Research Projects

Below you will find a chronological list of current Council research projects. You can search by issue or region by selecting the appropriate category. In addition to this sorting control, you can search for specific subjects within the alphabetical, regional, and issue categories by choosing from the selections in the drop-down menu below.

Each project page contains the name of the project director, a description of the project, a list of meetings it has held, and any related publications, transcripts, or videos.

All Projects

2000

January 1, 2000—March 31, 2001

Ad hoc meetings on Africa

January 1, 2000—September 1, 2002

AT Kearney Executive Roundtable Series

Staff:	Benn Steil, Senior Fellow and Director of International Economics

This roundtable covers major issues in international economics of direct concern to American business. Prominent speakers from industry, government and academia are featured.

July 1, 2000—November 1, 2002

James J. Shinn U.S.-Asia Roundtable

Staff:	Elizabeth C. Economy, C.V. Starr Senior Fellow and Director for Asia Studies

May 18, 2000—May 19, 2000

Latin America Conference 2000

Director:	Kenneth R. Maxwell, Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations
Staff:	Julia E. Sweig, Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Latin America Studies and Director for Latin America Studies

Latin America Conference - May 18-19, 2000 http://www.cfr.org/public/latinamerica.html

January 1, 2000—May 1, 2000

Managing Global Security and Rogue States: Lessons from UNSCOM

Director:	Richard Butler

Eight years after the U.N. Security Council established a Special Commission to "destroy, remove, or render harmless" Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction (WMD), Saddam Hussein declared that UNSCOM will no longer be permitted to conduct its disarmament work. In the face of such overt defiance, the Security Council has been paralyzed by the conflicting national interests of its permanent members. Iraq’s continuing refusal to fulfill its disarmament obligations has thus not only undermined the Security Council’s capacity to enforce its resolutions as international law, but it may also jeopardize the international commitment to the WMD non-proliferation regime. Ambassador Butler will study the implications of these developments, while writing a book based on his recent position as UNSCOM’s executive chairman. The book will present an analysis of specific events from his two-year tenure as the organization’s chief disarmament expert and negotiator. He will specifically draw upon his experiences in guiding all UNSCOM operations, directing negotiations with the government of Iraq, leading discussions with heads of government, foreign and defense ministers, and intelligence chiefs, and advising the Security Council on relevant policy matters. The book will present the disarmament of Iraq as a major test case for the international arms control regime. It will examine the key events leading up to the current crisis with Iraq and detail how the international community sought, or failed, to deal with this particular recalcitrant state. In this context, the book will consider the role of the U.N. in the management of global security system in the century ahead.

January 1, 2000—Present

Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies

Staff:	Marc Levinson, Senior Fellow for International Business Sebastian Mallaby, Director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies and Paul A. Volcker Senior Fellow for International Economics Brad W. Setser, Fellow for Geoeconomics Benn Steil, Senior Fellow and Director of International Economics Steven Dunaway, Adjunct Senior Fellow for International Economics Amity Shlaes, Senior Fellow for Economic History Michael A. Levi, David M. Rubenstein Senior Fellow for Energy and the Environment and Director of the Program on Energy Security and Climate Change David Braunschvig, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Business and Foreign Policy Matthew J. Slaughter, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Business and Globalization Caroline Atkinson, Adjunct Senior Fellow for International Economics Roger M. Kubarych, Henry Kaufman Adjunct Senior Fellow for International Economics and Finance James P. Dougherty, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Business and Foreign Policy Jagdish N. Bhagwati, Senior Fellow for International Economics Edward Alden, Bernard L. Schwartz Senior Fellow David G. Victor, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Science and Technology Joan McGrath, Web Producer
Chairs:	Paul A. Volcker, Former Chairman of the Board of Governors, Federal Reserve System (1979-87) Bernard L. Schwartz, Chairman and CEO, BLS Investments, LLC
Advisory Board:	Maurice R. Greenberg, Chairman & CEO, C.V. Starr & Co., Inc. Martin S. Feldstein, President Emeritus, National Bureau of Economic Research Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Distinguished Service Professor, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University Roger C. Altman, Chairman, Evercore Partners, Inc. Richard H. Clarida, Professor of Economics and International Affairs, Columbia University Richard N. Cooper, Maurits C. Boas Professor of International Economics, Harvard University Daniel W. Drezner, Associate Professor of International Politics, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University Nicholas N. Eberstadt, Henry Wendt Chair in Political Economy, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research Jessica P. Einhorn, Dean, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies Joseph H. Flom, Senior Partner, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP Kristin J. Forbes, Associate Professor of Management, Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Jeffrey A. Frankel, James Harpel Chair for Capital Formation & Growth, Harvard University Stephen C. Freidheim, CIO and Managing Partner, Cyrus Capital Partners Aaron Louis Friedberg, Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University James D. Grant, Owner and Editor, Grant's Interest Rate Observer David D. Hale, Chairman, Hale Advisors Amy Myers Jaffe, Wallace S. Wilson fellow in Energy Studies, The James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy of Rice University Jim Kolbe, Senior Advisor, The German Marshall Fund of the United States Robert E. Litan, Vice President, Research and Policy, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation Michael Mandelbaum, Christian Herter Professor, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, The Johns Hopkins University Donald B. Marron, Chairman, Lightyear Capital Kathleen R. McNamara, Associate Prof. of Government & International Affairs, Georgetown University E. Stanley O'Neal John G. Ruggie, Kirkpatrick Professor of International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University Faryar Shirzad, Managing Director, Office of Government Affairs, The Goldman Sachs Group Joan E. Spero, Visiting Fellow, Foundation Center Fareed Zakaria, Editor, Newsweek International Steven Denning, Chairman, General Atlantic LLC Marc Lasry, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Avenue Capital Group Daniel Zwirn, Chairman, Lightyear Capital Charles O. Prince III, Chairman, Sconset Group Jeffrey A. Rosen, Deputy Chairman, Lazard

