• Independent Task Force on the Balkans 2010

  Chair:	Edward C. Meyer
  Staff:	The Honorable Morton I. Abramowitz, Senior Fellow, The Century Foundation William L. Nash, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Military Affairs and Director of the Military Fellows Program

  August 1, 2001 - December 9, 2002

  During the 1990s, nowhere was the virus of militant ethnic nationalism more deadly than in the Balkans. America and its allies ultimately played an indispensable role stopping atrocities and creating conditions for sustainable peace; now, after a decade of extensive involvement, the international community is looking to wind down its commitment in the region. The Center for Preventive Action, a conflict prevention initiative of the Council on Foreign Relations, formed this Independent Task Force to develop tangible and practical recommendations to put the Balkan states irreversibly on the path toward integration with Europe, and to allow the international community to reduce its presence in an orderly fashion by 2010. The key recommendations include: first, the European Union take the lead on the Balkans, but American leadership and partnership is still needed to ensure that U.S. interests—particularly in the areas of military reform and the combatting of organized politico-criminal syndicates that undermine regional and even global security—are safeguarded. Second, shift the priorities of international and local actors toward the standards of the European Union and NATO accession plans, and the use of conditionality—“carrots and sticks”—by the international community to achieve its priorities. Third, increase investment and trade in the Balkans through banking-sector reform, privatization of state- or publicly owned corporations, private-sector development, and legislative and judicial action on property rights. The Task Force included senior experts on the Balkans and U.S. foreign policy from a cross-section of think tanks, government, the military, international organizations, academia, and the business community.

  
  

• 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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