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In this compelling book, Richard N. Haass contrasts the decisions that shaped the conduct of two wars between the United States and Iraq involving the two presidents Bush and Saddam Hussein, and writes an authoritative, personal account of how U.S. foreign policy is made, what it should seek, and how it should be pursued.
This report finds that nuclear weapons will remain a fundamental element of U.S. national security in the near term and makes recommendations on how to ensure the safety, security, and reliability of the U.S. deterrent nuclear force, prevent nuclear terrorism, and strengthen the nuclear nonproliferation regime.
In this report, Benn Steil shows that the financial crisis is the inevitable bust of a classic credit boom, and explains how monetary, taxation, and home ownership promotion policy combined with other features of the financial system to fuel an unsustainable buildup in debt. He recommends significant reforms to reverse the debt financing bias and make the system more resilient to falls in asset prices.
This report by Steven Dunaway outlines another, little-discussed proximate cause of the market’s frenetic downfall that also influences the market’s long-term health—the problem of global imbalances—and prescribes a remedy to prevent another global financial crisis.
But as Ray Takeyh shows in this accessible and authoritative history of Iran’s relations with the world since the revolution, behind the famous personalities and extremist slogans is a nation that is far more pragmatic—and complex—than many in the West have been led to believe.
In this compact reference guide, Julia Sweig presents a remarkably accessible portrait of Cuba’s unique place on the world stage over the past fifty years, including its internal politics, its often fraught relationship with the United States, and its shifting relationship with the global community.
Michael A. Levi assesses the energy security and climate change impacts of the oil sands and makes recommendations for U.S. policymakers within the context of broader bilateral relations with Canada.
And beyond trade, a host of other issues, ranging from climate change and energy to defense and piracy, ensure that the oceans will hold considerable strategic interest well into the future. In this report, Scott G. Borgerson explores an important element of the maritime policy regime: the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, including the international negotiations that led to the convention, the history of debates in the United States over whether to join it, and the strategic importance of the oceans for U.S. foreign policy today.
In this Policy Options Paper, Daniel Markey argues that a narrow perspective on counterterrorism is insufficient to protect U.S. interests in South Asia and advocates a long-term approach that prioritizes engagement with Pakistan.
This focus on individual firms ignores critical interactions between institutions and can also cause regulators to overlook important changes in the overall financial system. The solution: One regulatory organization in each country should be responsible for overseeing the health and stability of the overall financial system. This Working Paper, the fourth in the Squam Lake Working Group series distributed by the Center for Geoeconomic Studies, argues that the central bank should be charged with this important new responsibility.
Resembling long-term debt in normal times, this new instrument converts to equity when the financial system and the issuing bank are both under financial stress. The regulatory hybrid security offers greater transparency and efficacy, and is less costly to taxpayers than the ad hoc measures taken in the current crisis.
This Squam Lake Working Paper argues that regulators consider systemic effects when setting bank capital requirements, and concludes that capital requirements should be proportionately higher for banks that are larger, hold more illiquid assets, and finance more of their operations with short-term debt. When designing capital requirements that address systemic concerns, regulators must weigh the costs such requirements impose on banks during good times against the benefit of having more capital in the financial system when a crisis strikes.
Today, the pandemic influences discussions regarding foreign policy, national security, and macroeconomics. In looking toward the future, this report, by Kammerle Schneider and Laurie A. Garrett, analyzes the current evolution and impact of donor funding amidst the financial crisis, immediate and long-term challenges and opportunities for donor assistance, and policy recommendations to the donor community and national governments to ensure steady, long-term funding strategies to defeat HIV/AIDS.
As such, there are several contingencies in which recent, mostly positive trends in Iraq could be reversed, threatening U.S. national interests. This Center for Preventive Action (CPA) Contingency Planning Memorandum by Stephen Biddle assesses four interrelated scenarios in Iraq that could derail the prospects for peace and stability in the short to medium term and posits concrete policy options to limit U.S. vulnerability to the possibility of such reversals.
This CPA memorandum by Brad W. Setser argues that the long-term response to a potential dollar crisis is to limit buildup of the United States’ external debt, and recommends that larger reserves—and well-understood mechanisms for borrowing foreign exchange reserves from major foreign central banks—would help to reduce the United States’ vulnerability to such a crisis.
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