from Cairo, Asia from Bangkok, and China from Beijing, with an additional bureau newly opened in Havana, Cuba, in 2007. It has a presence in about 30 locations worldwide with 53 correspondents. The company also broadcasts nationwide in Japan via TV Asahi and has a news website, Asahi.com.
This event has also been made possible by the generosity of the following corporate sponsors of CFR's Japan program: Canon USA, Mitsui & Company, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America, Mitsubishi International Corporation, Sony Corporation of America, and Toyota Motor North America.
Symposium Summary Report (PDF, 148K)
December 16, 2008—Present
This series of meetings featuring the chairman of the joint chiefs, service chiefs, and/or other leadership from the military and intelligence communities was endowed in perpetuity in 2007 through a gift from CFR member Robert B. McKeon, founder and president of Veritas Capital.
September 2008—Present
| Director: | Stewart M. Patrick, Senior Fellow and Director, Program on International Institutions and Global Governance |
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The United States and the Future of Global Governance roundtable series will focus on core global governance challenges and proposals for fundamental institutional reform. Topics will include overhaul of the UN Security Council; the reform and expansion of the G8; prospects for a global counterterrorism organization; the adaptation of U.S. sovereignty to a global age; the trade-offs between formal institutions and ad hoc coalitions; and the domestic and legislative preconditions for sustained U.S. multilateral engagement. This roundtable series is sponsored by CFR’s Program on International Institutions and Global Governance and is supported by a generous grant from the Robina Foundation.
December 2008—Present
| Director: | Davis R. Robinson, Adjunct Senior Fellow |
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Taking place primarily in Washington, DC, during the 2008-2009 programming year, this series examines the international law ramifications of the use of force and attendant foreign policy concerns.
June 2008—Present
| Staff: | Shannon K. O'Neil, Douglas Dillon Fellow for Latin America Studies |
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| Director: | Julia E. Sweig, Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Latin America Studies and Director for Latin America Studies |
The Western Hemisphere Transnational Roundtable Series investigates the economic, social, and human ties between Western Hemisphere nations that are rapidly developing and deepening. It explores the important ways that citizens, families, civil society organizations, and the private sector shape transnational connections and interactions, while analyzing the so far limited governmental policies that encourage, constrain, or attempt to guide U.S. bound migration. This roundtable series was launched in June 2008. This roundtable series is made possible by the generous support of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Ford Foundation.
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
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