Rob Quartel, chairman and CEO of NTELX, discusses the need for investment in U.S. infrastructure with CFR's James M. Lindsay. "We really have to focus on alternative means for paying for infrastructure," argues Quartel.

Ed Husain, CFR's senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies, discusses the emergence of Islamist political parties in Tunisia.

Senator Carl M. Levin (D-MI), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, discusses U.S. involvement in Libya following Qaddafi's death, as well as progress in Afghanistan and possible federal budget sequestration with CFR's James M. Lindsay.

Robert Danin, CFR's senior fellow for Middle East and Africa studies, argues that the international community needs to remain involved in Libya after Qaddafi's death.

Kurt J. Nagle, president and CEO of the American Association of Port Authorities, discusses the infrastructure investment needed to increase U.S. trade and competitiveness with CFR's director of studies, James M. Lindsay.

The U.S. ratification of the stalled Free Trade Agreements with South Korea, Colombia, and Panama indicates that "there is a possibility, despite the very great partisan divisions in Congress, of bipartisan cooperation on economic issues," says CFR's Edward Alden. However, Alden emphasizes that "it is important not to overstate the potential job creation benefits" of the agreements.

CFR's Robert Danin identifies the winners and losers in the deal brokered between Israel and Hamas to secure the release of Gilad Shalit, abducted by Hamas in June 2006.

Cherie Blair, founder of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, discusses the gender gap in access to mobile technology. Research conducted by Blair's organization has found that the gender gap is particularly wide in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.

Egypt's 2011 revolution marks the latest chapter in Egyptians' longtime struggle for greater democratic freedoms. In this video, Steven A. Cook, CFR's Hasib J. Sabbagh senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies and author of "The Struggle for Egypt", identifies the lessons that Egypt's emerging leadership must learn from the Nasser, Sadat, and Mubarak regimes.

Expert Robin Wright discusses the unfolding developments of the Arab Spring with CFR's Isobel Coleman. Wright argues that a "counter-jihad" is happening, which is "challenging the political status quo."

Sebastian Mallaby, Director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies and Paul A. Volcker Senior Fellow for International Economics, says Greece is nearing a turning point in its debt crisis. Mallaby predicts that "Greece is going to have to default, it's going to have to be restructured in its debt," and argues that policy-makers need to "prevent the fire from spreading out of Greece and causing trouble all across the eurozone."

Steven Cook, Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations discusses the prospects and implications of the Palestinian bid for UN recognition of statehood. Cook cautions that "an American veto or American opposition to this declaration of statehood is likely to roil already intense and uncertain and unstable political environments throughout the region."

Derek Yach, director of global health policy at PepsiCo, discusses the role of government and business in lowering mortality rates from non-communicable diseases (NCDs). "We now have overwhelming evidence, both of the health impact, and perhaps as importantly, we're starting to see the economic impact of heart disease, diabites, chronic lung disease, cancer," says Yach, arguing this data is raising global interest in the issue of NCDs.

This video is part of a special Council on Foreign Relations series that explores how 9/11 changed international relations and U.S. foreign policy. In this video, James M. Lindsay, Senior Vice President, Director of Studies, and Maurice R. Greenberg Chair at the Council on Foreign Relations traces the shifts in the balance of power in American politics following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. "What we witnessed in the months after the attack was a political dynamic as old as the American republic. When the country feels imperiled, the White House gains in power and Congress loses it," says Lindsay. However, ten years after the attacks, "the era of terrorism has given way to the era of fiscal austerity," Lindsay argues, and "we now have American politics that looks more normal, that is much more focused inward, and features much more heated battles between Capitol Hill and the White House."

Laurie Garrett, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, explores the lasting impact of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the anthrax attacks that followed on disaster preparedness and health policy in the United States. Garrett argues that "all our readiness response depends on well-funded police, well-funded fire departments, well-funded hospitals, well-funded public health infrastructures, and precisely the opposite is where we are going right now." Garrett cautions that U.S. preparedness for a major terrorist attack may be decreasing. "As budgets are being cut at the federal level, the state level, and the local level, we're actually less ready than we were in 2001," Garrett says.

This video is part of a special Council on Foreign Relations series that explores how 9/11 changed international relations and U.S. foreign policy. In this video, Stewart M. Patrick, senior fellow and director of the International Institutions and Global Governance Program at the Council on Foreign Relations, identifies the successes and lasting challenges in the international community's response to global terrorism since the attacks of September 11, 2001. "The world has made a lot of progress," says Patrick, "but it still has quite a bit of a ways to go to achieve real consensus and real solidarity in this fight."

This video is part of a special Council on Foreign Relations series that explores how 9/11 changed international relations and U.S. foreign policy. In this video, Steven Cook, Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations discusses how the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 transformed the United States' Middle East policy. Cook argues the attacks led to the conclusion that "authoritarian stability -- that is, relying on authoritarian leaders in the region to help create a political order that made it relatively easier for the United States to pursue its interests in the region -- was perhaps no longer appropriate." Instead, U.S. policy has been devoted from that point on to "fostering democratic change in the Middle East."

This video is part of a special Council on Foreign Relations series that explores how
9/11 changed international relations and U.S. foreign policy. In this video, Ed Husain, Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, who was previously a member and strategist for radical Islamist organizations in London discusses the impact of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on Islamist extremism as well as global counter-terrorism efforts. "The most important thing that happened after 9/11," says Husain, "is not just the so-called 'War on Terror', but more importantly, the unspoken and often unheard developments within Islamist extremism globally." Husain argues that "the global Islamist movement then split into two, immediately after 9/11," into global jihadists like al-Qaeda on one side and non-violent extremists on the other.

This video is part of a special Council on Foreign Relations series that explores how 9/11 changed international relations and U.S. foreign policy. In this video, Isobel Coleman, Senior Fellow and Director of CFR's Civil Society, Markets, and Democracy Initiative, discusses how the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2011 influenced a debate over social and economic challenges and opportunities in the Middle East.

Christine Lagarde, the newly appointed Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, discusses the IMF's changing role amid growing concerns over U.S. and Eurozone debt with Tom Glocer, Chief Executive Officer of Thomson Reuters.