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Immigration and Migration

After becoming a hot-button election issue, the role of immigration in the United States deserves a better approach that seeks to balance secure borders with orderly migration.

Immigration and Migration

U.S.

Presidential candidates Harris and Trump differ sharply on the benefits of immigration for the U.S. economy. What role do immigrants play?
Middle East

Middle East and North Africa

The President’s Inbox discusses how Middle Eastern countries are reacting to President-Elect Donald Trump’s win and his potential policy for the region.

Israel

Israel has long been the leading recipient of U.S. foreign aid, including military assistance. That aid has come under heightened scrutiny amid Israel’s conflicts with Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran.

Middle East

Iran

Iran

The IRGC is one of the most powerful organizations in Iran, conceived as the principal defender of the 1979 revolution, and now a critical link to Islamist militant groups violently opposed to Israel and the United States.

 

Iran

Iran’s nuclear program and missile arsenal have garnered increased international scrutiny amid its flaring conflict with Israel.
U.S.

United States

Each Friday, I examine what is happening with President-elect Donald Trump’s transition to the White House. This week: Presidential transitions are complicated affairs, especially when power passes from one party to another.

United States

Stephen Hadley, a principal of Rice, Hadley, Gates & Manuel LLC and former national security advisor to President George W. Bush, sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss the presidential transition process and the challenges that all incoming presidents face in staffing up their administration. This episode is the first in a special TPI series on the U.S. 2025 presidential transition and is supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Foreign Policy

The return of President-Elect Donald Trump has thrown the future of U.S. global leadership into doubt. CFR experts answer your questions on the pressing issues.
Climate Change

Climate Change

The 2024 summit in Azerbaijan comes amid fresh reports showing that global warming levels are accelerating, bringing more intense climate-related disasters and an increased demand for funding to mitigate and protect communities from the effects of climate change.

Climate Change

Countries will collectively need to spend trillions of dollars to reach their decarbonization goals and protect the most vulnerable nations from climate disasters, but experts say that current funding levels lag behind what’s required to stave off and adapt to the worst effects of climate change.
Varun Sivaram

China

 

The Annual Report features CFR’s main activities, including a response to conflicts abroad and new focus on competition with China and reviving U.S. economic leadership.

Events

U.S.

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and the Brookings Institution Foreign Policy Program collaborated to convene an expert discussion that examined the role of technology and electoral dynamics in the 2024 election. As part of a series of virtual events convened by CFR and Brookings in the lead-up to Election Day, the conversation examined how the perception of technology is influencing electoral credibility; cybersecurity and election integrity; and what is at stake for safeguarding our democratic processes in an era of disinformation. The series is a part of Election 2024, a CFR initiative focused on exploring the United States’ role in the world, how international affairs issues affect voters, and the foreign policy issues at stake in November, and Election ’24: Issues at Stake, a Brookings initiative aimed to bring public attention to consequential policy issues confronting voters and policymakers in the run up to the 2024 election. Both projects are made possible in part by grants from Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Technology and Innovation

CFR's Technologist-in-Residence Sebastian Elbaum discusses the capabilities, failures, and future of artificial intelligence and its intersections with policy.  

United States

Panelists discuss the shifting information environment underpinning this year’s U.S. presidential election, generational differences in accessing information, the rising role of influencers, and how the campaigns’ overall strategies responded to these evolutions.  

United States

Panelists discuss the findings of the Commission on the National Defense Strategy Report, including the evolving security threats from China and its aligned partners: Russia, Iran, and North Korea. The Commission explores the need for the United States to strengthen its deterrence and response strategies by using all elements of national power, including diplomacy, investment, and commercial strategies, along with the critical role U.S. alliances play in shaping global competition. The U.S. Congress created the Commission on the National Defense Strategy in the Fiscal Year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act as an independent body charged with assessing the 2022 National Defense Strategy. Its members are non-governmental experts in national security. The Commission released its final report on July 29, 2024. RAND contributed analytic and administrative support.

Explainers

Expert Spotlight

Alice C. Hill
Alice C. Hill

David M. Rubenstein Senior Fellow for Energy and the Environment

Climate Change Infrastructure Food and Water Security

Inu Manak

Episode 100: What Lies Ahead in a Second Trump Administration?

Featured Publications

Religion

Hundreds of thousands of young Jews have drifted away from the American Jewish community and many more may follow. This book explains to Jewish parents, donors, and organizations how Jewish education, Jewish summer camping, and time spent in Israel can revive and strengthen Jewish identity.

United States

Son of the Midwest, movie star, and mesmerizing politician—America’s fortieth president comes to three-dimensional life in this gripping and profoundly revisionist biography.

Asia

Robert D. Blackwill and Richard Fontaine evaluate the limitations of the Pivot to Asia and offer a compelling vision for the future of U.S. foreign policy in the Indo-Pacific.