Latin America in general—and Brazil in particular—is coming to the forefront of U.S. policy challenges. In response to this situation, this blue-ribbon independent Task Force sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations offers two recommendations: first, that the United States needs a focal point to its policy in South America and that Brazil become that focal point; and second, that President Bush move swiftly to establish a standing, high-level dialogue with Brazil on key issues ranging from drugs to trade, democratization, and combating terrorism and trans-regional crime.

Ten years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the military and economic instruments of American power have benefited from renewed attention and resources. However, the forward edge of American national security policy, the Department of State, is in a profound state of disrepair, suffering from long-term mismanagement, antiquated equipment, and dilapidated and insecure facilities.

This independent Task Force report represents a significant step forward in deepening a bipartisan consensus for a new U.S. policy toward Cuba. While avoiding the highly politicized debate over whether to lift the U.S. embargo on Cuba, the report touches on the terms for American investment in Cuba in its recommendation for the settlement of Cuban expropriation claims. The report seeks to stimulate a discussion among those interested in crafting a creative and dynamic policy toward Cuba.

Colombia’s rampant lawlessness, insecurity, and corruption represent one of the major threats to democracy and economic progress in Latin America. The stakes are that high, according to this independent Task Force report. Cochaired by Senator Bob Graham and General Brent Scowcroft, the Task Force recommends a four-point strategy to respond to the deteriorating situation. Toward Greater Peace and Security in Colombia calls for a multi-track approach that supports Colombia’s efforts to achieve peace and reconciliation by helping to professionalize the country’s military forces, curtail widespread human rights abuses, strengthen political, judicial, and social reform efforts, and restore the economy.

During the last ten years, Japan has undergone a difficult period of economic stagnation. Only now is the country showing preliminary signs of emerging from an economic slowdown. In response to its difficulties, Japan is gradually making changes to its traditional financial system—changes driven by Japan’s desire to catch up with technological innovation and to resuscitate its economy. However, many of these reforms are controversial within Japan since they aim at the heart of traditional Japanese business practices. In a three-step conclusion, this Task Force outlines how the United States may integrate into and profit from Japan’s transitioning economic framework.

President George W. Bush should challenge his Japanese counterpart to launch a joint initiative to create a U.S.-Japan “open marketplace”--free of tariffs, with minimal regulatory impediments, and an increasing freedom to do business--by the year 2010, argues Bruce Stokes in A New Beginning: Recasting the U.S.-Japan Economic Relationship.

This paper situates the recent problems in Indonesia in a more general framework that is called the paradox of free-market democracy. The basic thesis advanced is as follows. In Indonesia, as in many developing countries, class and ethnicity overlap in a distinctive and potentially explosive way: namely, in the form of a starkly economically dominant ethnic minority--here, the Sino-Indonesians.

This report suggests that, within Asia, there stretches a universal recognition that regulatory infrastructure and institutions do matter and that they must play a major role in the way we think about economic development. After the miracle years in East Asia, "good governance" has become the Spirit of the Age.

This report states that one goal of Russia's economic reforms during the last ten years has been to establish a new class of businessmen and owners of private property -- people who could form the foundation for a new model post-Soviet citizen. However, the experience of this postcommunist economic "revolution" has turned out to be very different from the original expectations. For as people became disillusioned with communism due to its broken promises, the words "democracy" and "reform" quickly became equally as unbearable to large sectors of the Russian public after 1991. Such disillusion was achieved in less than ten years -- a record revolutionary burnout that would be the envy of any anti-Bolshevik.

How can one best explain China's remarkable economic growth during twenty-one years and its rise from autarky to world economic power? The exercise requires chutzpah; it demands simplification; it cries out for the trained capacity to present a unifying theme with a weighty set of policy implications. Fortunately the academic establishment possesses these traits in abundance. Examples range broadly from the socialist romantics to the capitalist romantics; the former believing that China
has developed its own and specifically noncapitalist path, the latter that it is transforming itself into a free-market system.The two camps hurl paper missiles at each other in a satisfying postlude to the Cold War.

