Council of Councils
Think Global Health
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“The United States faces the most dangerous international circumstances since the end of World War II, and perhaps in its history. An ever more formidable, authoritarian China remains determined to r…
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is pleased to welcome Edward Fishman to the David Rockefeller Studies Program, CFR’s think tank, as senior fellow and director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Cente…
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Steve Coll has won the 2025 Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Arthur Ross Book Award for The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the CIA, and the Origins of America’s Invasion of Iraq (Penguin Press), an…
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“For two-and-a-half centuries, the United States has faced a challenging world. Some of its responses have advanced U.S. interests and values. Others have not,” begins a new interactive webpage from …
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The United States is reducing its efforts to prevent war and violence, while the level of armed conflict around the world and the risk to the United States continue to increase, argues the annual Pre…
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is pleased to welcome Chris McGuire to the David Rockefeller Studies Program, CFR’s think tank, as senior fellow for China and emerging technologies. Mr. McG…
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“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…
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Former Vice President and CFR Board Member Dick Cheney passed away on November 3 at age eighty-four.
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is pleased to welcome Joseph Torigian to the David Rockefeller Studies Program, CFR’s think tank, as senior fellow for Asia studies. Dr. Torigian is an ass…
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is pleased to welcome Jim Baker to the David Rockefeller Studies Program, CFR’s in-house think tank, as senior fellow for strategic competition. Mr. Baker …
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In The Age of Change: How Urban Youth Are Transforming African Politics, Michelle Gavin, the Ralph Bunche senior fellow for Africa policy studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), explores “…
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is pleased to welcome Thomas E. Donilon, Christopher P. Liddell, and Linda Thomas-Greenfield to its Board of Directors. “I am delighted to welcome Tom, Chris…
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As this year’s NATO Summit approaches, key questions about the Russia-Ukraine war remain unresolved. Ceasefire talks have stalled, and the United States continues to struggle with how to compel Russi…
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is pleased to welcome Erin D. Dumbacher as the inaugural Stanton Nuclear Security Senior Fellow. Erin Dumbacher is a nuclear security and technology policy …
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is pleased to welcome Clara Gillispie to the David Rockefeller Studies Program, CFR’s think tank, as senior fellow for climate and energy. Ms. Gillispie mos…
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is pleased to welcome Jessica Brandt and Michael Werz to the David Rockefeller Studies Program, CFR’s think tank. Ms. Brandt was the first director of the F…
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The Council on Foreign Relations mourns the passing of Joseph S. Nye, Jr., who died last Tuesday at the age of 88. As many of you know, Joe was a key member of the CFR community, a prolific schola…
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and the Munich Security Conference (MSC) announced the creation of a new institutional partnership during the May 5–7 Munich Leaders Meeting in Washington, DC. …
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is pleased to welcome back Laura Taylor-Kale to the David Rockefeller Studies Program, CFR’s think tank, as of April 14. Dr. Taylor-Kale has extensive expe…
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The Government of Japan has announced Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) President Michael Froman and John E. Merow Senior Fellow for Asia-Pacific Studies Sheila A. Smith as recipients of the 2025 Sp…
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has received a generous gift from Janine and J. Tomilson Hill in support of CFR’s flagship International Affairs Fellowship (IAF) program. Designed to bridge th…
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CFR Education, the educational arm of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), has released a collection of over fifty free multimedia learning resources and companion teaching resources focused on cl…
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is pleased to welcome back Rebecca Lissner to the David Rockefeller Studies Program, CFR’s think tank. As a senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy, Lissner will …
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) announces the launch of the Climate Realism Initiative, which will reimagine U.S. foreign policy to confront the threat of climate change, compete in the shifti…
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“International economic policy would benefit from more local input; Americans want the tools to compete—in a fair fight; and communicating the costs and benefits of policies is vital,” states a new r…
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has launched a new Task Force on Economic Security that will examine the trade-offs required to balance growth and competitiveness with resilience and national …
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Wachenheim Program on Peace and Security
The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is proud to announce a generous donation from the Sue and Edgar Wachenheim Foundation to expand CFR’s work to identify pathways to prevent, mitigate, and end co… -
This week, as the United States and Russia met in Riyadh and European leaders convened in Paris, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and Foreign Affairs offer resources—including expert voices and…
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is pleased to welcome David Lipton and Rebecca Patterson to the David Rockefeller Studies Program, CFR’s think tank. Lipton is an economist and policy expe…
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Frontier technologies are transforming international relations and the U.S. economy. As a result, more bridges between science and engineering labs, Washington, DC, and the world of business are need…
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The United States “needs to act now to address threats to space assets; champion space traffic management to support the growing space economy; and incorporate commercial perspectives into civilian a…
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In a new collection of reports from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), authors Heidi Crebo-Rediker, Liana Fix, Thomas Graham, Michael O’Hanlon, and Paul B. Stares provide expert recommendations …
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Today, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) announced that Gina Raimondo—the former U.S. secretary of commerce and governor of Rhode Island—will join CFR, based in its Washington, DC, office, as a …
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is pleased to welcome Aimee Carter and Matt Quam to lead corporate relations and development efforts, respectively. Carter returned to CFR on January 6 as v…
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On behalf of the entire Council on Foreign Relations community, I want to congratulate David M. Rubenstein, chairman of our Board of Directors, on receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Pre…
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The second Donald Trump administration assumes office at a moment of great peril for the United States, according to the Council on Foreign Relations’ (CFR) annual Preventive Priorities Survey. The r…
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Following the outbreak of COVID-19 in December 2019, “governments across the world responded with a bewildering array of different policies to deal with what was appropriately called a ‘novel’ virus,…
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In a partnership bordering on alliance, “Russia and China have been clear about the world they seek,” asserts a new Council Special Report, No Limits? The China-Russia Relationship and U.S. Foreign P…
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is pleased to welcome Michael Horowitz and Prashant Yadav to the David Rockefeller Studies Program, CFR’s in-house think tank. As fellows, they will analyze pre…
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Gary J. Bass has won the 2024 Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Arthur Ross Book Award for Judgment at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia (Knopf), an examination of the trial…
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has received $2.5 million from the Amy Falls and Hartley Rogers Foundation to support RealEcon: Reimagining American Economic Leadership, CFR’s cross-cutting in…
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“In this year of elections in liberal democracies, concerns over foreign influence have only grown, amplified by the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, China’s assertive foreign policy, and the Isr…
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is pleased to welcome Ben Chang as vice president of Global Communications. Chang will start on November 20, based in New York City. “We are delighted to w…
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is pleased to welcome David Hart, Jonathan Hillman, and Stuart Reid to the David Rockefeller Studies Program. Hart joined CFR on Tuesday, October 1, as seni…
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is pleased to welcome Timothy Snyder as a senior fellow for democracy. At CFR, Snyder will play a key role in the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Project on the Future o…
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has launched an Election 2024 initiative to explore the role of the United States in the world, how international affairs issues affect voters, and what is at s…
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“It is no exaggeration to say that you cannot fully comprehend what happened to America in the twentieth century without first understanding what happened to Ronald Reagan,” argues Max Boot, the Jean…
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is pleased to welcome Ed Husain back as a senior fellow. He was previously a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies from 2010 to 2013 and an adjunct senior fe…
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) announces two changes in its David Rockefeller Studies Program, as of Monday, September 16. James M. Lindsay, who has long served as senior vice president, d…
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) welcomes the 2024–25 visiting fellows to the David Rockefeller Studies Program. Selected fellows have the opportunity to broaden their perspective on foreign af…
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CFR’s Distinguished Fellow Martin S. Indyk passed away on July 25, 2024, at age 73. The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) mourns the passing of Martin S. Indyk, CFR’s Lowy distinguished fello…
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National Security and Defense Program
The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is pleased to welcome Lori Esposito Murray back as senior fellow for national security and managing director of CEO programs. Murray previously served as an adj… -
The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is pleased to welcome Daniel B. Poneman back as a senior fellow. He was previously adjunct senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy from October 2008 through June …
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is pleased to welcome Steven Levitsky as a senior fellow for democracy. At CFR, Levitsky will write for the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Project on the Future of Demo…
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In the run-up to the November 2024 U.S. presidential election, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has launched Election 2024, which offers a wide range of resources—including a content hub, a can…
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The initiative will seek to answer the questions that go to the heart of American China strategy.
