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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.
September 1, 1985—June 30, 2007
| Chair: | Anthony C. Zinni |
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| Staff: | Judith Kipper |
The Middle East Forum develops and sponsors meetings and roundtables with distinguished leaders in government, business, academia and the media to examine and discuss U.S. interests in the Middle East. The Forum has been funded since 1996 by an endowment raised by Judith Kipper. Ms. Kipper serves as the director of the Middle East Forum.
January 1, 1984—December 31, 1996
| Staff: | Richard K. Betts, Adjunct Senior Fellow for National Security Studies, Council on Foreign Relations |
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January 1, 1983—Present
| Staff: | Edward J. Lincoln, Director, Center for Japan-U.S. Business and Economic Studies, New York University |
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The Walter Hochschild Program was inaugurated in 1983, and supports Studies programs on international economic issues.
| Staff: | Gene B. Sperling, Senior Fellow for Economic Policy and Director of the Center for Universal Education |
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As of July 1, 2009, the Center for Universal Education has moved to Brookings Institution. For more information, please visit CUE’s new website at: www.brookings.edu/universal-education
| Director: | Sheila A. Smith, Senior Fellow for Japan Studies |
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The Japan studies program is excited to announce a new project initiative, China and India as Emerging Powers: Challenge or Opportunity for the United States and Japan? This project will examine the rise of China and India in global affairs and study the economic, security, and environmental implications of global governance. Particular focus will be given to the implications for the United States and for Japanese policymaking. A core group of experts will be invited to a planning workshop in early 2009 to define policy discussions that will be held in the second and third years of the project. Envisaged policy discussion topics include: the global consequences of Chinese and Indian economic growth and the effect of the countries’ simultaneous rise on global economic management; how the countries’ growth will shape their global and regional military influence; the international coordination needed to manage competition for energy resources and to ameliorate the environmental consequences of global warming; and the types of influence the world might expect to see emanate from these two new globalizing power centers.
This project is made possible by a grant from the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership.
Ended January 2007
| Director: | Julia E. Sweig, Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Latin America Studies and Director for Latin America Studies |
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| Fellow: | Shannon K. O'Neil, Douglas Dillon Fellow for Latin America Studies |
Leaders of the nations of the Western Hemisphere are working to manage regional democratization, problems associated with the challenges of globalization, and new and longstanding security threats. Political and economic shocks—Argentina’s financial crisis, Venezuela’s polarization, Haiti’s unrest, upheaval in the Andean region—have shaken democratic consolidation, tested democratic institutions, and weakened public faith in both democracy and liberalizing economic reforms. The United States and Canada continue to try to resolve trade disputes and to repair relations damaged by the war in Iraq. Mexico has largely recovered from its 1994 financial crisis, but crime and official corruption remain obstacles to further political and economic development.
| Director: | Sheila A. Smith, Senior Fellow for Japan Studies |
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This project has been made possible by grants from the Robina Foundation, the United States-Japan Foundation, and the Korea Foundation, and by support from the International Institutions and Global Governance program.
The Council on Foreign Relations New Regional Security Architecture for Asia Program explores the prospects and potential for a new regional architecture in the Asia-Pacific region, seeking to provide answer about the future of regionalism in Asia. At the core of this project is a trans-Pacific dialogue that will culminate in a set of concrete proposals about what types of institutions are necessary to meet the strategic challenges of the region during the twenty-first century.
Workshop Number One: Tokyo, Japan (November 14, 2007)
The first meeting on a shared security vision for Northeast Asia was held in Tokyo on November 14, 2007. Dr. Smith, with Gary Samore, CFR vice president and director of Studies, led a group of strategic thinkers with regional experts from Korea, Japan and China. The day long seminar was cosponsored with the Japan Institute for International Affairs and hosted by its president Ambassador Satoh Yukio examined four critical issues: the security dynamics of Northeast Asia, the impact of domestic political change on regional diplomacy, the progress and prospects of the six-party talks, and the future directions of regional security cooperation.
Workshop Number Two: Washington, DC (March 7, 2008)
The second meeting was held in Washington, DC on March 7, 2008 at the Council on Foreign Relations. Building on the conversations held in Tokyo, the second workshop focused on the regional implications of domestic political change, as well as the progress and impact of the six-party talks. The debate over U.S. engagement in Northeast Asia community building, and the more specific question of whether a new architecture was needed was also examined.
