• Upcoming Book: Paradise Beneath Her Feet: Women and Reform in the Middle East

  Director:	Isobel Coleman, Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy

  Dr. Coleman is currently working on her latest book, which examines the role of women in bringing reform to the Muslim world. Paradise Beneath Her Feet: Women and Reform in the Middle East (Random House) looks at women across five countries — Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. This strategic crescent contains more than 300 million people, nearly fifty percent of the world’s known oil reserves, two active wars, an unstable nuclear power and an aspiring one, and the heart of both Sunni and Shia Islam. It is in this volatile corner of the globe that the world’s future stability is likely to rest. The role of women is central to determining whether these deeply religious, conservative societies can make the transition to functioning democracies with modern economies, or whether they will remain in the grip of religious extremists. Dr. Coleman focuses on those men and women working within an Islamic framework to promote social change.

  
  

• The Global Finance Regime

  

  Explore the international finance regime with a new interactive from CFR's program on International Institutions and Global Governance.

  New Council Special Reports

  
  

  Enhancing U.S. Preventive Action

  Identifying international threats and acting on them may be the most difficult job for U.S. policymakers. This report provides an actionable road map for managing international threats before they erupt into crises and makes a strong case that preventive action is not a luxury but a necessity.

  The United States in the New Asia

  For more than a decade, the United States has mostly watched from the sidelines as Asian countries organize themselves into an alphabet soup of new multilateral groups. In this report, the authors review the relationship between pan-Asian and trans-Pacific institutions and suggest policy guidelines for a new U.S. approach to this new Asian landscape.

  Complete list of Council Special Reports

  New Books

  Start-Up Nation addresses the trillion-dollar question: How is it that Israel—a country of 7.1 million, only sixty years old, surrounded by enemies— produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada, and the UK? With the insights of geopolitical experts and investors, the authors examine this nation’s adversity-driven culture to answer this question and offer prescriptions for a global economy on the rebound.

  

  In Forces of Fortune, Vali Nasr presents a paradigm-changing revelation that will transform the understanding of the Muslim world at large. He reveals that there is a vital but unseen rising force in the Islamic world—a new business-minded middle class—that is building a vibrant new Muslim world economy and that holds the key to winning the cold war against Iran and extremists.

  In Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know, Julia E. 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.

  Complete list of CFR Books

  David Rockefeller Studies Program Contacts

  For more information on the David Rockefeller Studies Program, contact:

  James M. Lindsay
  Senior Vice President, Director of Studies, and Maurice R. Greenberg Chair
  +1.212.434.9626 (NY); +1.202.509.8405 (DC)
  jlindsay@cfr.org

  Janine Hill
  Deputy Director of Studies Administration
  +1.212.434.9753
  jhill@cfr.org

   

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