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is pleased to welcome back Varun Sivaram as senior fellow for energy and climate. He will work with CFR President Michael Froman to launch a cross-cutting initi…
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“Washington’s collective inability to respond adequately to growing Chinese power across the 2010s stands as perhaps the most consequential U.S. policy omission since 1945,” argue Ambassador Robert D…
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As the Israel-Hamas war continues and U.S. policymakers seek to contain the conflict and deter Iran, Steven A. Cook of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) writes in a timely and important new book…
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A new online economics tracker from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) uses interactive color-coded maps and charts to reveal patterns in prices across the globe over time. The Global Inflation T…
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As the United States prepares for the 2024 presidential election, a new Contingency Planning Memo from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) warns of the possibility of extremist violence throughout…
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is pleased to welcome Millie Tran as vice president and chief digital content officer. In this newly expanded role, she will oversee the digital content team an…
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) announces the launch of RealEcon: Reimagining American Economic Leadership, an initiative to assess the role of the United States in the international economy, …
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) welcomes Steven Bennett as executive vice president and chief administrative officer, where he will work on strategic, financial, and management issues. Bennett…
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) welcomes Sue Mi Terry and Rush Doshi to the David Rockefeller Studies Program. Terry will be joining CFR on March 25 as a senior fellow for Korea studies bas…
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New CFR Book Assesses Multi-Billion Dollar U.S. Security Assistance Programs for Colombia and Mexico
“For the United States, Plan Colombia and the Mérida Initiative were each a means to an end: a reduction in drug trafficking, the stabilization of volatile and violent neighbors, and the defense of d… -
As the second anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine nears, a new Contingency Planning Memorandum from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) explores the possibility of the end of Russian Pr…
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As Taiwan’s voters head to the polls on January 13 to elect a new president and legislature, the Council on Foreign Relations and Foreign Affairs magazine offer resources and analysis on the context …
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In a new book filled with political drama and intrigue, Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Senior Fellow Benn Steil offers the richest and deepest biographical study to date of Henry A. Wallace—a “fa…
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Diamonstein-Spielvogel Project on the Future of Democracy
Thanks to a generous new grant from the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Foundation, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has extended the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Project on the Future of Democracy for an add… -
For the first time in its sixteen-year history, the Council on Foreign Relations’ (CFR) annual Preventive Priorities Survey (PPS) found that the leading concern for foreign policy experts is the poss…
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Terrorism and Counterterrorism
The United States is “confronted by a serious domestic terrorist threat in addition to the foreign ones that have commanded our attention for the past two decades,” warn Council on Foreign Relations’… -
Thomas J. Bollyky will be the first holder of the Bloomberg endowed Chair in Global Health at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), President Michael Froman announced. Bloomberg Philanthropies …
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“[T]he U.S.-South Korea alliance faces significant risks and dangers in the event that both countries were to elect nationalist America-First and Korea-first leaders,” Scott A. Snyder contends in his…
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Dr. Henry A. Kissinger passed away on November 29, 2023, at age 100. The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) mourns the passing of Henry A. Kissinger, the fifty-sixth secretary of state and a membe…
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Christopher R. Miller has won the 2023 Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Arthur Ross Book Award for Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology (Scribner), an analysis of the global…
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CFR’s former President Peter Tarnoff passed away on November 1, 2023, at age 86. The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) mourns the passing of Peter Tarnoff, CFR president from 1986 to 1993. Un…
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“The challenges to global health are numerous and multiple factors make the emergence and spread of another virulent pathogen not only possible but also probable,” warns a new Council Special Report …
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Amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, it is “time to take a critical look at the post-Cold War history of U.S.-Russian relations and the quality of U.S. policymaking, with the hope that the l…
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is pleased to announce a new cohort for the 2023–24 CFR Education Ambassador Program, which brings together teachers and professionals in high school and higher…
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Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies
Matthew P. Goodman has joined the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in the David Rockefeller Studies Program as distinguished fellow for global economic policy, based at CFR’s Washington, DC, office… -
“Despite overwhelming odds, people inside China today still publish works and make films that challenge authority. Their ideas still spread, and when problems in society reach a boiling point, they a…
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Longtime former editor of Foreign Affairs James F. Hoge Jr. passed away on September 19 at age 87.
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“The United States should lead the effort to reshape the global rules to better serve its own interests and the international trading system’s changing realities,” claims a new Council Special Report…
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Digital and Cyberspace Policy Program
Kat Duffy has joined the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) as a senior fellow for digital and cyberspace policy, based at CFR’s Washington, DC, office. At CFR, Duffy will research and write on digit… -
Public Health Threats and Pandemics
“The United States should, at long last, treat pandemics and global warming as [major] threats to its national interests—especially the vital interests of security and economic power,” argues a new C… -
“For more than six decades, a tenuous peace has prevailed in the Taiwan Strait, enabling Taiwan’s democratic transformation and economic ascendance, and allowing the United States to build productive…
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Today, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) announced that Michael Froman—a widely respected leader across government, business, and the nonprofit sector—will become the organization’s fifteenth pr…
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As the war in Ukraine nears its one-year anniversary, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) offers background and analysis and Foreign Affairs has curated a special package on the continuing conflic…
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Will Freeman has joined the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) as a fellow for Latin America studies, based at CFR’s New York City headquarters. At CFR, he is researching and writing on how issues su…
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The United States faces dangerous threats from Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, terrorists, climate change, and future pandemics. The greatest peril to the country, however, comes not from abroad bu…
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The world took a dangerous turn in 2022. The most concerning scenarios in 2023, according to surveyed experts, are potential flashpoints involving major powers, including a cross-strait crisis around…
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Motivated by its growing power, increasingly authoritarian domestic politics, and an ever more assertive foreign policy, China, for the first time in decades, “has dramatically increased its efforts …
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Esther Brimmer will return to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) as the James H. Binger Senior Fellow in Global Governance on January 3, 2023. At CFR, she will conduct research on issues related …
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Linda Robinson has returned to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) as a senior fellow for women and foreign policy. Robinson was previously an adjunct fellow at CFR and a senior editor of Foreign …
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Diplomacy and International Institutions
As Foreign Affairs magazine celebrates one hundred years of publication, Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Chairman and Carlyle Group Cofounder David M. Rubenstein has generously pledged $10 million… -
Globalization “isn’t the only, or even the real, story of international economics over the past four decades,” writes Shannon K. O’Neil in her latest book The Globalization Myth: Why Regions Matter. …
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) welcomes three new fellows to the David Rockefeller Studies Program: Liana Fix, José Miguel Vivanco, and Jacob Ware. Liana Fix joins as a fellow for Europe. …
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As part of its education initiative, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has launched an annual CFR Education Ambassador program to support teachers and promote global literacy in the classroom. …
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Digital and Cyberspace Policy Program
“The era of the global internet is over,” declares a new Council on Foreign Relations-sponsored Independent Task Force report. “A free, global, and open internet was a worthy aspiration that helped g… -
As President Joe Biden prepares for his mid-July trip to Saudi Arabia, “the time has come for the United States and Saudi Arabia to secure the future of their relationship by attempting to achieve a …
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“For too long, the topic of sunlight reflection has been a third rail of climate change discourse, limiting both basic research and diplomatic discussion. That situation is starting to change as the …
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“The Founding Fathers of the United States embarked on a great experiment in modern democracy when they set up a self-governing republic at a time when similar undertakings had miserably failed in ev…
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Former Secretary of State and CFR Director Emerita Madeleine K. Albright passed away on March 23 at age 84.