Workshop Number Three: Seoul, South Korea (July 1, 2008)
Picking up where the previous discussions left off, the third meeting was held in Seoul, South Korea on July 1, 2008. This workshop was cosponsored by Asan Institute for Policy Studies and hosted by its president, Ambassador Han Sung-joo. In contrast to the idea of an institutionalized security mechanism, other ideas such as a new trilateral dialogue between the U.S., Japan and China as a complement to the six-party process, emerged. The complementarity of trailateral efforts as a key to forging stronger ties and greater security confidence-building in Northeast Asia was discussed.
Workshop Number Four: Beijing, China (October 13, 2008)
The fourth and final in-country meeting, cosponsored by the China Reform Forum, and hosted by its vice chairman, Mr. Xue Fukang, was held in Beijing, China on October 13, 2008. This workshop brought together our multinational team for our last discussion of the prospects for a new security architecture in Northeast Asia. The workshop concluded with a shared understanding that while there may be a common desire among diplomats and regional experts to move the agenda of security cooperation forward in Northeast Asia, the reality of domestic sensitivities and leadership challenges emanating from within made this agenda difficult. Yet, there was a common sense that the desire for a community-building agenda, even including the difficult issues related to each nation's security, was a shared desire among the societies that live in this region, and a need for the United States to demonstrate its commitment to working with the countries of the region to achieve this goal.
Bringing Regional Expertise to the U.S. Foreign Policy Debate
Workshop: Washington, DC (May 4, 2009)
Moving into the final phase, Dr. Sheila Smith convened a group of leading regional experts to discuss the prospects of cooperation. The meeting focused on the impact of domestic political change on the regional diplomatic agenda, and the place accorded to multilateralism in each nation’s foreign policy.
Roundtable: The North Korean Missile Launch and Its Aftermath: Is a Regional Approach Still Viable? (May 5, 2009)
North Korea’s recent missile launch and subsequent threat to walk away from the Six-Party Talks calls into question the future of regional cooperation in dealing with nuclear proliferation and brings with it the attendant risk of greater instability on the Korean Peninsula. Dr. Smith presided over a panel of leading regional experts from Japan, South Korea, and the United States to discuss the impact of North Korea’s behavior and their perspectives on the difficult diplomatic road ahead.
Upcoming Activities
A final workshop will be held in the fall of 2009, and the completed collection of essays will be made available on the Council on Foreign Relations' website.
| Staff: | Gene B. Sperling, Senior Fellow for Economic Policy and Director of the Center for Universal Education |
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While fighting AIDS and promoting universal education have long been important development priorities, the recent spread of the epidemic in Africa and elsewhere has made the relationship between AIDS and education delivery critical to the success of both efforts. Not only is the scourge of AIDS spreading – every minute, someone somewhere becomes newly infected with HIV; two-thirds of those people are in sub-Saharan Africa – but AIDS is now severely damaging an institution critical to preventing its spread: the schools.
Roundtables in this series aim to bring the AIDS and education advocacy communities together to discuss their shared challenges with senior policy makers and top experts and identify best practices for addressing them.
| Staff: | Gene B. Sperling, Senior Fellow for Economic Policy and Director of the Center for Universal Education |
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October 2006—Present
| Staff: | Noah Feldman, Adjunct Senior Fellow |
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| Director: | Isobel Coleman, Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy |
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Dr. Coleman is currently working on her latest book, which examines the role of women in bringing reform to the Muslim world. Paradise Beneath Her Feet: Women and Reform in the Middle East (Random House) looks at women across five countries — Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. This strategic crescent contains more than 300 million people, nearly fifty percent of the world’s known oil reserves, two active wars, an unstable nuclear power and an aspiring one, and the heart of both Sunni and Shia Islam. It is in this volatile corner of the globe that the world’s future stability is likely to rest. The role of women is central to determining whether these deeply religious, conservative societies can make the transition to functioning democracies with modern economies, or whether they will remain in the grip of religious extremists. Dr. Coleman focuses on those men and women working within an Islamic framework to promote social change.
| Director: | Isobel Coleman, Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy |
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The advisory council has been instrumental in establishing the Endowed Chair for Women and Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. Founded by Jewelle Bickford, Senior Managing Director at Rothschild North America Inc., its members include leaders from the business, nonprofit, and philanthropic sectors throughout the country who have a keen interest in issues related to U.S. foreign policy toward women in developing countries. If you would like more information about the advisory council, please contact Dr. Coleman at icoleman@cfr.org or her research associate, Negar Razavi, at nrazavi@cfr.org.
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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