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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.
January 1, 2006—Present
| Director: | Elliot Schrage, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Business and Foreign Policy |
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June 2006—Present
January 2006—January 2007
| Director: | Douglas Holtz-Eakin |
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This roundtable series brings together policymakers, scholars, and journalists to explore current policy challenges that have both economic and national security dimensions.
December 1, 2004—Present
| Director: | Douglas Holtz-Eakin |
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This meeting series is designed to bring Council members together in a small seminar environment to discuss new and innovative thinking at the intersection of economics and foreign policy.
January 2006—April 2007
| Staff: | Sebastian Mallaby, Director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies and Paul A. Volcker Senior Fellow for International Economics |
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| Author: | Gordon H. Hanson, Professor of Economics, University of California, San Diego |
Immigration is a toxic political issue in the United States. This report by University of California, San Diego Professor Gordon Hanson indicates that the economic costs of illegal immigration roughly match the economic benefits. That is, the net economic impact of illegal immigration is close to zero. Thus, the political debate must revolve around other sources of costs, or efforts to curb illegal immigration, such as increased border enforcement, would result in a net loss to the U.S.economy. He also finds that illegal immigration provides a labor supply that more closely tracks shifts in the need for labor across time and geography, while legal immigration—even when temporary—cannot keep up with these cyclical shifts. Any policy aimed at addressing the demand for low-skilled labor must also address the need for flexibility.
June 2006—May 2007
| Author: | Peter B. Kenen, Adjunct Senior Fellow for International Economics |
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In April 2006, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund made a set of proposals aimed at enhancing the legitimacy and efficiency of the Fund and involving it more directly in the resolution of large imbalances involving the major economies. Some of his proposals were endorsed at the 2006 Annual Meetings of the Fund, and others are being implemented by the Fund's Executive Board. The most important reforms involve a redistribution of IMF quotas, which determine, among other things, voting power in the Fund. This Council Special Report provides a brief history of the Fund, stressing the changes that have occurred as a great many developing countries, large and small, have joined the Fund. It strongly endorses most of the Managing Director's proposals, although it criticizes others, including the way that the Managing Director would have the Fund involve itself in resolving major international financial imbalances. It argues that the United States should strongly support measures to enhance the legitimacy of the IMF, because the United States cannot readily accomplish unilaterally what the Fund can accomplish multilaterally.
November 2006—February 2007
| Author: | Steven Simon, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies |
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December 2006—Novemer 2007
| Staff: | William L. Nash, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Military Affairs and Director of the Military Fellows Program |
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| Author: | Reuben E. Brigety |
A major task of early warning of violent conflict is to understand the linkage between political, economic, and social sources and triggers of violence and larger, systemic issues that consistently contribute to unrest. One such dynamic is the international proliferation and trade, licit and illicit, in small arms and light weapons (SALW). This forthcoming report will review the current state of the global SALW problem, examine the U.S. policies for tackling the problem, and then propose tangible, realistic steps for the United States to address SALW proliferation and misuse as a form of systemic conflict prevention.
May 2006—September 2007
| Staff: | Sebastian Mallaby, Director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies and Paul A. Volcker Senior Fellow for International Economics |
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| Author: | Robert J. LaLonde, Professor, Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago |
Professor Robert J. Lalonde, professor of economics at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago, is writing a Council Special Report on job displacement and the experienced worker. In this report, Professor LaLonde examines evidence on the causes of job loss, both through trade, technological change, and other factors, and suggests policies for aiding workers most harmed by job displacement—long-tenured, displaced workers. The report outlines the merits of a wage insurance program that would supplement the earnings of long-tenured workers displaced by international trade and other factors. The report contends that without policies to aid the workers most adversely affected by job loss, public support for further economic liberalization will likely diminish.
March 2006—November 2006
| Director: | Douglas Holtz-Eakin |
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| Author: | Keith E. Maskus, Stanford Calderwood Professor of Economics, University of Colorado |
This report evaluates the effectiveness of the U.S. intellectual property regime in encouraging innovation and discusses the U.S. push to harmonize intellectual property standards with its trading partners. Professor Maskus argues that the intellectual property system is so skewed toward patent holders that it actually discourages innovation, and that the aggressive drive toward harmonization with other countries should be replaced by an emphasis on the enforcement of existing standards.