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Last month, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) welcomed Zongyuan Zoe Liu and Inu Manak to the David Rockefeller Studies Program, where they are contributing to the work of the Maurice R. Greenber…
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What should the United States do if a disease in a foreign city threatens an outbreak here and around the world? Should the United States support democracies elsewhere? If an ally or partner is threa…
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As China prepares to host the Winter Olympics, its management of the COVID-19 virus is under the microscope. Despite its relative success early in the pandemic, China now appears to be stumbling. “Ch…
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Most attempts at discovering the next big innovation fail, but some succeed at such a scale that they more than make up for the setbacks. This extreme ratio of success and failure is the “power law” …
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) welcomes Ebenezer Obadare to its David Rockefeller Studies Program as the Douglas Dillon senior fellow for Africa studies. At CFR, he will research and write on…
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“Xi [Jinping]’s ambition, as his words and deeds over the past decade suggest, is to reorder the world order,” writes China expert Elizabeth C. Economy. In The World According to China, she argues th…
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The Joe Biden administration is confronting several acute humanitarian crises this year amid growing tensions with Russia, China, and Iran, according to the Council on Foreign Relations’ (CFR) fourte…
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As the United States marks the first anniversary of the January 6 attack on the Capitol, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has expanded its Renewing America initiative to focus on the domestic f…
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To understand the arc of American diplomatic influence in the Middle East, Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Distinguished Fellow Martin S. Indyk returns to the origins of the American-led peace pro…
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Zachary D. Carter has won the twentieth annual Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Arthur Ross Book Award for The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes (Penguin Random …
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) welcomes Laura Taylor-Kale to its David Rockefeller Studies Program as a fellow for innovation and economic competitiveness, based in Washington, DC. At CFR, sh…
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) welcomes Carl Minzner to its David Rockefeller Studies Program as a senior fellow for China studies. At CFR, Minzner will research and write on issues related t…
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The pandemic has provided an unfortunate “dress rehearsal” for confronting catastrophic risk, writes Alice C. Hill, David M. Rubenstein senior fellow for energy and the environment at the Council on …
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) welcomes Michael C. Horowitz to its David Rockefeller Studies Program as senior fellow for defense technology and innovation. At CFR, Horowitz will primarily re…
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“In many countries, the #MeToo movement is not new. Instead, it has been fueled by years of local activism by courageous women leaders,” write Rachel B. Vogelstein and Meighan Stone in Awakening: #Me…
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) welcomes Kenneth I. Juster to its David Rockefeller Studies Program as a distinguished fellow. At CFR, Juster’s work will focus on international economics and I…
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) will welcome three new fellows to the David Rockefeller Studies Program: Ian Johnson, Manjari Chatterjee Miller, and Lauren Kahn. Ian Johnson will become the…
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“Human trafficking is more than a violation of human rights: it is also a threat to national security, economic growth, and sustainable development,” warns a new Council Special Report, Ending Human …
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) will welcome Roger W. Ferguson Jr., who is retiring as president and CEO of TIAA, to its David Rockefeller Studies Program as the Steven A. Tananbaum Distinguis…
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America’s preeminent organization devoted to international relations and U.S. foreign policy has released a new book assessing its first century: the events that led to its founding in 1921, the many…
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While nonstate fighters are expected to wage war with suicide vests, assassinations, and roadside bombs, this assumption “can lead to defense policy choices that leave Western states ill-prepared for…
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) welcomes Justin Muzinich, former deputy secretary of the U.S. Treasury Department, to its David Rockefeller Studies Program as a distinguished fellow. At CFR…
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China’s massive Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which finances and builds infrastructure around the world, “poses a significant challenge to U.S. economic, political, climate change, security, and gl…
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) announces the launch of a project on the future of democracy, funded by a generous grant from the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Foundation, that will identify threats …
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In 2014, a remarkable all-women militia faced off against the self-proclaimed Islamic State in Kobani, a small town in northeastern Syria, which became a turning point in the fight against ISIS. In h…
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Taiwan “is becoming the most dangerous flash point in the world for a possible war that involves the United States, China, and probably other major powers,” warns a new Council on Foreign Relations (…
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Offering a new view of one of America’s most important, strained, and misunderstood relationships of the postwar era, The Last Shah: America, Iran, and the Fall of the Pahlavi Dynasty tells the histo…
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A crisis stemming from North Korea’s continued development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile testing is the top-ranked conflict concern for 2021, according to the Council on Foreign Relations’…
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the country’s most prestigious organization devoted to international relations and foreign policy, marks its one hundredth anniversary this year. Founded in 19…
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The Board of Directors of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has named Daniel Kurtz-Phelan as the seventh editor of Foreign Affairs and to the Peter G. Peterson chair, succeeding Gideon Rose, the…
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Patrick Radden Keefe has won the nineteenth annual Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Arthur Ross Book Award for Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland (Doubleday), a capt…
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American diplomacy currently fails to recognize the diffuse nature of power in Nigeria and other postcolonial states, says John Campbell, Ralph Bunche senior fellow for Africa policy studies at the C…
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“America’s network of international relationships is its foremost strategic asset, even as the agency charged with advancing U.S. interests through diplomacy—the Department of State (DOS)—has fallen …
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“China’s environmental health crisis is perhaps the most important litmus test for the resilience of the Chinese state,” argues Council on Foreign (CFR) Senior Fellow for Global Health Yanzhong Huang…
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“The United States and the world were caught unprepared by the COVID-19 pandemic despite decades of warnings of the threat of global pandemics and years of international planning,” asserts a new bipa…
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“The iron rule of regime change in the Middle East seems to be that its costs will be higher than expected, unintended consequences will emerge, and results will leave much to be desired.” So warns P…
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The first full account of American isolationism throughout U.S. history
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“The United States should shift its diplomatic efforts from promoting a global, open internet to preserving an open internet that connects the digital economies of democratic countries,” argues Whitn…
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“Since January 2019, U.S. policy toward Venezuela has centered on [President Nicolas] Maduro’s removal. The United States has advocated for a transitional government to facilitate a return to democra…
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) welcomes the 2020–21 visiting fellows to the David Rockefeller Studies Program. Selected fellows have the opportunity to broaden their perspective of foreign af…
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) welcomes three new fellows to the David Rockefeller Studies Program: Luciana Borio, Julian Gewirtz, and Jennifer Nuzzo. Luciana Borio will join as senior …
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“Along with U.S.-Soviet competition during the Cold War, COVID-19 is one of the two greatest tests of the U.S.-led international order since its founding,” warn Robert D. Blackwill, Council on Foreig…
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“This is a critical time to understand what is taking place in the world, why it is taking place, and how it will affect our lives,” writes Richard N. Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relat…
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“Knowing that federal assistance is all but certain, state and local officials frequently ignore the disaster risks they create with their decisions on land-use and building standards,” writes Counci…
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and CFR’s Think Global Health website offer resources on the coronavirus pandemic, including background and expert analysis. Find all of CFR’s coronavirus-re…
