Council on Foreign Relations

Timothy F. Geithner, the 75^th Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, will join the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) as a distinguished fellow. Geithner, who was previously a senior fellow at CFR in 2001, will be based at the organization's headquarters in New York.

The Civil Society, Markets, and Democracy initiative (CSM&D) of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is launching an online portal to examine opportunity and exclusion in the global economy targeted to a broad audience of policymakers, academics, business leaders, civil society actors, and citizens in the United States and abroad.

Seven CFR scholars come together to map the objectives, tools, and strategies for dealing with one of the most vexing problems facing the United States and the world today.

It is incumbent upon the leaders of the United States and Turkey to define a new partnership "in order to make a strategic relationship a reality," says a new Council on Foreign Relations–sponsored Independent Task Force chaired by former secretary of state Madeleine K. Albright and former national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley.

"Flanked by the coca-producing countries of the Andes and the world's leading consumer of illegal drugs—the United States—Central America is a strategic choke point for illicit trade," writes Michael Shifter, president of Inter-American Dialogue, in a Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Special Report, Countering Criminal Violence in Central America.

The United States will "increasingly seek partnerships with other like-minded countries [in the region] to ensure global stability, security, and prosperity." In a new volume of collected essays, CFR Senior Fellow Scott Snyder writes that one of the strongest partners for the United States is South Korea.

The Council on Foreign Relations has launched a new blog, The Candidates and the World, to provide information and nonpartisan analysis on the foreign policy and national security dimensions of the 2012 presidential race.

The Renewing America initiative has launched a new online channel aimed at broadening the debate on how best to revitalize the country's economy.

As the United States confronts a volatile Middle East, Saudi Arabia is "a central player—sometimes in accord with U.S. policy, sometimes not—in Arab-Israeli peace negotiations, in the quest for stability in Iraq, in Persian Gulf regional security issues focusing on Iran, and in the global struggle to promote a peaceful vision of Islam over jihadist violence," writes Thomas Lippman in a new book, Saudi Arabia on the Edge: The Uncertain Future of an American Ally.

The U.S.-Saudi relationship has become strained by increasing mistrust and misunderstanding—most recently over Egypt and Bahrain—and gone are the old foundations of the informal alliance: the Cold War and U.S. operation of Riyadh's oil fields. This is the judgment of F. Gregory Gause III of the University of Vermont, in Saudi Arabia in the New Middle East. The two countries can no longer expect to act in close concert, and the United States should recast the relationship as transactional, one based on cooperation when interests dictate, he argues.

Recent data on organized violence shows that conflicts between a state and one or more nonstate armed groups vastly outnumber interstate conflicts. As a result, argues former international affairs fellow Payton L. Knopf in a new CFR Working Paper, the State Department needs clear guidelines as to why, when, and how its diplomats should conduct outreach to these groups.

CFR senior fellow Steven Cook traces the “stirrings of Egyptian nationalism” back to the 1880s and culminates with the events in Tahrir Square in early 2011. He chronicles the end of the British occupation, the emergence of the Muslim Brotherhood, the rise of Nasser and his quest to become a pan-Arab leader in the 1960s, Egypt's decision to make peace with Israel and ally with United States, the subsequent assassination of Sadat in 1981, and the revolution that overthrew Mubarak.

The latest multimedia feature in CFR's Emmy award-winning series uses expert interviews, interactive timelines, graphs, and images to trace Iran's history, examine its oil-driven economy, and survey its nuclear program.

With the U.S. military overstretched and Washington facing acute fiscal pressures, the United States must nurture effective international partnerships to help prevent and manage violent conflicts that threaten U.S. interests, concludes a new Council Special Report.

CFR and Aspen Institute India have cosponsored a U.S.-India Joint Study Group to identify the shared national interests that motivate the United States and India.

CFR's online interactive "Crisis Guide: Pakistan" won the Overseas Press Club's first ever award for Best Use of Multimedia.

CFR and the Aspen Institute India announced the formation of the U.S.-India Joint Group on shared national interests.