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President Trump sent U.S. troops to the border with Mexico to supplement the work of authorities there. President Biden pledges a new approach as pressures mount along the boundary.
International Institutions and Global Governance Program
Council of Councils
Project Expert
James H. Binger Senior Fellow in Global Governance and Director of the International Institutions and Global Governance Program
About the Project
The Council of Councils is a CFR initiative connecting leading foreign policy institutes from around the world in a common conversation on issues of global governance and multilateral cooperation. The Council of Councils draws on the best thinking from around the world to find common ground on shared threats, build support for innovative ideas, and introduce remedies into the public debate and policymaking processes of member countries.
The membership of the Council of Councils includes leading institutions from twenty-four countries, roughly tracking the composition of the Group of Twenty (G20). The network facilitates candid, not-for-attribution dialogue and consensus building among influential opinion leaders from established and emerging nations. A list of member organizations is available on the Council of Councils roster page.
In addition to an annual conference, the Council of Councils provides an ongoing exchange for research and policy collaboration among its members, including during regional conferences hosted by members. The group also considers long-term structural reforms that would enhance the global governance capacity of leading international institutions.
To explore more about this initiative, you can visit the Council of Councils website.
The Council of Councils initiative is funded by a generous endowment created by the René Kern Family Foundation, and by the Robina Foundation as part of its support for CFR's International Institutions and Global Governance program.
Events
Richard N. Haass, Sunjoy Joshi, and Elizabeth Sidiropoulos discuss the mounting challenges to global governance and their implications for international cooperation, including rising climate concerns, economic volatility, and increasing great power tensions amid a global pandemic.
The Council of Councils (CoC) is an international initiative created by the Council on Foreign Relations to connect leading foreign policy institutes from around the world in a dialogue on issues of global governance and multilateral cooperation. The CoC is composed of twenty-eight major policy institutes from some of the world’s most influential countries. It is designed to facilitate candid, not-for-attribution dialogue and consensus-building among influential opinion leaders from both established and emerging nations, with the ultimate purpose of injecting the conclusions of its deliberations into high-level foreign policy circles within members' countries.
Richard Haass, Sunjoy Joshi, and Ferdinando Nelli Feroci discuss the mounting challenges to global governance and international cooperation, and the launch of the Council of Councils (CoC) Report Card on International Cooperation, which evaluates multilateral efforts to address ten of the world’s most pressing global challenges, including nuclear proliferation, transnational terrorism, climate change, pandemic disease, financial volatility, and cybercrime.
This Report Card on International Cooperation surveyed the Council of Councils, a CFR initiative connecting leading foreign policy institutes from twenty-four countries around the world, to provide a benchmark measure of international cooperation year after year, and to help policymakers identify opportunities for breakthrough and prioritize today’s critical issues. The event will present the findings of the 2018–2019 Report Card and discuss implications for global cooperation.
Michael Fullilove, Richard N. Haass, Elizabeth Sidiropoulos, and Igor Yurgens speak about the mounting challenges to global governance and international cooperation, and launch of the Council of Councils (CoC) Report Card on International Cooperation, which evaluates multilateral efforts to address ten of the world’s most pressing global challenges, including nuclear proliferation, transnational terrorism, climate change, pandemic disease, mass migration, financial volatility, and cybercrime.
Experts present the findings of the 2016–2017 Council of Councils Report Card and discuss implications for global cooperation.
Experts discuss the mounting challenges to international cooperation today, and the launch of the Council of Councils (CoC) Report Card on International Cooperation.
Experts discuss the prospects and preconditions for the survival of the Eurozone.
Experts discuss the mounting challenges to international cooperation today, and the launch of the Council of Councils (CoC) Report Card on International Cooperation.
Experts discuss the state of global governance during the first Council of Councils (CoC) public event, "Crisis in Global Governance: Reform or Reset?" live from the CoC Seventh Regional Conference in New Delhi, India, on January 13, 2015.
Christine M. Cumming of the New York Fed joins Andrés Rozental from the Mexican Council on Foreign Relations to discuss current economic trends and the role of the Fed in the financial regulatory system.
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Nonproliferation, Arms Control, and Disarmament
Differences between nuclear and nonnuclear weapons states could seriously weaken the nuclear regime. Recasting disarmament as a common endeavor that addresses each country’s legitimate interests and priorities would improve its prospects. -
Outer space is growing more crowded and contested. Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan recommends regulating activities that disrupt, deny, or destroy space systems to ensure outer space is available to all.