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Due to the evolving coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is operating remotely as of Monday, March 16, and has suspended all in-person events through at least Frida…
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) welcomes physician and thought leader Dr. Tom Frieden to its David Rockefeller Studies Program as a senior fellow for global health. A recognized global heal…
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) welcomes renowned historian Margaret MacMillan to its David Rockefeller Studies Program as visiting distinguished historian. At CFR, MacMillan is advising o…
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Resources from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), Foreign Affairs, and CFR’s new Think Global Health website offer background and analysis on the growing threat of the novel coronavirus, includi…
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) welcomes David J. Scheffer to its David Rockefeller Studies Program as a visiting senior fellow, based in Washington, DC. At CFR, Scheffer is focusing on int…
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As voters across the country head to the polls for presidential election primaries and caucuses, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) will cohost four public nonpartisan events with universities in…
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) introduces Think Global Health, a multi-contributor website that examines how changes in health are reshaping economies, societies, and the everyday lives of pe…
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January 8, 2020—Jill Lepore has won the eighteenth annual Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Arthur Ross Book Award for These Truths: A History of the United States (W.W. Norton & Company), a one-vol…
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Resources from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and Foreign Affairs offer background and analysis on the consequences of the U.S. targeted killing of Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani for U…
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The threat of a highly disruptive cyberattack on U.S. critical infrastructure, including electoral systems, is the top-ranked concern for the second straight year, according to the Council on Foreign…
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has released World101, a free online course that explains the fundamentals of international relations and foreign policy. Using multimedia storytelling, World10…
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A new survey commissioned from Gallup by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and the National Geographic Society (NGS) finds that adult Americans exhibit gaps in their knowledge about geography an…
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In the run-up to the November 2020 U.S. presidential election, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has created resources to help citizens better understand the critical international issues at sta…
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Why It Matters, a new podcast from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), tells the stories behind the most compelling—and least understood—questions shaping the world and explains how these issues …
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September 30, 2019—The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) welcomes the 2019–20 visiting fellows to the David Rockefeller Studies Program. Selected fellows have the opportunity to broaden their perspe…
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September 18, 2019—“The United States has led the world in innovation, research, and technology development since World War II, but that leadership is now at risk,” warns a new Council on Foreign Rel…
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September 5, 2019—The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) welcomes two new fellows to the David Rockefeller Studies Program: Alice C. Hill and Matthias Matthijs. Alice C. Hill joins as senior fello…
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CFR President Emeritus Leslie H. Gelb passed away on August 31, 2019, at age eighty-two.
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July 31, 2019—The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) welcomes three new fellows to the David Rockefeller Studies Program: Jennifer A. Hillman, Mira Rapp-Hooper, and Paul J. Angelo. …
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July 30, 2019—The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) invited the Democratic candidates to articulate their positions on twelve critical foreign policy issues before the second se…
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May 7, 2019—The new Report Card on International Cooperation gives a middling C grade to international efforts to solve the world’s most pressing problems in 2018, barely up from a C– given in 2017, …
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April 11, 2019—The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) welcomes Thomas Graham to its David Rockefeller Studies Program as a distinguished fellow, based in New York City. At CFR, Graham will be rese…
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April 15, 2019—President Donald J. Trump “is not given sufficient credit for his foreign policies,” writes Robert D. Blackwill, Henry A. Kissinger senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy at the Council…
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April 1, 2019—“Tokyo’s approach to military power”—restraining its own use of force and relying on the United States for security—“is being tested,” writes Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fe…
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A new multimedia InfoGuide from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) examines the burgeoning crisis and the strains it is placing on the international refugee system.
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December 17, 2018—The possibility of conflict between the United States and Iran as well as between the United States and China constitute two of the greatest threats to peace in 2019 and warrant hei…
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November 13, 2018—“While Turkey remains formally a NATO ally, it is not a partner of the United States,” writes Steven A. Cook in the Council Special Report, Neither Friend nor Foe: The Future of U.S…
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November 2, 2018—Professor Stephen Kotkin has won the seventeenth annual Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Arthur Ross Book Award for Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929–1941 (Random House), the second…
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October 16, 2018—America under President Donald J. Trump is abdicating its important leadership role in the current world order, write Ivo H. Daalder and James M. Lindsay in their new book, The …
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September 28, 2018—There is a paradox in global health: the extraordinary progress being made in overcoming the bacteria, viruses, and parasites that were pervasive in poor societies is…
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September 13, 2018—Former diplomat and Middle East expert Martin Indyk will join the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) this month as a distinguished fellow and director of executive education, based…
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September 11, 2018—The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) welcomes the 2018–19 visiting fellows to the David Rockefeller Studies Program. Selected fellows have the opportunity to broaden their perspe…
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September 12, 2018—The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has launched a new weekly feature, CFR Quizzes, designed to promote a greater understanding of foreign policy and international relations. Ea…
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Diplomacy and International Institutions
September 7, 2018—The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) welcomes Jon Finer to its David Rockefeller Studies Program as adjunct senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy, and welcomes back Mervyn King, f… -
“Life today seems like a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying something,” writes Editor Gideon Rose in his introduction to the July/August issue of Foreign Affairs. It seems …
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A highly anticipated meeting between U.S. President Donald J. Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is set to take place in Singapore on June 12. The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and Foreign Affairs offer analysis and resources on the challenges and opportunities of the U.S.-North Korea summit.
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and Foreign Affairs offer resources and analysis on the significance of the U.S. exit from the Iran nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
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The Report Card on International Cooperation gives a dismal C- to international efforts to mitigate the world’s most pressing problems in 2017, the same grade given for 2016. The Council of Councils—…
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May 1, 2018—“One of the great paradoxes of China today,” writes eminent China scholar Elizabeth C. Economy, “is Xi Jinping’s effort to position himself as a champion of globalization, while at th…
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“Centralization of power in the executive, politicization of the judiciary, attacks on independent media, the use of public office for private gain—the signs of democratic regression are well known…
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April 10, 2018—“The world is in the midst of a profound transformation in the nature of work, as smart machines and other new technologies remake how people do their jobs and pursue their careers,” s…
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As the United States courts a trade war with China, a timely new book by Foreign Affairs’ Executive Editor Daniel Kurtz-Phelan illuminates how U.S. policymakers have been vexed by relations with Chin…
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CFR’s Chairman Emeritus Peter G. Peterson passed away on March 20 at age 91.