April 2006—December 2006
| Staff: | William L. Nash, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Military Affairs and Director of the Military Fellows Program |
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| Author: | Terrence Lyons, Associate Professor of Conflict Resolution at the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University |
July 2006—April 2007
| Staff: | Charles D. Ferguson, Philip D. Reed Senior Fellow for Science and Technology |
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This report examines the contribution nuclear energy can make to strengthening energy security and countering climate change while balancing these benefits against the risks of proliferation, safety, security, and nuclear waste disposal.
April 2006—February 2007
| Staff: | William L. Nash, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Military Affairs and Director of the Military Fellows Program |
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| Director: | Julia E. Sweig, Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Latin America Studies and Director for Latin America Studies |
| Author: | Eduardo A. Gamarra |
February 2006—June/November 2006
| Author: | Pamela K. Starr |
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| Director: | Julia E. Sweig, Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Latin America Studies and Director for Latin America Studies |
November 2006—April 2007
| Staff: | William L. Nash, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Military Affairs and Director of the Military Fellows Program |
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| Author: | Robert I. Rotberg |
May 2006—March 2007
| Staff: | Sebastian Mallaby, Director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies and Paul A. Volcker Senior Fellow for International Economics |
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| Author: | Robert Z. Lawrence, Williams Professor of International Trade and Investment, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University |
The Doha negotiations have stalled since last summer, and, as the November elections in the United States highlighted, American advocates of economic nationalism are growing in strength. Nevertheless, Robert Lawrence makes a case for the effectiveness of the World Trade Organization (WTO), particularly its dispute settlement system, and the benefits that would accrue to the United States and others from improving its effectiveness. These benefits include expanding world trade and increasing support for an often beleaguered organization that is central to the conduct of world trade.
In this Council Special Report, Professor Lawrence addresses the critics of the dispute settlement mechanism—both those who think it should be tougher on countries that violate trade rules and those who think it is already so tough as to violate sovereignty. He points out the successes of the WTO since its creation in 1995 and argues that radical changes to the system are ill-advised. Lawrence nonetheless suggests several areas for reform, from steps that require multilateral negotiations, such as improving opportunities for nonstate actor participation in and enhancing transparency of the process, to changes the United States could make in its own behavior.
Part of the Bernard and Irene Schwartz Series on American Competitiveness.
September 7, 2006—September 7, 2006
Cosponsored with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and Macroeconomic Advisers
Georgetown University Conference Center
April 1, 2006—Present
| Director: | Edward Alden, Bernard L. Schwartz Senior Fellow |
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Made possible by the generosity of Bernard L. Schwartz, this roundtable series explores issues that affect the competitiveness of the U.S. economy. Meetings have addressed issues such as the sustainability of the U.S. current account deficit, the effectiveness of the WTO dispute settlement process, and intellectual property rights.
October 2006—December 2007
| Staff: | Shannon K. O'Neil, Douglas Dillon Fellow for Latin America Studies |
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| Director: | Julia E. Sweig, Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Latin America Studies and Director for Latin America Studies |
The Latin America, America Latin Roundtable Series explores how the growing Hispanic demographic in the United States is reshaping the domestic political and economic landscapes of the United States and of the sending countries. Issues being addressed include the role of remittances and the implications of hemispheric economic integration; transnational culture and the prominence of civil society organizations; security issues related to illegal immigration and drug trafficking; the hispanization of the U.S. market; the effect of Latinos on U.S. foreign policy; and the domestic and foreign policy considerations of U.S. immigration debates.
This roundtable series is made possible by the generous support of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Ford Foundation.
2006—Present
| Staff: | Gene B. Sperling, Senior Fellow for Economic Policy and Director of the Center for Universal Education |
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This series hosts ministers of education from developing countries, who come to speak about the current state of their education sectors, the reforms they are enacting, and their progress in achieving the Education for All goals. Recent speakers have included Ministers of Education from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Kenya.
Explore the international finance regime with a new interactive from CFR's program on International Institutions and Global Governance.
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.
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
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
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
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