Stewart Patrick contends that assumptions about the threats posed by failing states--or "weak links"--are based on anecdotal arguments and challenges the conventional wisdom through systematic empirical analysis that traces the connections between state failure and transnational security threats.

Kara C. McDonald and Stewart M. Patrick offer recommendations for U.S. leadership in United Nations Security Council reform and expansion.

The upcoming NATO summit will include talks on the endgame in Afghanistan, a new smart defense doctrine, and bolstering global partnerships, all of it colored by fundamental questions about the role and mission of the alliance, says CFR's Stewart Patrick.

After emerging from the 2008 financial crisis relatively unscathed, Brazil's inevitable entrance into the club of major global powers is increasingly accepted. CFR's Stewart M. Patrick and Carlos Simonsen Leal of the Brazilian Getulio Vargas Foundation discuss Brazil's perspective on global finance and international security.

As U.S. and European leaders prepare for the NATO summit in May, CFR's Stewart M. Patrick and Chatham House Director Robin Niblett discuss why the alliance will remain important for Europe and the United States after NATO withdraws from Afghanistan.

Four global experts assess Dr. Jim Yong Kim's appointment as World Bank president and whether the institution needs governance reform.

In the wake of the debate over electing a non-American president of the World Bank, CFR's Stewart Patrick and Thierry de Montbrial of the French Institute for International Relations discuss the challenges of reforming global institutions to include emerging powers.

The winner of the 2012 presidential election will continue to rely on the UN as a foreign policy tool to serve U.S. interests, but navigating the U.S.-UN relationship will be one of the president's biggest foreign policy challenges, says CFR's Stewart M. Patrick.

A second tier of middle-income powers is emerging beyond the BRICS alliance of Brazil, India, China, Russia and South Africa. CFR's Stewart M. Patrick discusses how these countries complicate traditional conceptions of East vs. West and developed vs. developing nations.

The UN Human Rights Council is emerging as an increasingly relevant player in the Syrian crisis. CFR's Stewart M. Patrick highlights five things to know about the revived global human rights forum.

As Mexico prepares to welcome the first meeting of G20 foreign ministers this weekend, CFR's Stewart M. Patrick highlights five things to know about the world's steering body for global financial cooperation.

The Russian and Chinese veto of a UN Security Council resolution calling for an end to violence in Syria calls into question the viability of the Responsibility to Protect doctrine and poses a dilemma for the Obama administration, says CFR's Stewart Patrick.

CFR's Stewart Patrick outlines the debate over UN Security Council reform and discusses the obstacles going forward.

G20 leaders will be tested this week to act on sovereign debt crises and potential global economic upheaval. Stewart Patrick says a proper response would be for leaders to follow their own promises from previous summits.

This year's daunting UN challenges for President Obama: navigating the Palestinian statehood thicket and convincing Americans that UN diplomacy matters, writes CFR's Stewart Patrick.

Stewart M. Patrick says President Obama's address to the United Nations General Assembly this year will be his most challenging yet.

An interactive multimedia feature that maps out and evaluates multilateral efforts to address some of the most difficult international issues.

CFR's Senior Fellow and Director of the International Institutions and Global Governance Program Stewart Patrick and CFR.org Editor Robert McMahon preview major world events in the week ahead.

CFR's Director of Studies James Lindsay and Director of the International Institutions and Global Governance Program Stewart Patrick preview major world events in the week ahead.

In this week's podcast: The famine in the horn of Africa continues to unfold; Rebel gains in Libya may accelerate talk of an end to the conflict; and the UN Security Council debates its peacekeeping operations.

This video is part of a special Council on Foreign Relations series that explores how 9/11 changed international relations and U.S. foreign policy. In this video, Stewart M. Patrick, senior fellow and director of the International Institutions and Global Governance Program at the Council on Foreign Relations, identifies the successes and lasting challenges in the international community's response to global terrorism since the attacks of September 11, 2001. "The world has made a lot of progress," says Patrick, "but it still has quite a bit of a ways to go to achieve real consensus and real solidarity in this fight."

The U.S. debt ceiling and deficit debate has led to challenges on foreign aid spending, but while aid could be leaner and more effective, CFR's Stewart Patrick argues Congress should look to consolidate programs rather than simply cut them.

A preview of world events in the coming week from CFR.org: the debt-ceiling standoff continues in Washington; U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visits Indonesia, Hong Kong, and China; Peru's President-elect Ollanta Humala is sworn in; and the UN Security Council debates Sudan and Libya.