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March 5, 2018—Solar energy could one day supply most of the world’s energy needs, but its current upsurge is in danger of ebbing, increasing the risk of catastrophic climate change. While solar energ…
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February 20, 2018—“The relationship between the United States and Indonesia has long underperformed its potential,” writes Joshua Kurlantzick, senior fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council on Forei…
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February 13, 2018—The Marshall Plan—the costly and ambitious initiative to revive western Europe after World War II—marked the true beginning of the Cold War, argues Benn Steil. Bringing to bear new …
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“Nobody really knew what to expect when Donald Trump became U.S. president. Would he disrupt the status quo or maintain it? Blow himself up or escape unscathed? One year in, the answer is yes,” write…
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January 19, 2018—The United States has failed to elevate Russia’s intervention in U.S. elections to the national priority that it is, and it has neglected to respond to it in a way sufficient to dete…
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January 17, 2018—Slavery is universally prohibited by national and international laws, but more than 40 million people continue to be enslaved worldwide. Fueled by a population boom and extreme pover…
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January 9, 2018—The Vietnam War “might have taken a very different course—one that was less costly and potentially more successful—if the counsel of this CIA operative and Air Force officer had b…
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January 4, 2018—“More than at any time over the past quarter-century, India is well on its way to global power,” writes Alyssa Ayres in a new book, Our Time Has Come: How India is Making its Place in…
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January 2, 2018—“South Korea’s only viable strategic option for the foreseeable future is continued cultivation and strengthening of the alliance with the United States,” argues Scott A. Snyder in So…
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The Council on Foreign Relations' (CFR) tenth annual Preventive Priorities Survey identified eight top conflict prevention priorities for the United States in the year ahead, highlighting armed confr…
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November 28, 2017—To remain the preeminent global power, the United States must avoid costly conflicts that drain its resources and distract its leadership from addressing pressing domestic prioritie…
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November 15, 2017—Journalist John Pomfret has won the sixteenth annual Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Arthur Ross Book Award for The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom: America and China, …
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November 3, 2017—Despite women’s potentially critical contributions to security, their representation in peace processes has lagged, shows a new interactive report from the Council on Foreign Relatio…
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The number of countries sponsoring cyber operations is rising, reveals a new Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Cyber Operations Tracker that catalogs nearly two hundred state-sponsored cyber inciden…
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Diplomacy and International Institutions
October 31, 2017—When the United States withdrew from the Paris Climate Accord in June, President Donald J. Trump justified the move as a necessary reassertion of U.S. sovereignty. In The Sovereignty… -
The Council on Foreign Relations’ (CFR) “Deforestation in the Amazon” InfoGuide won an Emmy Award in the category of “Outstanding New Approaches: Current News.” The award was announced yesterday at t…
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September 14, 2017—Setbacks to political liberalization in the Arab world have caused the United States to turn away from support for democrats there in favor of “pragmatic” deals with tyrants in ord…
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) welcomes three fellows, Amy Myers Jaffe, James Goldgeier, and Caroline Bettinger-López, to its David Rockefeller Studies Program. “The diverse knowledge areas…
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David M. Rubenstein, co-founder and managing director of the private equity firm the Carlyle Group, has been named chairman of the board of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) effective July 1. He…
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June 1, 2017—More than half a decade after people across the Middle East poured into the streets to demand change, hopes for democracy in the region have all but disappeared in a maelstrom of violenc…
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The third annual Report Card on International Cooperation sharply downgraded its assessment of efforts to mitigate the world’s most vexing problems in 2016 to a C-, falling from a B grade in 2015. …
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As President Donald J. Trump approaches his hundredth day in office, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and Foreign Affairs offer resources and analysis on the new administration’s foreign policy.
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“The United States, through Alaska, is a significant Arctic nation with strategic, economic, and scientific interests,” asserts a new Council on Foreign Relations-sponsored (CFR) Independent Task Force report, Arctic Imperatives: Reinforcing U.S. Strategy on America’s Fourth Coast. With the Arctic “warming at twice the rate as the rest of the planet” and melting sea ice opening up this resource-rich region to new trade routes and commercial activities, the report stresses that “the United States needs to increase its strategic commitment to the region or risk leaving its interests unprotected.”
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“[Vladimir] Putin’s aggression makes the possibility of a war in Europe between nuclear-armed adversaries frighteningly real,” writes Kimberly Marten in a new Council Special Report on tensions between Russia and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). She outlines how U.S. policymakers can deter Russian aggression with robust support for NATO, while reassuring Russia of NATO’s defensive intentions through clear words and actions based in international law.
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) welcomes two experts on national security, Charles A. Kupchan and Ely Ratner, to its David Rockefeller Studies Program.
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Cyber threats are escalating in sophistication and magnitude, but mistrust between Washington and Silicon Valley continues to stymie progress on cybersecurity. In a new Council Special Report, Adam Segal examines the security risks exacerbated by the divide between government and the technology community and offers policy recommendations to help restore trust.
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Former United States Trade Representative (USTR) Michael Froman will join the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) this month as a distinguished fellow, where his work will focus on international economic policy and trends, trade and investment policy, and globalization and populism.
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“Over the course of the war, U.S. bombing of Laos would become so intense that it averaged one attack every eight minutes for nearly a decade,” observes Joshua Kurlantzick in his new book, A Great Place to Have a War: America in Laos and the Birth of a Military CIA. Kurlantzick, a Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow for Southeast Asia, mines extensive interviews and recently declassified Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) records to give a definitive account of the secret war in the tiny Southeast Asian nation of Laos, which lasted from 1961 to 1973, and was the largest covert operation in U.S. history. The conflict forever changed the CIA from a relatively small spying agency into an organization with vast paramilitary powers.
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“These are no ordinary times. It will not be business as usual in a world of disarray; as a result, it cannot be foreign policy as usual,” writes Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), in his latest book, A World in Disarray: American Foreign Policy and the Crisis of the Old Order—a timely examination of a world increasingly defined by disorder. In three parts, the book contemplates the history of world order from the rise of the modern state system to the end of the Cold War; accounts for the momentous shifts in the last quarter century to shed light on the current state of affairs, and outlines specific steps to tackle the many challenges ahead.
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A serious military confrontation between Russia and a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member state or a severe crisis in North Korea are among top international concerns for 2017 cited by a new survey of experts. The Council on Foreign Relations’ (CFR) ninth annual Preventive Priorities Survey identified seven top potential flashpoints for the United States in the year ahead.
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Historian Niall Ferguson has won the fifteenth annual Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Arthur Ross Book Award for Kissinger: 1923-1968: The Idealist (Penguin Press), the first in a two-volume biography of the former national security advisor Henry A. Kissinger, and will receive $15,000. On December 14, CFR will honor Ferguson—a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and Harvard University’s Center for European Studies—and the other awardees at a cocktail reception hosted by Gideon Rose, editor of Foreign Affairs and chair of the independent award jury.
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Following its independence in 2011, three years of civil war have left South Sudan on the cusp of full-scale genocide, with its sovereignty discredited and undermined by warring elites.
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“The U.S.-Israel relationship is in trouble,” warn Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellows Robert D. Blackwill and Philip H. Gordon in a new Council Special Report, Repairing the U.S.-Israel Relationship. Significant policy differences over issues in the Middle East, as well as changing demographics and politics within both the United States and Israel, have pushed the two countries apart. Blackwill, a former senior official in the Bush administration, and Gordon, a former senior official in the Obama administration, call for “a deliberate and sustained effort by policymakers and opinion leaders in both countries” to repair the relationship and to avoid divisions “that no one who cares about Israel’s security or America’s values and interests in the Middle East should want.”
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In Failure to Adjust: How Americans Got Left Behind in the Global Economy, Council on Foreign Relations Bernard L. Schwartz Senior Fellow Edward Alden explains why the political consensus in support of trade liberalization has collapsed, and how to correct the course. The United States has contributed more than any other nation to writing the rules that created the competitive global economy of today, helping support stronger growth in much of the world. Yet successive U.S. administrations have done far too little to help Americans succeed under those rules, says Alden.
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Get up to speed on the 2016 U.S. presidential candidates’ foreign policy stances.
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A new Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Independent Task Force report, A Sharper Choice on North Korea: Engaging China for a Stable Northeast Asia, finds that the United States’ policy of “strategic patience” with North Korea will neither halt that country’s recurring and dangerous cycle of provocation nor ensure the stability of Northeast Asia in the future. To the contrary, the Task Force warns, “If allowed to continue, current trends will predictably, progressively, and gravely threaten U.S. national security interests and those of its allies.”
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The results of a survey commissioned by the Council on Foreign Relations and the National Geographic Society highlight significant gaps in what college-aged students understand about the world and what they need to know in order to contend with a world that is more interconnected than ever.
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The 2016 Summer Olympics begin in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, this Friday, August 5. To help better understand the full significance of the Olympic games, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and Foreign Affairs offer resources on the games’ political, economic, and health implications for Brazil and the world.
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To assist generations of U.S. policymakers to navigate the complexities of cyber and other technological threats, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has launched the Ira A. Lipman Chair in Emerging Technologies and National Security, named for longtime CFR member Ira A. Lipman, the founder and chairman emeritus of Guardsmark, LLC—one of the world’s largest security services companies.
