Books & Reports
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A provocative look at the world's most difficult, seemingly ineradicable problems—and the surprising stories of the countries that solved them.
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In early 2016, the Federal Bureau of Investigation reportedly paid more than $1.3 million for a software flaw that allowed it to unlock an iPhone without Apple’s assistance. The purchase was possible…
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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…
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Bottom Line: At the Group of Twenty (G20) Summit in Hangzhou, China, leaders called for governments to do more to support growth, but offered little in the way of new measures. Quietly, and away from…
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Overview Last year’s launch of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)—a new multilateral development bank with fifty-seven sovereign members, among them some of the United States’ closest…
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Bottom Line: Markets have absorbed the initial economic shock from Brexit, but navigating the new landscape will remain a challenge. Two months after the vote, the politics of Brexit is producing a l…
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Overview The tax treatment of oil and gas investment in the United States has been a contentious policy issue for decades. Reform advocates argue that eliminating tax preferences for producers of …
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Bottom Line: Summer has seemingly brought a new optimism about the Russian economy. Russia’s economic downturn is coming to an end, and markets have outperformed amidst global turbulence. But the co…
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Introduction Corruption is endemic in Nigeria. It drains billions of dollars a year from Africa’s largest economy and most populous country. Systemic corruption also undermines Nigeria’s ability t…
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A substantial body of evidence confirms that investment in women and girls yields high returns for poverty eradication, economic growth, and sustainable development. However, international and nation…
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Overview As the world transitions to an increasingly digital economy, many low- and middle-income countries face an obstacle: most emerging economies lack qualified people to fill critical informa…
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Overview Global trade and the supply chains that support it are undergoing a period of profound change, including structural transformations in the cross-border flow of goods and services thanks t…
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Overview Growing geopolitical rivalries and political opposition to globalization are weakening prospects for effective multilateral cooperation. Dramatic flows of refugees and migrants—generated …
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United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
Nation-building abroad has become a neuralgic term in American politics. Opposition to nation-building abroad is one of the few things that President Barack Obama and Donald Trump can agree on. And y… -
Overview Competition between the United States and a rising China has shaped the contours of global politics, security, and economics since the beginning of the twenty-first century. However, the …
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Introduction Since 2001, the United States and its international partners have expended substantial resources to secure, stabilize, and rebuild Afghanistan. Recent developments, however, indicate …
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Overview Sharp, rapid swings in the price of oil can have outsize effects on companies, economies, and global geopolitics. Oil price spikes can stunt economic growth, for example, and a sudden pri…
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The International Military Education and Training (IMET) program, which provides U.S. government funds to members of foreign militaries to take classes at U.S. military facilities, has the potential …
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Overview Globalization has intensified the need for global cooperation, but the current global order is fraying. New forms of competition—for example, Russia in Ukraine and China in the South Chin…
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Overview China's leadership of the Group of Twenty (G20) in 2016 comes at a moment when the role of the G20 itself is being challenged by disappointingly slow global growth and a trend toward regi…
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Introduction The flow of data across international borders creates jurisdictional challenges, as the data itself and the person generating it may be subject to different countries’ laws. Internati…
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Overview South Asia is in the midst of a geopolitical transformation wrought by several simultaneous developments: China's rise, both economically and militarily, and its efforts to increase its c…
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In testimony before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Alyssa Ayres overviewed the full U.S.-India relationship in the lead-up to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington, DC…
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Takeaways: The world is currently characterized by an unusually large number of unstable and volatile situations. The current high levels of instability are rooted in four broad trends: The first…