This report suggests that few challenges loom as large on the U.S. foreign policy agenda as the effective management of relations with the People's Republic of China (PRC). This is a perennial challenge, given China's central role in Asia and the many issues on the bilateral agenda that feature prominently in U.S. domestic politics. But U.S.-PRC relations take on added significance with China's emergence after decades of isolation and its growing weight in the global economy. Cooperation between China and the United States could pay large dividends for the international system more generally -- just as confrontation between them would have far-reaching implications.

During the twentieth century, as the United States grew into a world power, Americans confronted two major powers in Asia: China and Japan. Of course, there were and are other crucial factors in Asia, from the expansionist former Soviet Union to the unpredictable North Korea. But in this century, Americans struggled most of all to get their China and Japan policies right. There is no reason to believe that Chinese and Japanese issues will be less central to U.S. policy in the twenty-first century.

In November 1999, the Council on Foreign Relations and Inter-American Dialogue established an independent task force to review and offer recommendations on U.S. policy toward Colombia. The cochairs of the task force have decided to issue this interim report to make an impact on deliberations in Congress, as well as respond to an immediate opportunity to shape the current debate about U.S. policy.

Six years ago, Korea was in trouble. Its banking system, inadequately supervised,collapsed. Industry,lac king financial discipline,expanded unproductively with its "too big to fail" private firms crowding out smaller rivals. Labor market rigidity weakened the competitive position of Korean industry. The financial crisis that resulted gave rise to hopes that significant reform would address all three dimensions of Korea's vulnerability.

The cumulative impact of U.S. global and regional policies and behavior, a broad regional trend of emerging, multi-faceted national self-assertiveness, and regional economic dynamics add up to an East Asia in ferment that will increasingly test, if not challenge, U.S. interests and policies in the Asia-Pacific over the coming generation.

Winston Churchill once observed that the people of Germany had done enough for the history of the world. A similar observation could appropriately have been made about the Taliban movement in Afghanistan. The shattering events of a bright September morning in New York and Washington DC highlighted even for those who had never heard of the Taliban that something dreadful was at loose in the world. For those who had followed the rise of the Taliban, and the flourishing under their protection of networks such as Usama Bin Laden's Al-Qaida, there was in most cases a deeper poignancy: the sense of having been unable to avert a slide to disaster. For in both the constitution of the Taliban, and the detail of their foreign policy, the warning signs were written in prominent script. It is with these signs that this study is concerned.

There is much written about the impact of Islamist forces on international politics. Comparatively little is known about how Islamist forces conceive of the international arena, understand their interests therein, and formulate policies to serve those interests. It is the aim of this paper to elucidate Islamist thinking on international aªairs by exploring the directives that are inherent to the Islamist ideological discourse, as well as the imperatives that confront Islamism in the political arena, by examining the case of the Jama'at-i Islami (Islamic Party) of Pakistan.

At first glance, Hizballah's position on the State Department's list of groups that sponsor terrorism would seem to be secure. This is not hard to understand, because since the early 1980s the Iranbacked Hizballah (Party of God) positioned itself as an opponent of U.S. policy in the Middle East and especially in Lebanon. Nevertheless, there are other aspects to the group, and this report examines Hizballah's other functions as a governing body.

The Islamic Renaissance Party (IRP), Hizb-i Nehzat-i Islami in Persian/Tajik, and Islam Uyghonish Partyasi in Uzbek, is a recent movement with few historical roots. Its members are young and enjoyed little access to the external world during the Soviet period. This report examine the foreign policy of this new group.

This report provides the record of a detailed assessment of the Bosnian peace process conducted by the Council on Foreign Relations and Yale University. It is a snapshot from Bosnia, which is still an ongoing effort, taken approximately one year into the process. The coincidence of timing gives a useful analogy to Kosovo, where the same splintering of communities has taken place.