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Ahead of the United Kingdom’s June 23 referendum on whether to leave or remain in the European Union, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and Foreign Affairs offer resources on "Brexit."
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Ahead of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s fourth visit to the United States and his first address to the U.S. Congress on June 8, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and Foreign Affairs offer resources on relevant topics.
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John Campbell argues in Morning in South Africa that despite South Africa’s currentpolitical and economic malaise, there are grounds for optimism about the country’sdemocratic future.
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A new Report Card on International Cooperation from the Council of Councils finds that multilateral action on most of the critical transnational threats has shown progress, but is still inadequate in addressing terrorism and other violent conflicts.
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“The underreported story of the Cold War is that the United States succeeded in achieving many of its objectives in the Middle East,” argue Ray Takeyh, senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, and Steven Simon, visiting scholar at Dartmouth College. Cutting against conventional wisdom, the authors shed new light on the makings of the modern Middle East and draw lessons for U.S. strategy today.
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“Despite having the most powerful economy on earth, the United States too often reaches for the gun instead of the purse,” contend Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Senior Fellows Robert D. Blackwill and Jennifer M. Harris in a new book, War by Other Means: Geoeconomics and Statecraft. Instead, argue Blackwill and Harris, the United States must strategically integrate economic and financial instruments into its foreign policy—what they define as geoeconomics—or risk losing ground as a world power.
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Over the past two decades, many developing countries have turned away from free market capitalism and toward modern state capitalism, which is a combination of traditional state economic planning and elements of free market competition. In his new book, Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow for Southeast Asia Joshua Kurlantzick argues that modern state capitalism is ultimately “more protectionist, more dangerous to global security and prosperity, and more threatening to political freedom” than free market economics.
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Beginning on March 31, 2016, over fifty world leaders join President Barack Obama in Washington for the fourth and likely final Nuclear Security Summit (NSS). The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) offers resources on the global challenge of securing nuclear materials.
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In light of China’s deepening economic slowdown, “China’s foreign policy may well be driven increasingly by the risk of domestic political instability,” write Robert D. Blackwill, Henry A. Kissinger senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), and Kurt M. Campbell, the Asia Group’s chairman and chief executive officer, in a new Council Special Report. “Economic growth and nationalism have for decades been the two founts of legitimacy for the Communist Party, and as the former wanes, [Chinese leader Xi Jinping] will likely rely increasingly on the latter.”
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“While it should continue to promote and espouse the virtues of an open, global, and secure Internet, the United States must prepare for a more likely future—a highly contested, nationally divided cyberspace,” writes Adam Segal, director of the digital and cyberspace policy program at the Council on Foreign Relations, in his new book, The Hacked World Order: How Nations Fight, Trade, Maneuver, and Manipulate in the Digital Age.
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A new Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) ebook, How America Stacks Up: Economic Competitiveness and U.S. Policy, examines how the United States has responded to global economic competition and benchmarks the United States against other advanced economies. The ebook is an invaluable resource in the 2016 presidential election cycle for assessing the Obama administration’s economic legacy and looking at priorities for the next administration.
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has launched Model Diplomacy, a National Security Council simulation that engages college and high school students to understand the challenges of shaping and implementing foreign policy. Students learn through a combination of independent research using multimedia resources and direct interaction with their teachers and peers.
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As President Barack Obama prepares to deliver his seventh and final State of the Union Address on Tuesday, January 12, 2016, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and Foreign Affairs offer resources on relevant topics.
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) welcomes Reuben E. Brigety II, Robert E. Litan, and Matthew M. Taylor to its David Rockefeller Studies Program.
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Brad W. Setser returns to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) as a senior fellow with the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies.
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has launched Campaign 2016: The Candidates and the World, an interactive hub offering nonpartisan analysis of the candidates’ foreign policy positions.
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Preventing further intensification of Syria’s civil war should be the top priority for U.S. policymakers in 2016, according to leading experts who took part in the Council on Foreign Relations’ eighth annual Preventive Priorities Survey.
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French economist Thomas Piketty has won the fourteenth annual Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Arthur Ross Book Award for Capital in the Twenty-First Century (Belknap Press) and will receive $15,000. On December 9, CFR will honor the awardees at a cocktail reception hosted by Gideon Rose, editor of Foreign Affairs and chair of the independent award jury.
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Senior officials from almost two hundred nations are meeting in Paris, France, for the twenty-first annual United Nations Conference of Parties (COP21), also known as the 2015 Paris Climate Conference. Below, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and Foreign Affairs magazine offer resources on the challenges of climate change.
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In the aftermath of the November 13, 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris that killed 129 people, French authorities have conducted raids on suspected militants across France and launched airstrikes targeting the self-proclaimed Islamic State in the Syrian city of Raqqa. Below, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and Foreign Affairs offer resources on the Paris attacks.
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“A rising India offers one of the most substantial opportunities to advance American national interests over the next two decades,” asserts a new Independent Task Force report sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), Working With a Rising India: A Joint Venture for the New Century.
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Although the United States leads the world in technology innovation, it may fall behind if the government does not address emerging gaps in innovation policy and invest more in scientific research, argues a new progress report and scorecard from the Council on Foreign Relations’ (CFR) Renewing America initiative.
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Two new adjunct senior fellows, Esther Brimmer and Gordon Goldstein, have joined the Council on Foreign Relations’ (CFR) growing roster of experts in international affairs and economics.
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With over 40 percent of the world’s population now online, the Internet has revolutionized the way the world communicates. But with fast evolving technology, a proliferation of actors with access to the Internet, and an absence of international consensus on what should be permissible, the gap between existing world arrangements and the challenges posed by the Internet is in fact widening.
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With the U.S. government still dealing with the fallout from the cyber theft of over twenty million personnel records in 2014—one of the largest data breaches in history—a new book from Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow Micah Zenko reveals how red teams might have helped avoid such a disaster.
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Kenneth S. Rogoff, a Harvard University professor and former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, will contribute his expertise to the Council on Foreign Relations as a senior fellow for economics in the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies. He will continue to be the Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Economics at Harvard University.
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South Korea can best influence the global agenda by committing sufficient resources to sustainable development, financial stability, nuclear governance, and green growth, argues Scott A. Snyder, Council on Foreign Relations senior fellow for Korea studies, in the introduction to a new report, Middle-Power Korea: Contributions to the Global Agenda.
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As Kurds strive for a greater role in Turkey and continue to resist the self-proclaimed Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has released a new interactive guide examining the Kurds’ growing prominence in the region.
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Japan and South Korea are Western-style democracies with open-market economies committed to the rule of law. They are also U.S. allies. Yet despite their common interests, shared values, and geographic proximity, divergent national identities have fractured relations between them. In The Japan-South Korea Identity Clash: East Asian Security and the United States, Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow for Korea Studies Scott A. Snyder and Pacific Forum CSIS Executive Director Brad Glosserman investigate the roots of the split and its ongoing threat to the region and the world.
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With nearly 110,000 uniformed deployed “blue helmets” worldwide, the number of UN peacekeepers at a record high and most are in Africa. Paul D. Williams argues that increased U.S. involvement and leadership is necessary to combat the "untenable" situation facing UN peace operations in Africa.
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Robert D. Blackwill and Ashley J. Tellis argue that the United States needs to fundamentally change its grand strategy toward China in order to limit the dangers that its geoeconomic, military, and diplomatic expansion pose to U.S. national interests.
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As countries around the world struggle to combat major global challenges from terrorism to climate change, a Council of Councils Report Card on International Cooperation finds that multilateral action on most of the critical transnational threats is sorely lacking.
