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Public Health Threats and Pandemics
Opioid addiction and abuse in the United States has become a prolonged epidemic, endangering public health, economic output, and national security.
Violence continues to rage more than a decade after the Mexican government launched a war against drug cartels.
North Korea
Pyongyang’s missile tests are a constant cause of tension in northeast Asia. The President’s Inbox podcast lays out what these nuclear advances could mean for regional security.
Negotiations between the United States and North Korea have proceeded in fits and starts for decades. But they have failed to halt the advance of North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.
NATO
The alliance is bolstering its military deterrent in Europe amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and has expanded to include Finland.
Russia’s threat to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus has raised the specter of a new nuclear standoff with the United States and its allies in Europe. It also draws new attention to how such arms are deployed in NATO states.
China
Amidst accusations of “debt-trap diplomacy,” Chinese companies seek more overseas direct investment opportunities and fewer foreign contracted projects as Xi’s flagship initiative is stymied by poor risk management.
China’s colossal infrastructure investments may usher in a new era of trade and growth for economies in Asia and beyond. But skeptics worry that China is laying a debt trap for borrowing governments.
United States
The sprawling U.S. water system is central to the nation’s economy, but chronic underinvestment, increasing demand, and the consequences of climate change have revealed the system’s weaknesses.
Water scarcity threatens the health and development of communities around the globe. Climate change is intensifying the problem, pushing governments to find more innovative, collaborative ways to address water stress.
The U.S. Congress has approved the largest federal investment in infrastructure in decades. Here’s why infrastructure matters for U.S. economic competitiveness.
Northern Ireland
The Good Friday Agreement has dampened sectarian tensions and brought stability to Northern Ireland, but the peace deal’s twenty-fifth anniversary has been marred by a Brexit-related trade impasse that has thrown the region’s hard-won gains into doubt.
In Northern Ireland, the consequences of the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union, known as Brexit, are threatening to unravel the twenty-five-year-old Good Friday Agreement. It’s a peace deal that ended decades of violence between nationalists who wanted Northern Ireland to be reunified with the Republic of Ireland and unionists who wanted it to stay part of the United Kingdom. The agreement largely ended the bloodshed, and allowed for freer movement of trade and people across the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. However, Brexit has imperiled that free movement, and there are major concerns that resolving that issue could inflame old divisions and lead to renewed bloodshed in Northern Ireland.
Events
Panelists discuss how the private and public sectors can partner to develop, scale, and utilize emerging technologies to mitigate and adapt to the consequences of climate change.
The Malcolm and Carolyn Wiener Annual Lecture on Science and Technology addresses issues at the intersection of science, technology, and foreign policy. It has been endowed in perpetuity through a gift from CFR members Malcolm and Carolyn Wiener.
Carolyn Kissane, academic director and clinical professor at the Center for Global Affairs at New York University, leads the conversation on the geopolitics of oil.
Panelists discuss the current state of identity politics and populism in Europe, including the complex interaction between economic and cultural factors, and how they affect the state of democracy across the continent.
This meeting is part of the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Project on the Future of Democracy.
Expert Spotlight
Robert E. Rubin
Chairman Emeritus; Former Secretary of the U.S. Treasury
Gideon Rose
Mary and David Boies Distinguished Fellow in U.S. Foreign Policy
Wars and Conflict Middle East and North Africa Southeast Asia
Alice C. Hill
David M. Rubenstein Senior Fellow for Energy and the Environment
David P. Fidler
Senior Fellow for Global Health and Cybersecurity
Thomas J. Bollyky
Senior Fellow for Global Health, Economics, and Development and Director of the Global Health Program
Brad W. Setser
Whitney Shepardson Senior Fellow
Bruce Hoffman
Shelby Cullom and Kathryn W. Davis Senior Fellow for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security
Terrorism and Counterterrorism Wars and Conflict Intelligence
Max Boot
Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow for National Security Studies
Esther Brimmer
James H. Binger Senior Fellow in Global Governance
Global Governance International Organizations Regional Organizations
Scott A. Snyder
Senior Fellow for Korea Studies and Director of the Program on U.S.-Korea Policy
Linda Robinson
Senior Fellow for Women and Foreign Policy
Ray Takeyh
Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle East Studies
Robert D. Blackwill
Henry A. Kissinger Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy
Stephen Biddle
Adjunct Senior Fellow for Defense Policy
Steven A. Cook
Eni Enrico Mattei Senior Fellow for Middle East and Africa Studies and Director of the International Affairs Fellowship for Tenured International Relations Scholars
Ebenezer Obadare
Douglas Dillon Senior Fellow for Africa Studies
Zongyuan Zoe Liu
Fellow for International Political Economy
Stephen Sestanovich
George F. Kennan Senior Fellow for Russian and Eurasian Studies
James M. Lindsay
Senior Vice President, Director of Studies, and Maurice R. Greenberg Chair
United States Politics and Government Polls and Public Opinion
Shannon K. O'Neil
Vice President, Deputy Director of Studies, and Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Latin America Studies
John B. Bellinger III
Adjunct Senior Fellow for International and National Security Law
Ann Norris
Senior Fellow for Women and Foreign Policy
Matthew C. Waxman
Adjunct Senior Fellow for Law and Foreign Policy
Explainers
The Complicated U.S.-China Relationship
The United States and China have an important and complex relationships marked by periods of both tension and cooperation over issues including trade, climate change, and Taiwan.
Featured Publications
A provocative guide to how we must reenvision citizenship if American democracy is to survive.
Shannon K. O’Neil offers a powerful case for why regionalization, not globalization, has been the biggest economic trend of the last forty years.
Joshua Kurlantzick analyzes China's attempts to become a media, information, and influence superpower, seeking for the first time to shape the domestic politics, local media, and information environments of the United States, East Asia, parts of Europe, and the broader world.