Note: The following is a rapporteur's report from the May 7, 2007 Council General Meeting "Is Male Circumcision the Key to Stopping the AIDS Epidemic?"

This report argues that Angola deserves priority attention in the formulation of U.S. foreign, national security, and economic policies, particularly in the design of policy toward Africa. This report is also available in Portuguese.

This report is a collaborative effort drawn up in a response to a request from Congress to examine the situation in Somalia, namely options for diplomacy.

This one-day symposium explored threats from and potential responses to both man-made and natural disasters.

This Critical Policy Choice, in the form of a memorandum to the president, suggests two alternative approaches the United States could take to trade policy.

A quadrennial poll on foreign policy issues finds both the public and U.S. opinion leaders taking a decidedly cautious view of America’s place in the world, reflecting concerns about the war abroad and growing problems at home.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic is affecting the security of states throughout the world, weakening economies, government structures, military and police forces, and social structures. This is the principal conclusion of the Council Report, HIV and National Security: Where Are the Links?

Climate change is one of the most complex issues facing policy-makers today. David G. Victor, a leading expert on environmental policy, takes a fresh look at this issue and persuasively marshals arguments for three distinct approaches to combat the problem, casting each as a presidential speech. A must-read for environmentalists, educators, and anyone else interested in the issue, Climate Change is a most useful reference in the growing public debate about how best to meet this environmental challenge.

Investing in girls’ education globally delivers huge returns for economic growth, political participation, women’s health, smaller and more sustainable families, and disease prevention, concludes a new report from the Council’s Center for Universal Education.

The United States spends approximately $700 million per year in the Andean region, but this Commission report concludes that current U.S. policy--focused narrowly on "drugs and thugs" in the Andes--cannot achieve U.S. regional goals of democracy, prosperity, and security. Andes 2020 offers bold new recommendations to recalibrate U.S. policy to better meet its objectives.

To succeed in reconstructing Iraq, the United States and its allies will need to pursue a strategy over the next twelve months that: recognizes the unique challenges in different parts of the country; consolidates gains in those areas where things are going well; and wins hearts and minds even as it decisively confronts spoilers.

Almost exactly a year after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, President George W. Bush released to Congress and the American public his National Security Strategy, the most detailed and comprehensive statement of how his administration intends to protect the security of the United States in the post-September 11 world. While few have disagreed with the goals of the strategy, a great deal of controversy has arisen about how these goals should be implemented. This innovative paper, written by Senior Fellow Lawrence Korb, an expert with decades of experience on national security issues, lays out the best case for three different ways in which the administration could implement the president’s strategy.

Papua, a remote and impoverished yet resource-rich Indonesian province, is at risk of a descent into conflict that would likely destabilize the entire country. According to this report from commission Indonesia and Southeast Asia experts, Indonesia’s central government can avoid conflict in Papua by giving it greater self-governance and a stake in the development of its vast natural wealth.

New reformations that must be implemented in Palestine include constitutional reforms, including the development of a Palestinian constitution and amendment of the Basic Law and the election law; reforming the executive branch by empowering the Council of Ministers; reforming the judiciary by forming a new Supreme Judicial Council and clarifying its mandate vis-à-vis the Ministry of Justice; introducing security sector reform, including a definition of the functions and the mandate of the Interior Ministry; empowering the Legislative Council by implementing provisions in the Basic Law that assure separation of power; and encouraging the electoral process.

As we gain perspective on the initial postwar period in Iraq, a conventional wisdom has formed about key mistakes the U.S. government made in the early months of the occupation. This prescient and essential report, written several months before the war, predicted many of the challenges the United States would face in the post-war period and offers several perceptive and useful recommendations that have been ignored by the Bush administration. Read now, this report is a stunning rejoinder to those who would argue that the problems experienced in Iraq were unforeseeable.

This authoritative report urges a United States-European Union accord on transatlantic exchange access to jump-start integration of each side’s mammoth securities market. According to the report, written by a leading authority on exchanges and market regulation, such an accord would significantly cut transatlantic trading costs as well as the cost of capital for American and European companies.

Despite years of involvement by the United States and its allies, the Balkans region is suffering from economic stagnation and high unemployment; hundreds of thousands of refugees still await resettlement; prominent war criminals remain at large; and political and legal reform is impeded by endemic corruption, organized crime, and in some cases, a lack of political will. Yet after a decade of extensive involvement and peacemaking in the Balkans, the United States and its allies are winding down their commitment to the region. At this critical juncture, warns this independent Task Force report, if the problems besieging the Balkan states are left unresolved, they will lead to serious social and economic instability for southeastern Europe.

According to this Independent Task Force, among the most daunting long-term issues confronting Angola now is the resettlement of IDPs and refugees. The United Nations has been involved in the process of repatriation. A collaborative effort between the Angolan government, the UN, NGOs, and business interests will be needed in order to help make return sustainable.