In recent years, women and openly gay individuals have gained new opportunities to serve in the U.S. military, yet racial and ethnic minorities remain underrepresented at the highest levels.
Ismael Ortega/U.S. Air Force via Reuters
Iran
Maxar Technologies/Reuters
Iran shows no signs of slowing down its nuclear program despite an explosion at a major centrifuge production site.
Singapore
Singapore, one of the world’s wealthiest and most trade-dependent countries, punches above its weight in regional and global affairs.
Trade
On current trends, goods exports to China will struggle to reach their 2017 level—there won't be any big gains from the Phase One deal.
Immigration
The United States has long accepted hundreds of thousands of foreign workers each year, but the Trump administration has blocked many of these visas as unemployment among the domestic labor force has skyrocketed amid the coronavirus pandemic.
This post is part of the Council on Foreign Relations’ blog series on human trafficking, in which CFR fellows and other leading experts assess new approaches to improve U.S. and global efforts to curb trafficking and modern slavery. This post was authored by Jeff Bond, associate director, Global Fund to End Modern Slavery (GFEMS).
Syria
New U.S. sanctions under the Caesar Act could compound the economic turmoil threatening to undo the Assad regime.
In order to prevent a humanitarian disaster in Syria and avoid regional instability, the United States should make the outcome of the fight for Idlib a national security concern and exercise the leadership necessary for implementing diplomatic and political solutions to the civil war.
CFR on the Record
Drs. Lisa Cooper and Leana Wen discuss the racial inequities that exist in the health care field today and how that impacts the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Following the 70th anniversary of the start of the Korean War on June 25, panelists discuss how the war altered U.S. foreign policy, divided Korea, and had long lasting effects in the region.
Expert Spotlight
Elizabeth C. Economy
C. V. Starr Senior Fellow and Director for Asia Studies
Sebastian Mallaby
Paul A. Volcker Senior Fellow for International Economics
Monetary Policy International Finance Globalization
@scmallaby
Explainers
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China
China’s Approach to Global Governance
Learn about China's evolving approach to global governance and how it has shifted strategy under President Xi Jinping related to trade, the belt and road initiative, and the coronavirus pandemic.
Public Health Threats and Pandemics
The Coronavirus Pandemic, With Tom Bollyky
Thomas J. Bollyky, director of CFR’s Global Health program and senior fellow for global health, sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss the World Health Organization’s newly declared pandemic, COVID-19.
Human Trafficking
Modern Slavery: Its Root Causes and the Human Toll
Slavery, long banned and universally condemned, persists in many corners of the world, victimizing tens of millions of people.
Syria
Syria's War and the Descent Into Chaos
In the nine years since protesters in Syria first demonstrated against the four-decade rule of the Assad family, hundreds of thousands of Syrians have been killed and some twelve million people have been displaced.
Global
Women’s Power Index
Find out where women around the world wield political power—and why it matters.
Experts in the News
Featured Publications
An invaluable primer from Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, that will help anyone, expert and nonexpert alike, navigate a time in which many of our biggest challenges come from the world beyond our borders.
The United States should respond to the COVID-19 reordering moment and stop deterioration in the balance of power with China, bolster relations with India and Europe, and reform the way it deals with allies and partners.
Diplomacy and International Institutions
Is America’s alliance system so quietly effective that politicians and voters fail to appreciate its importance in delivering the security they take for granted?