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New York Times best seller, Ashley’s War, by CFR Senior Fellow for Women and Foreign Policy Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, gives an inside look at the first-ever all-female, all-Army team to serve on the battlefield alongside Special Operations Forces in Afghanistan—despite the official ban on women in ground-combat units.
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Philip Gordon, special assistant to the president and White House coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa, and the Gulf region since 2013, will join the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) as a senior fellow. Based in Washington, DC, his research will focus on U.S. foreign policy toward the Middle East and Europe.
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Shannon O’Neil will become director of the Council on Foreign Relations’ Civil Society, Markets, and Democracy program (CSMD), and Rachel Vogelstein will become director of the Women and Foreign Policy program (WFP), replacing Isobel Coleman, who formerly directed both initiatives. Ambassador Coleman is now the U.S. representative to the United Nations for UN management and reform.
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In-depth discussions on foreign policy topics of the day can now be accessed from CFR Events, a new portal on the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) website.
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No country feels China’s rise more deeply than Japan. In her new book, Intimate Rivals: Japanese Domestic Politics and a Rising China, CFR Senior Fellow Sheila A. Smith explores the policy issues testing the Japanese government as it navigates its relationship with an advancing China.
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The number of U.S. regulations—which affect nearly every aspect of Americans’ lives, from the food and medicine they consume to the quality of the air they breathe and how they save for retirement—has consistently been on the rise. As a result, U.S. businesses are increasingly burdened, but not competitively disadvantaged, because their peers in other advanced countries tend to face even more regulations, according to a new progress report and scorecard from the Council on Foreign Relations’ Renewing America initiative.
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Over the last hundred years, many experts have fallen prey to fears that the world’s oil is dwindling and prices are doomed to rise, yet such predictions have repeatedly proven wrong, writes Blake C. Clayton in a new CFR book. Market Madness: A Century of Oil Panics, Crises, and Crashes offers important lessons for Washington and Wall Street about energy policy and financial markets. Buy the book »
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A new interactive, "InfoGuide: The Taliban," examines the two Talibans, in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the consequences for the region.
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Long-term unemployment has become a chronic problem in the United States despite an improving job market, and the country needs a jobs policy overhaul, according to two new reports from the Council on Foreign Relations’ Renewing America initiative.
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Jay Rockefeller, the former chairman of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, will join the Council on Foreign Relations this month as a distinguished fellow. His research will cover Japan, East Asia, cybersecurity issues, and other topics. He will be based in CFR’s Washington, DC, office.
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has launched Net Politics, a blog on cybersecurity, Internet governance, digital trade, and privacy. It will provide original insight, highlight notable research and analysis, and introduce new voices on the emerging politics of cyberspace.
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The intensification of the crisis in Iraq due to advances by the militant group the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is the top conflict prevention priority for U.S. policymakers in 2015, according to leading experts who took part in the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) seventh annual Preventive Priorities Survey.
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Willem H. Buiter, a renowned macroeconomist and global chief economist at Citigroup, has joined the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) as an adjunct senior fellow. His work will focus on geoeconomics, deglobalization, international financial institutions, and global economic governance.
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Rates of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and other noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in low- and middle-income countries are increasing faster, in younger people, and with worse outcomes than in wealthier countries. In 2013 alone, NCDs killed eight million people before their sixtieth birthdays in developing countries. A new CFR-sponsored Independent Task Force report and accompanying interactive look at the factors behind this epidemic and the ways the United States can best fight it.
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An independent jury has selected The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide (Alfred A. Knopf) by Gary J. Bass as the 2014 winner of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Arthur Ross Book Award. The award identifies the best book published in 2013 on international affairs. Bass, a professor at Princeton University, will receive $15,000 and be honored at a CFR event in January.
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The Obama administration should pursue a strategy that places clear limits on its own sale and use of armed drones lest these weapons proliferate and their use becomes widespread. These are the central findings of a new report from the Center for Preventive Action by CFR Douglas Dillon Fellow Micah Zenko and Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow Sarah Kreps.
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The world has entered a second nuclear age shaped by rising nuclear states and military technologies. Gregory Koblentz argues that the United States should work with the other nuclear-armed states to manage threats to nuclear stability in the near term and establish processes for multilateral arms control efforts over the longer term.
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The militant Islamist group Boko Haram’s increasingly bold attacks in Nigeria—most notably its April kidnapping of nearly three hundred female students—threaten to fuel further Muslim-Christian violence and destabilize West Africa, making the group a leading concern for U.S. policymakers, writes former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria John Campbell, CFR senior fellow for Africa policy studies, in a new Council Special Report from the Center for Preventive Action(CPA).
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has launched an online gateway to the organization’s multimedia resources for teaching and learning about U.S. foreign policy. Accessible at www.cfr.org/education, the site provides access to a wide-ranging suite of innovative tools designed to foster a deeper understanding of international relations and the role of the United States in the world.
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CFR’s Global Health program has expanded its "Vaccine-Preventable Outbreaks Map," adding new data showing how a hostile climate for vaccinators thwarts the eradication of preventable illnesses such as polio.
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A new CFR-sponsored Independent Task Force report, North America: Time for a New Focus, asserts that elevating and prioritizing the Canada-Mexico-U.S. relationship offers the best opportunity for strengthening the United States and its place in the world.
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The U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio has nearly grown to the Group of 7 (G7) average, a dramatic increase from 2000 when it was lower than most other G7 countries, according to a new progress report and scorecard from the Council on Foreign Relations Renewing America initiative. At its current rate, the U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio will be higher than all G7 countries except Japan by 2040.
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As sectarian tensions convulse Syria and Iraq, the Council on Foreign Relations has released a new interactive guide examining the roots and consequences of the divide between Sunni and Shia Muslims.
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is pleased to announce that Michael A. Levi, David M. Rubenstein senior fellow for energy and the environment and director of the program on Energy Security and Climate Change, has been named director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies (CGS). Founded in 2000, the CGS is one of the premier venues for informed analysis on the global economy and foreign policy—from international economic cooperation to the uses of economic statecraft, national security consequences of economic developments, and domestic U.S. economy.
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The Council on Foreign Relations has given one of its most popular resources, Backgrounders, a reboot. More than seventy of the in-depth foreign policy primers have been enhanced with images, graphs, and videos and can now be navigated by region, issue, most recent, and curated series.
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International cooperation on critical issues such as nuclear nonproliferation, terrorism, and global finance is in decline, finds a new report from the Council on Foreign Relations. U.S. leadership is also faltering in these areas, as well as in preventing armed conflict and slowing climate change.
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Nearly three decades after the last major tax overhaul, both Democratic and Republican parties and President Barack Obama agree that cutting the corporate tax rate and taxing foreign profits differently would move the tax system in the right direction. The outdated corporate tax system does not raise as much revenue as the systems of most other rich countries, even as U.S. corporate profits have reached record highs, according to a new progress report and scorecard from the Council on Foreign Relations’ Renewing America initiative.
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has released a new interactive guide examining the economic opportunities and environmental risks emerging in the Arctic. Climate change, technological advances, and a growing demand for natural resources are driving a new era of development in the Arctic region. Many experts assert that Arctic summers could be free of sea ice in a matter of decades, opening the region up to hundreds of billions of dollars in investment, most notably in energy production and shipping.
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The Obama administration’s search for a less costly, more "sustainable" foreign policy recalls previous presidents who wound down major wars, according to Stephen Sestanovich, George F. Kennan Senior Fellow for Russian and Eurasian Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. In Maximalist: America in the World from Truman to Obama, Sestanovich argues that the most challenging phase of retrenchment comes after the United States has extricated itself from a stalemated conflict. Postwar cutbacks in the Pentagon budget usually last longer than the surge that preceded them, but political controversies over the direction of American foreign policy begin much sooner.
