Model Diplomacy
World101
Council of Councils
Think Global Health
Trump’s presidency has shown many Americans the appeal of populist authoritarianism. The country’s response to the attack on the U.S. Capitol will indicate how long this movement lasts.
Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
Conflict Prevention
KCNA/Reuters
A crisis stemming from North Korea’s continued development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile testing is the top-ranked conflict concern.
North Korea has embarked on an accelerated buildup of weapons of mass destruction and the modernization of its already large conventional force.
A return to provocations as North Korea’s primary mechanism for drawing international attention would signal weakness, not the intended message of strength.
Coronavirus
The global distribution of COVID-19 vaccines is underway, but the emergence of new coronavirus strains threatens to make the pandemic far worse before it gets better.
China
What does it take to make a Hollywood blockbuster? Movie stars? A great script? How about approval from the Chinese government? In this episode, two guests explore the surprising role of Chinese censorship and oversight in the production of U.S. films and ask what’s at stake as their presence increases.
Transition 2021
History will judge the Trump presidency to have been a consequential one, but more for its destructive effects than for its achievements.
The breaching of the U.S. Capitol and disruption of the presidential succession by a pro-Trump mob has inflicted lasting damage on the nation’s image as a bastion of democracy. The country should now dedicate itself to rebuilding civil discourse.
Each Friday, I look at what is happening in President-Elect Joe Biden’s transition to the White House. This week: The mob that stormed the Capitol Building this week highlighted how Donald Trump’s presidency has left the United States worse off than when he started.
Take a look at CFR and foreign policy over the last one hundred years.
Events
Public Health Threats and Pandemics
World Bank President David Malpass discusses global economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The C. Peter McColough Series on International Economics brings the world's foremost economic policymakers and scholars to address members on current topics in international economics and U.S. monetary policy. This meeting series is presented by the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies.
Public Health Threats and Pandemics
The coronavirus pandemic has not been an advertisement for the healthy effects of democracy. There have been some notable success stories among democracies, but it is also true that nine out of the ten nations with the highest cumulative COVID-19 cases are democracies. One possibility is that the mechanisms that ordinarily produce better health in democracies—accountability through free and fair elections and freedom of expression—may not function to produce the same result in a pandemic. In this Council on Foreign Relations roundtable, Drs. John Gerring and Ilona Kickbusch discuss this possibility and their work from a new BMJ series on democracy and health.
Expert Spotlight
Stewart M. Patrick
James H. Binger Senior Fellow in Global Governance and Director of the International Institutions and Global Governance Program
Global Governance Diplomacy and International Institutions International Organizations
@StewartMPatrick
Bruce Hoffman
Shelby Cullom and Kathryn W. Davis Senior Fellow for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security
Terrorism and Counterterrorism Wars and Conflict Intelligence
John B. Bellinger III
Adjunct Senior Fellow for International and National Security Law
Explainers
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Food and Water Security
Rising Hunger: Facing a Food-Insecure World
Global food insecurity has surged amid the coronavirus pandemic, threatening to worsen humanitarian crises and spur further mass migration.
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.
United States
How Police Compare in Different Democracies
Killings by U.S. officers in 2020 have sparked widespread calls for police reform and an end to systemic racism. Here’s how U.S. policing compares with other countries’ approaches.
Global
Women’s Power Index
Find out where women around the world wield political power—and why it matters.
Featured Publications
Former Ambassador John Campbell illustrates the history and importance of Nigeria, a country too often overlooked by the West.
CFR Senior Fellow Yanzhong Huang discusses how China’s environmental crisis is undermining public health and becoming an Achilles heel in its reemergence as a global power.
The definitive account of how regime change in the Middle East has proven so tempting to American policymakers for decades—and why it always seems to go wrong.