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The Trump administration recently released its much-anticipated National Security Strategy. CFR convened seven of its experts to discuss the implications of a document that could reorient the United States’ approach toward the world.
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Will the two congressionally mandated documents provide some clarity about President Trump’s priorities and strategy?
U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin shares her vision for the future of American national security and foreign policy.
If you wish to attend virtually, log-in information and instructions on how to participate during the question and answer portion will be provided the evening before the event to those who register. Please note the audio, video, and transcript of this hybrid event will be posted on the CFR website.
Venezuela
CFR President Michael Froman sits down with Senior Fellow Elliott Abrams to discuss the prospect of the Trump administration ousting Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
The United States has significantly increased its military presence near Venezuela, carrying out strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean Sea and threatening Nicolás Maduro’s regime with the possibility of invasion.
As prospects for U.S. intervention in Venezuela grow, an already dire humanitarian landscape risks unraveling further, raising urgent questions about whether the military options reportedly under review at the White House account for the human toll that could follow.
DRC
In shallowly engaging with Kinshasa and Kigali, Washington does little to promote peace and risks insulating leaders from accountability.
What are the terms of the deal the U.S. is trying to negotiate with the DRC and Rwanda?
Immigration
Immigrants have long played a critical role in the U.S. economy, filling labor gaps, driving innovation, and exercising consumer spending power. But political debate over their economic contributions has ramped up under the second Trump administration.
The White House’s latest travel ban imposes restrictions on citizens from nineteen countries, many of which are contending with crises at home.
The second Trump administration has significantly ramped up immigration enforcement, putting pressure on federal, state, and local agencies to meet the president’s deportation goals.
Conflict
The UN authorization of a new security mission in Haiti marks an escalation in efforts to curb surging gang violence. Aimed at alleviating a worsening humanitarian crisis, its militarized approach has nevertheless raised concerns about repeating mistakes from previous interventions.
Weeks after a Trump-negotiated ceasefire fell apart, the two countries seem far from finding another pause in the fighting. In fact, the border conflict is likely to get worse.
North Korean troops and weapons have played an unexpectedly crucial role in sustaining Russia’s grinding military campaign in Ukraine. In exchange, Pyongyang has been able to upgrade its outdated Soviet-era military.
Economics
A quarterly review finds that the U.S. economy’s increasingly K-shaped nature is making American consumption patterns uneven and unpredictable. Despite continued growth, this and several other data points suggest a precarious economic situation could soon emerge.
Government tensions have upended the economic relationships between the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Despite this, public- and private-sector North American members of the Trilateral Commission appeared committed to finding a path forward.
Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies
President Trump routinely claims that foreigners pay his tariffs, which is false—U.S. importers pay them. Over time, however, foreign exporters can be expected to bear a small but rising burden of the tariffs through price cuts, while most of the cost will be borne by U.S. consumers in the form of higher prices.
Strategic Initiatives
Securing Ukraine’s Future
Timely, informed analysis and practical policy recommendations for both the public and policymakers.
General John W. Vessey Senior Fellow for Conflict Prevention and Director of the Center for Preventive Action
Events
In its important new report, U.S. Economic Security: Winning the Race for Tomorrow’s Technologies, the CFR Task Force on Economic Security finds that strategic competition over the world’s next generation of foundational technologies is underway, and U.S. advantages in artificial intelligence, quantum, and biotechnology are increasingly contested. The high-level, bipartisan Task Force warns that economic security risks, especially overconcentration of critical supply chains in China and underinvestment in strategically important areas at home, threaten American leadership in these three crucial sectors of the future. The Task Force report provides a comprehensive view of vulnerabilities that the United States must address and offers practical recommendations for mobilizing the resources needed to prevail.
For those attending virtually, log-in information and instructions on how to participate during the question-and-answer portion will be provided the evening before the event to those who register.
This Task Force is part of RealEcon: Reimagining American Economic Leadership, a CFR initiative of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies.
Members may bring a guest to this event.
Panelists discuss how U.S. presidents have leveraged executive power to confront political violence, human rights abuses, and other global challenges, highlighting the ways presidential leadership has shaped America’s legacy of responsibility, reconciliation, and transitional justice.
Please note there is no virtual component to the meeting.
Efforts to end the war in Ukraine gained momentum in recent days as a result of newly developed peace plans. CFR fellows discuss the current state of play and prospects for peace in Ukraine.
This meeting is part of the Council’s Special Initiative on Securing Ukraine’s Future and the Wachenheim Program on Peace and Security, which are made possible by the generous support of the Ed and Sue Wachenheim Foundation.
This is a virtual meeting through Zoom. Log-in information and instructions on how to participate during the question-and-answer portion will be provided the evening before the event to those who register.
Panelists discuss the geopolitical implications of transformative technologies like artificial intelligence, including how decision-makers are navigating governance, balancing innovation with risk, and addressing questions of equity and accountability.
Explainers
The Extent of Sudan’s Humanitarian Crisis
More than two years into the civil war in Sudan, about twelve million people have been forcibly displaced. Yet experts say the country’s devastating humanitarian crisis is still not getting the international attention it deserves.
Expert Spotlight
Roger W. Ferguson Jr.
Steven A. Tananbaum Distinguished Fellow for International Economics
Inu Manak
Senior Fellow for International Trade
Trade Diplomacy and International Institutions Treaties and Agreements
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Few Americans have done more than Jerome A. Cohen to advance the rule of law in East Asia. The founder of the study of Chinese law in the United States and a tireless advocate for human rights, Cohen has been a scholar, teacher, lawyer, and activist for more than sixty years. Moving among the United States, China, and Taiwan, he has encouraged legal reforms, promoted economic cooperation, mentored law students—including a future president of Taiwan—and brokered international crises.
In this compelling, conversational memoir, Cohen recounts a dramatic life of striving for a better world from Washington, DC, to Beijing, offering vital first-hand insights from the study and practice of Sino-American relations. In the early 1960s, when Americans were not permitted to enter China, he met with émigrés in Hong Kong and interviewed them on Chinese criminal procedure. After economic reform under Deng Xiaoping, Cohen’s knowledge of Chinese law took on a new importance as foreign companies began to pursue business opportunities. Helping China develop and reconstruct its legal system, he made an influential case for the roles of Western law and lawyers. Cohen helped break political barriers in both China and Taiwan, and he was instrumental in securing the release of political prisoners in several countries. Sharing these experiences and many others, this book tells the full story of an unparalleled career bridging East and West.