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Ten major summits in 2021 will help determine the future of international security, freedom, prosperity, development, health, and indeed of the planet itself.
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African UN member states should act as unifiers and conveners rather than dividers. More coordination could help them overcome the structural challenges they face at the United Nations.
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Diplomacy and International Institutions
Can the world still work together to address today’s most pressing global challenges? A broken economic order, Trump’s incoherent foreign policy, and the corrosion of trust offer little to be optimistic about. -
Sessions were held on the future of the European Union, a global governance of migration, the weaponization of economic interdependence, the French nuclear deterrence strategy, European strategic autonomy, the challenges of meeting the Paris Agreement goals, and the future of think tanks.
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Refugee health needs in non-camp, urban settings have increasingly shifted to noncommunicable diseases. Providing preventive care and specialist treatment requires a massive influx of resources, but it is well worth the investment.
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Mitigating potential communicable disease in refugee populations is a subset of efforts for human rights, equality, and dignity. A basic multilateral framework could improve health care in these situations and provide an example for future challenges.
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In a world awash in troubles, nothing less than catastrophe will spur policymakers to forceful action on global health. Unfortunately, concerted action could come too late to prevent local crises from becoming global emergencies.
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Failing to study and develop geoengineering methods to help prevent the severe effects of climate change would be irresponsible. Failing to govern them properly would be even more so.
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A vast gulf remains between development financing and development goals. International competition could help bridge that gap, but has produced mixed results to date.
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Trade is a critical multiplier of the fossil fuel–intensive activities that contribute to climate change. Changes to the structure of global trade governance are necessary if the worst consequences of climate change are to be avoided.
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Climate change poses an immense challenge to the biosphere and global economy. To make international trade more environmentally friendly, the world needs to use rules that have been around for decades, create new rules, and find new space for climate change policy.
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Emission reductions alone are unlikely to prevent severe climate change effects. Geoengineering proposals are a way forward, but they need legitimate and effective governance.
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The liberal world order faces a litany of challenges today. Instead of abandoning the world order that has served most of the world well, the United States and Middle Powers should seek to preserve and prolong that order.
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As tensions between the United States and Iran increase, questions of conflict prevention and response loom large.
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A host of cyber governance initiatives has taken shape of late. The internet, however, remains at significant risk.
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Experts from the Council of Councils rank managing the global economy the second highest priority on the global agenda and graded the world's performance on the issue a middling C+.
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How should world leaders prioritize global challenges in the coming year? Experts from twenty-eight think tanks ranked mitigating and adapting to climate change and managing the global economy as the two most important global issues.
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Experts from the Council of Councils grade international cooperation on global trade a middling C in 2018, rank it one of the lowest priorities on the global agenda, and are only somewhat optimistic about progress in the next year.
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How did world leaders do in managing global challenges in 2018? Experts from twenty-eight think tanks around the world grade international cooperation a middling C.
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What happened at the G20 summit and what does it mean for the future of cooperation? Five experts from Argentina, Canada, China, Germany, and South Africa answer that question from their global perspective.
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As national governments, international institutions, and nonstate actors explore different approaches to Arctic governance, a cohesive approach is necessary to address the environmental, economic, sociocultural, and geopolitical challenges this region faces.
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Sessions were held on denuclearizing North Korea, addressing global health among the world's aging population, managing energy and the environment in Asia, and the intersection of technology and nationalism.
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With much of the world’s attention fixated on climate change, the Our Ocean conference is a great opportunity to address the health of the oceans and garner commitments to save it from the scourges of pollution, overfishing, and transnational crime.
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Trump's rebellion against the rules-based order may give the United States more freedom of action, but it undermines the ability of the United States to influence its own future in a global era.
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A global policy framework and consolidated institutional architecture can help states facilitate regular migration, cope with illegal crossings, and humanely respond to forced migration.
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Participants discussed how Donald J. Trump’s repudiation of multilateral cooperation undercuts the world’s ability to alleviate transnational challenges, even if other countries step up to fill the void left by the United States.
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International trade institutions should be reformed with a focus on increasing public support for the rules-orientated system.
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Sessions were held on how to revitalize the Bretton Woods institutions, strengthen liberal democracy, combat transnational organized crime and corruption, and mitigate the humanitarian and political crises in Venezuela.
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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 Council on Foreign Relations has launched an international initiative to connect leading foreign policy institutes from around the world in a common conversation on issues of global governance and multilateral cooperation.