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China’s meteoric growth and transformation into a major economic power is demanding ever-larger quantities of energy, minerals, land, and water. In a sweeping new book, Senior Fellow for Asia Studies Elizabeth C. Economy and Senior Fellow for Energy and the Environment Michael Levi show how China’s quest to secure those resources is changing the world—and China itself.
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The Tipperary Peace Convention announced today that Council on Foreign Relations President Richard N. Haass is to receive the 2013 Tipperary International Peace Award for his significant role in assisting the peace process in Northern Ireland.
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United States Should Include Pakistan in its Rebalance Policy Toward Asia, Argues CFR Special Report
As U.S. and coalition forces prepare to draw down troops in Afghanistan, a new report urges Washington to view Pakistan not solely or even principally in the context of U.S.-Afghanistan policy, but rather to reorient the relationship toward Asia. -
Janine Davidson, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for plans, has joined the Council on Foreign Relations as a senior fellow. She will be based in the organization’s Washington, DC, office and will address defense strategy and policy, military operations, national security, and civil-military relations.
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A new interactive guide from the Council on Foreign Relations examines the threat that child marriage poses both to the prosperity and stability of the countries in which it is prevalent and to U.S. development and foreign policy interests.
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Raymond W. Kelly, former commissioner for the New York Police Department (NYPD), will join the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) as a distinguished visiting fellow. Kelly will be joining CFR in early January and will be based at the organization’s headquarters in New York. He will focus on counterterrorism, cybersecurity, and other national security issues.
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Spillover from Syria’s civil war and violence in Afghanistan as coalition forces draw down are among next year’s top conflict prevention priorities for U.S. policymakers, finds the annual Preventive Priorities Survey from the Council on Foreign Relations. The most urgent concerns also include terror attacks or cyberattacks on the United States, military strikes against Iran, and a crisis in North Korea.
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Fredrik Logevall Wins CFR’s 2013 Arthur Ross Book Award for Embers of War
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Americans are conflicted about the U.S. role in the world: a record 52 percent surveyed recently said "the United States should mind its own business internationally," the highest recorded response in fifty years and up from 30 percent just a decade ago. Furthermore, a record 80 percent of the public believe that the United States should address domestic problems over international ones.
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RAND Corporation’s Seth G. Jones and Keith Crane explain in a new Council Special Report from the Center for Preventive Action how the United States should manage the complex political, security, and economic challenges that will accompany the reduction in U.S. and allied forces.
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Alyssa Ayres, a top official in the State Department’s Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs for the past three years, has joined the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) as senior fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia. She will be based in the Washington, DC, office.
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Indian leaders and economic planners focused on eradicating poverty by "growing the pie rather than slicing it," and fueled the country’s growth with market-based policies, write economists Jagdish Bhagwati and Arvind Panagariya in Why Growth Matters: How Economic Growth in India Reduced Poverty and the Lessons for Other Developing Countries, a new Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) book.
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In his new book, No Exit From Pakistan: America’s Tortured Relationship with Islamabad, CFR Senior Fellow Daniel Markey explains how the United States should prepare for the worst, aim for the best, and avoid past mistakes in its relations with Pakistan.
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Heidi Crebo-Rediker, former chief economist at the U.S. Department of State, has joined the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) as a senior fellow. Her work will focus on the role of economics in U.S. diplomacy, and she will also participate in CFR’s Renewing America initiative, which studies the domestic economic underpinnings of U.S. power.
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Mervyn King, former governor and chief economist for the Bank of England, joins the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) as a distinguished visiting fellow.
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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has launched a new multimedia series—"InfoGuides"—to promote understanding of complex foreign policy issues.
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Stanley Fischer, Former Bank of Israel Governor and Former IMF and World Bank Official, Joins CFR as Distinguished Fellow
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Richard N. Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), has agreed to chair the "All-Party Panel" negotiations in Northern Ireland.
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Ambassador Karen Kornbluh, former U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, joined the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) as a senior fellow for digital policy.
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A new CFR publication, "Global Economics Monthly," examines the major developments and trends affecting macroeconomic policy and financial markets. Written by Robert Kahn, CFR’s Steven A. Tananbaum Senior Fellow for International Economics, the monthly report from the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies is accessible on CFR.org and distributed as an electronic newsletter.
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The Council on Foreign Relations has launched a free iPhone app offering users direct access to the organization’s timely resources on U.S. foreign policy, national security, and international economics.
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Former U.S. National Security Adviser Tom Donilon to Join CFR as Distinguished Fellow
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As countries from Libya to Tunisia to Myanmar navigate complex paths to democracy, a new CFR book offers insights and recommendations from political and economic transitions that have unfolded in recent decades. "By understanding the trade-offs and critical economic and policy decisions that transitioning countries have faced in the past, policymakers can make smarter choices to improve the chances of successful democratization in states undergoing transitions today," write Isobel Coleman, CFR senior fellow and director of the Civil Society, Markets, and Democracy Initiative, and Terra Lawson-Remer, CFR fellow, in Pathways to Freedom: Political and Economic Lessons From Democratic Transitions.
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The U.S. education system is not as internationally competitive as it used to be; in fact, the United States has slipped ten spots in both high school and college graduation rates over the past three decades, according to a new report and scorecard from the Council on Foreign Relations’ Renewing America initiative, which examines the domestic foundations of U.S. power. U.S. national security is directly linked to issues such as education because shortcomings among American workers threaten the country’s ability to compete with other countries and set a compelling example internationally.
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The number of "state-backed operations continues to rise, and future attacks will become more sophisticated and disruptive," argues the new Task Force report, Defending an Open, Global, Secure, and Resilient Internet.
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"Everything we once knew about American energy seems to be changing," writes Michael A. Levi, CFR senior fellow and director of the program on energy security and climate change, in The Power Surge: Energy, Opportunity, and the Battle for America’s Future. "The United States can strengthen its economy, improve national security, and confront climate change if it intelligently embraces the historic gains unfolding all across the energy landscape."
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"Soon everyone on Earth will be connected," write Jared Cohen, CFR adjunct senior fellow and director of Google Ideas, and Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, in The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business. In a book the New York Times calls "prescient and provocative," the authors argue that citizens will have more power than at any other time in history and weigh the costs of this access, particularly to privacy and security.
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The biggest threat to the United States comes not from abroad but from within. This is the unexpected message of Council on Foreign Relations President Richard N. Haass in Foreign Policy Begins at Home: The Case for Putting America’s House in Order.
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The international community and the United States fare poorly on most of six major global challenges, according to the new Global Governance Report Card by CFR’s International Institutions and Global Governance program.
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With a new platform for interested citizens to pose questions to scholars and live streams of its on-the-record meetings, the Council on Foreign Relations has broadened the ways in which the public can interact with the organization.
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Over seventy thousand people have been killed in narco-related crimes in Mexico in the past six years. Tales of grisly murders conveyed by American media shape the widespread perception of Mexico as a dangerous place, overrun by brutal drug lords. But there is far more to Mexico’s story than this narrative would suggest, writes CFR Senior Fellow for Latin America Studies Shannon K. O’Neil, in Two Nations Indivisible: Mexico, the United States, and the Road Ahead.
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The Battle of Bretton Woods: John Maynard Keynes, Harry Dexter White, and the Making of a New World Order tells the story of the intertwining lives and events surrounding that historic conference. In a book the Financial Times calls "a triumph of economic and diplomatic history," author Benn Steil, CFR senior fellow and director of international economics, challenges the misconception that the conference was an amiable collaboration.
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