Founded in 2000, the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations works to promote a better understanding among policymakers, academic specialists, and the interested public of how economic and political forces interact to influence world affairs. Globalization is fast erasing the boundaries that have traditionally separated economics from foreign policy and national security issues. The growing integration of national economies is increasingly constraining the policy options that government leaders can consider, while government decisions are shaping the pace and course of global economic interactions. It is essential that policymakers and the public have access to rigorous analysis from an independent, nonpartisan source so that they can better comprehend our interconnected world and the foreign policy choices facing the United States and other governments. The center pursues its aims through:

Research carried out by Council fellows and adjunct fellows of outstanding merit and expertise in economics and foreign policy, disseminated through books, articles, and other mass media;
Meetings in New York, Washington, DC, and other select American cities where the world's most important economic policymakers and scholars address critical issues in a discussion or debate format, all involving direct interaction with Council members;
Sponsorship of roundtables and independent task forces whose aims are to inform and help to set the public foreign-policy agenda in areas in which an economic component is integral;
Training of the next generation of policymakers, who will require fluency in the workings of markets as well as the mechanics of international relations.

ADVISORY BOARD Mr. Maurice R. Greenberg, Chair Mr. Richard N. Haass, Ex- Officio Ms. Lisa Anderson The Rt. Hon. Lord Browne of Madingley The Honorable Martin S. Feldstein Dr. Stanley Fischer General John R. Galvin, USA (Ret.) The Honorable Carla A. Hills The Honorable Winston Lord Mr. Donald B. Marron Mr. William J. McDonough The Honorable Peter G. Peterson Mr. David Rockefeller The Honorable Robert E. Rubin Mr. Richard E. Salomon The Honorable Brent Scowcroft Dr. Laura D'Andrea Tyson The Honorable Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León

January 1, 2000—February 28, 2000

Muslim Politics Project

September 1, 2000—October 1, 2000

New Forms of Terrorism Study Group

Director:	Jessica Stern, Former Adjunct Fellow, Superterrorism, Council on Foreign Relations

March 31, 2000—April 30, 2000

Roundtable on Advances in Science and Technology: How Will They Affect U.S. Foreign Policy

Director:	Richard L. Garwin
Staff:	David G. Victor, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Science and Technology

Advances in science and technology are transforming people's lives, but are they affecting U.S. foreign policy—how the United States established its interests and perceives dangers as well as opportunities? Experienced U.S. foreign policy leaders were brought together with leaders in science and technology to address this question during a one-day roundtable on March 31, 2000. The group explored three important fields of science and technology—information technology, molecular biology and its applications, and national security technology.

September 1, 2000—June 30, 2002

Roundtable on General Foreign Policy Topics

Director:	Kiron Skinner

October 1, 2000—August 1, 2001

Roundtable on Russian Economics and Security

Chair:	Celeste A. Wallander

The purpose of this roundtable is to gain understanding in the shape and sources of Russian national security policy in the next decade by exploring the effects of Russia’s emerging economic interests on individual private and state-owned sectors within Russia. The stake these sectors have in the global marketplace will affect their rationale for cooperative national security policies. A broad range of sectors will be looked which could include energy, defense, agriculture, consumer goods, and services. The discussions of this roundtable series will contribute to a book that the project director will write over the next three years.

January 1, 2000—June 1, 2000

Roundtable on Safeguarding Globalization: Defining the Role of the Multinational

Director:	Marcus Mabry, 1999-2000 Edward R. Murrow Press Fellow, Newsweek

The development of a global class of economic movers and shakers is challenging the supremacy of the nation-state. The most obvious embodiments of the new power may be the multinational corporation and the international class of managers who can move currencies, literally at the speed of light, and undermine governments. Their ascendancy seems to have taken even the international economic players by surprise. As a result, a movement has arisen to invest companies with a new sense of global responsibility beyond shareholder profit and the bottom line. The roundtable series examined the nature and place of corporate responsibility in the age of "globality." What are the powers and duties of international economic players in the post-Cold War era? What are American companies doing in extra-commercial arenas? How are they supplanting the role of governments in international relations and in the internal affairs of states? What are the ramifications of this trend for U.S. foreign policy? The final product will be a major article by Marcus Mabry.

