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    United States

    How the U.S. Patrols Its Borders

    President Trump sent U.S. troops to the border with Mexico to supplement the work of authorities there. President Biden pledges a new approach as pressures mount along the boundary.

    Backgrounder by Amelia Cheatham, Claire Felter and Zachary Laub April 12, 2021

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    Hong Kong

    Hong Kong’s Freedoms

    Beijing has tightened its grip on Hong Kong in recent years, dimming hopes that the financial center will ever become a full democracy.

    Backgrounder by Lindsay Maizland and Eleanor Albert February 17, 2021

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    Pharmaceuticals and Vaccines

    What Is the World Doing to Distribute COVID-19 Vaccines?

    Only a year after the new coronavirus emerged, the first vaccines to protect against it are being administered. But production challenges, vaccine nationalism, and new virus strains are all presenting hurdles.

    Backgrounder by Claire Felter March 1, 2021

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    Wars and Conflict

    Nonstate Warfare The Military Methods of Guerillas, Warlords, and Militias

    Stephen Biddle explains how nonstate military strategies overturn traditional perspectives on warfare.

    Book by Stephen Biddle April 6, 2021 National Security and Defense Program

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    China

    U.S. Response to China's Belt and Road Initiative

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    Webinar with Susan A. Thornton April 7, 2021 Academic and Higher Education Webinars

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    United States

    The 21st Century World: Big Challenges & Big Ideas: What Are the Lessons of History for Our Era?

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    Margaret MacMillan discusses prominent events in history that can help increase our understanding of current events and guide policymaking.  This meeting launches CFR’s new speaker series, The 21st Century World: Big Challenges & Big Ideas, which will feature some of today’s leading thinkers and tackle issues ​that will define this century. The series commemorates CFR’s centennial and will be released as a podcast later this year. 

    Virtual Event with Margaret MacMillan April 13, 2021

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  • Antarctica
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  • Oceans and Seas
  • Space
What’s at Stake With Rising Competition in the Arctic?
A changing climate and growing competition for resources is raising tensions among Arctic nations.

In Brief by Brian L. Sittlow May 1, 2020

The Artemis Accords and the Next Generation of Outer Space Governance
The United States is pursuing bilateral agreements to shape international space law.

Blog Post by David P. Fidler Jun 2, 2020

  • World Health Organization (WHO)
    What Does the World Health Organization Do?
    Since its postwar founding, the UN agency has garnered both praise and criticism for its response to international public health crises, including the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.
    Backgrounder by CFR.org Editors January 29, 2021
  • Russia
    Russia
    Podcast
    There is no country quite like Russia. Despite having a relatively small economy, it has been able to maintain global influence through a range of unconventional tactics. How has Vladimir Putin played his country’s weak hand so effectively? And what is his goal?
    Podcast with Gabrielle Sierra, Jill Dougherty, Stephen Sestanovich and Angela Stent January 19, 2021 Why It Matters
  • China
    China’s Starring Role in Hollywood
    Podcast
    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.
    Podcast with Gabrielle Sierra, Aynne Kokas and James Tager January 6, 2021 Why It Matters
  • 2020 in Review
    Ten Good Foreign Policy News Stories in 2020
    Two thousand twenty will go down in the books as a very tough year. It’s of no comfort that historians say it ranks just eighth in terms of the most stressful years in U.S. history. Our lives were di…
    Blog Post by James M. Lindsay December 30, 2020 The Water's Edge
  • Pharmaceuticals and Vaccines
    COVID-19: Why Vaccination Coverage Is Important
    Vaccines are a major public health success story, but the COVID-19 pandemic underscores the many challenges involved in getting a vaccine to everyone who needs it.
    In Brief by Claire Felter December 22, 2020
  • Global
    Five Foreign Policy Stories to Watch in 2021
       
    Blog Post by James M. Lindsay December 21, 2020 The Water's Edge
  • 2020 in Review
    Ten Most Significant World Events in 2020
    Four years ago stories appeared asking whether 2016 was the worst year ever. Well, 2020 has 2016 beat. You would have to go back to 1968 to find a year filled with as much turmoil. Yes, the past twel…
    Blog Post by James M. Lindsay December 17, 2020 The Water's Edge
  • Space
    Biden Will Have to Confront a New and Perhaps More Dangerous Space Race
    The cooperative vision of space is under stress. Biden should commit the United States to forge new norms and rules of collective security to manage the shared risks and advance the common purposes of all peace-loving nations.
    Blog Post by Stewart M. Patrick December 14, 2020 The Internationalist
  • Global Governance
    The State of Global Governance: A Conversation With Richard Haass and the Council of Councils
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    Richard N. Haass, Sunjoy Joshi, and Elizabeth Sidiropoulos discuss the mounting challenges to global governance and their implications for international cooperation, including rising climate concerns, economic volatility, and increasing great power tensions amid a global pandemic. The Council of Councils (CoC) is an international initiative created by the Council on Foreign Relations to connect leading foreign policy institutes from around the world in a dialogue on issues of global governance and multilateral cooperation. The CoC is composed of twenty-eight major policy institutes from some of the world’s most influential countries. It is designed to facilitate candid, not-for-attribution dialogue and consensus-building among influential opinion leaders from both established and emerging nations, with the ultimate purpose of injecting the conclusions of its deliberations into high-level foreign policy circles within members' countries.
    Virtual Event by Richard N. Haass, Sunjoy Joshi and Elizabeth Sidiropoulos November 9, 2020
  • Global
    Season Three Trailer
    Podcast
    What happens when the world runs out of fish? Does TikTok actually present a national security risk? Will Africa's population boom change the world as we know it? In season three, Why It Matters explores a new series of challenges that are gathering on the horizon.
    Podcast with Gabrielle Sierra October 14, 2020 Why It Matters
  • Space
    The White House Adopts Cybersecurity Policy for Activities in Outer Space
    The Trump administration's newly issued directive on cybersecurity policy for outer space is another small step towards taking cyber threats to U.S. space systems seriously.
    Blog Post by David P. Fidler September 23, 2020 Digital and Cyberspace Policy Program
  • World Trade Organization (WTO)
    What Is Next for the WTO?
    Play
    Speakers discuss the future of the World Trade Organization (WTO), including what role the WTO can play in a COVID-19 world, who could be the next Director-General, and what changes to expect from the WTO moving forward.  
    Virtual Event by Peter Draper, Jennifer Hillman and Mark Wu September 22, 2020 Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies
  • United Nations
    The UN Security Council
    The UN Security Council is the premier global body for maintaining international peace and security, but it faces steady calls for reform to better meet twenty-first-century challenges.
    Backgrounder by CFR Staff September 16, 2020
  • United Nations
    The Role of the UN General Assembly
    The UN General Assembly hosts a much-watched debate of world leaders each year but has struggled to make its work more substantive. For the first time in the assembly’s seventy-five-year history, leaders of member states will not gather in person due to the coronavirus pandemic.
    Backgrounder by CFR Staff August 25, 2020
  • Coronavirus
    Which Countries Are Requiring Face Masks?
    As the pandemic continues, more than half of the world’s countries are mandating the wearing of face masks in public. Is it helping to slow the spread of COVID-19?
    In Brief by Claire Felter and Nathalie Bussemaker August 4, 2020
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