November 1, 2000—March 31, 2001

Roundtable on the Goldwater-Nichols Act and the Joint Chiefs of Staff

Director:	Marine Lieut. Gen. (ret.) Bernard E. Trainor

January 1, 2000—Present

Secretary of State Series

January 1, 2000—June 30, 2004

Study Group on Brazil at 500

Director:	Kenneth R. Maxwell, Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations

Although Brazil is seen by many as a country that has yet to achieve its full potential, it is often forgotten that its economy and population are larger than those of Russia. While great disparities of income exist, Brazil has a powerful entrepreneurial class, a substantial industrial base, a middle class comprised of some 40 million people with a purchasing power of over $500 billion and a vibrant culture and boisterous mass media.

The study group will be organized around a series of sessions based on chapters for a book by Kenneth Maxwell, to be titled Brazil at 500, as background papers. The aim is to examine some of the complex cultural, political, historical and socio-economic constraints that have conditioned Brazil’s development and to provide an accessible text that will help explain Brazil to those in the policy, academic, journalistic, and financial communities who find themselves baffled by the vast and surprisingly little-known giant whose successes or failures will profoundly influence the future of Latin America and the Western Hemisphere as a whole.

January 1, 2000—December 6, 2000

Study Group on Derivatives in Public Debt Management

Staff:	Benn Steil, Senior Fellow and Director of International Economics

Publications: Derivatives in Public Debt Management: http://www.isma.org/surveys/latest.html

January 1, 2000—December 31, 2001

Study Group on Middle East Trade Options

Chair:	Peter D. Sutherland
Staff:	Henry Siegman, Former Senior Fellow and Director for the U.S./Middle East Project, Council on Foreign Relations

Study Director: Bernard Hoekman (World Bank) Project Coordinator: Scott Lasensky This study group seeks to identify the comparative advantages of various geographic, structural and external arrangements and examines the political and economic obstacles to greater economic growth. The study group’s work is backed by a multi-country business survey, conducted in 2000, that identifies specific trade barriers encountered by businesspeople. The study also undertook a computable general equilibrium analysis (including a gravity model) of the impact of removing barriers on overall trade and investment between Egypt and Tunisia. The study group’s final report, expected in Spring 2001, will provide a step-by-step blueprint for developing economic growth in the region.

July 1, 2000—June 30, 2004

Study Group on New World Order

Director:	Michael Mandelbaum, Christian Herter Professor, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, The Johns Hopkins University

The activities carried out under this study group during previous years have supported the development of the project director’s recently published book, The Ideas that Conquered the World: Peace, Democracy, and Free Markets in the Twenty-first Century. Throughout the Fall, the project director will promote his by holding Council meetings in New York, Washington, and across the country. Following this book promotion, the project director will begin research on a new book, building on the first, related to America’s role in the world.

September 1, 2000—October 1, 2002

Study Group on Overcoming Europe's Divide: NATO Enlargement and the Search for a New European Security Order

Director:	Ronald D. Asmus

This project is about American leadership, NATO enlargement, and the search for a new security order in Europe after the collapse of communism and the end of the Cold War. Ronald Asmus will examine the most far-reaching and controversial debate over Europe and the U.S. role in Europe since the North Atlantic alliance was founded in 1949 under Harry Truman and Dean Acheson—the debate over expanding NATO's membership and missions to build a Europe whole and free in ongoing alliance with the United States. This project will focus on the ideas, diplomacy, and politics that created the consensus in the United States and across the Atlantic to bring new democracies in central and eastern Europe into NATO; to intervene militarily in crises in Bosnia and Kosovo to halt ethnic cleansing; and to build a new cooperative relationship with NATO's former adversary, Russia. The project will also examine the impact of economics on the debate. It will result in a book that tells the story of this extraordinary period and shows the lessons learned to help set the future U.S. policy agenda and an article on economic and security in U.S.-European relations.

January 1, 2000—June 1, 2002

Study Group on Refugee Policy

Director:	Arthur C. Helton
Chair:	Stephen J. Friedman

This study group analyzes international responses to refugee emergencies over the past decade and addresses implications for dealing with similar crises in the future. Particular emphasis is placed on responses to the complex humanitarian crises that unfolded over the past decade in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, East Timor, the Great Lakes region of Africa, Haiti, Iraq, and Kosovo. Specifically, the study group reviews and comments on drafts of a book-length manuscript by Arthur Helton. The book identifies potential reforms with respect to both the formulation and management of refugee policies, and recommends how best to organize the policy-making process in order to promote rational, comprehensive and humane perspectives which address the needs of refugees and displaced persons nationally and internationally. Both policy and operational dimensions are considered. In the policy realm, the available repertoire of responses is identified and their successful or unsuccessful use over the past decade analyzed, with a view towards identifying circumstances when a particular combination of such policy tools might work in the future. In the operational realm, coordination issues and questions of institutional reform to increase the effectiveness of responses are addressed, with a particular view toward building sustainable peace after a crisis abates.

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