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Ongoing war in Ukraine and the resulting tensions between the West, Russia, and China have made the NATO alliance all the more significant, and yet perhaps more vulnerable. What lies ahead as the alliance’s member nations assess each other’s commitments to their mutual security?
Russia is increasingly acting as an outlaw state across the international stage—undermining European democracies, harassing US diplomats, harboring sophisticated cybercriminals, and testing Western alliances. What’s behind these actions, and how should the United States, Europe, and the West as a whole respond to the rising belligerence of Putin’s Russia?
In the 1930s, the Great Depression reversed a long trend towards globalization: Borders were shut, trade was halted, and tariffs imposed. After the 2008 financial crisis, it initially seemed that this would not occur again. But free trade is now stirring strong political passions, with politicians and voters of all stripes blaming trade for rising unemployment. So are we h...
Disaster in Syria and increasing instability in Iraq, Libya, and Yemen will continue to fuel a refugee crisis that is challenging the world, and in particular the European Union, whose future cohesion is anything but certain. Meanwhile, networked terrorists continue to wreak havoc around the globe, which by the way, is heating up. Cooling down? Oil prices and the Chinese e...
It’s been called one of the worst self-inflicted political wounds of modern times. British Prime Minister Theresa May, seeking to solidify her mandate for a hard exit from the European Union, called for snap elections on June 8th, which ended up dealing the Tories a massive political blow and producing a hung parliament. Meanwhile, terror attacks in Manchester and London f...
The hard work of diplomacy, often mostly invisible, is arguably more important now than ever. In a shifting geopolitical landscape characterized by the emergence of Russia and China as significant rivals to the United States, new dangers threaten the American idea and an American-led world order. And yet, our diplomatic muscles have atrophied. Ambassador William Burns, pre...
Hostage-taking presents nations with a conundrum: How can governments bring their citizens home while also preventing further captures? The United States’s top hostage negotiator, a leading scholar, and a former hostage discuss navigating the difficult waters of hostage diplomacy.
The resignation of Theresa May and the subsequent victory of Nigel Farage’s new Brexit Party in the EU Parliament elections paint a portrait of an extremely polarized United Kingdom, with deep divides between those who favor Farage’s hardline stance toward Europe and those who favor a re-do on Brexit. What’s at stake for the United Kingdom, the European Union, and the glob...
The world faces many challenges—from climate change to political instability to widening inequality—that transcend borders and impact us all. If today’s young people are to be equipped with the imagination and skillsets to tackle these growing threats, educational excellence is key. How do we build successful education systems at scale and in every community? And what expe...
What do today's Republicans believe America's role in the world should be? The GOP's presumptive nominee for president, Donald Trump, has some very different ideas than the Republican foreign policy establishment about the global alliance system, free trade, and the current nuclear order. Senator Tom Cotton, a leading figure in Republican defense and foreign policy circles...
The United States and Germany have much in common: advanced industrial economies, high living standards, first-class universities, and leading companies. They also share the same pressures from globalization — trade competition, technological change, movement of people and ideas — around which to innovate and adapt. But the data makes it clear that Germany has better maint...
Cities are responsible for 70 percent of global carbon emissions, and by 2050, two out of every three people will live in one. Fortunately, cities are getting serious about environmental footprint — New York announced its own Green New Deal, Melbourne aims to be carbon neutral by 2020, and Los Angeles will use 100 percent renewable energy by 2045. Mayors are often more nim...
US officials have cited North Korea as the hardest intelligence collection target in the world; the problem of understanding its opaque leadership has challenged two generations of policymakers. Today, the rambunctiousness of its nuclear program belies a bleak, troubled economy, where millions face starvation and the regime faces such cash and technology shortfalls that it...
Former US Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee, who led the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2015 to 2019, and Council on Foreign Relations President Richard Haass analyze the United States’ role in the world — how our relationships, responsibilities, entanglements, and motivations, have shifted in recent years and what’s at stake in the months ahead.
In 2018, economic activity was accelerating in almost all regions of the world. One year later, much has changed. The escalation of US-China trade tensions, credit tightening in China, and macroeconomic stress in key G20 economies have all contributed to a weakened global expansion. As the US trade war with China deepens, what are the biggest risks at this delicate moment?...
President Trump says he does not want a major war in the Middle East. But many allies and observers worry that hardlinders in the US and Iran are on a collision course toward conflict. The US exit from the Iran deal and the “maximum pressure” campaign have escalated tensions between Washington and Tehran in recent months. Iran has called the announced deployment of US troo...
Under Xi Jinping, China has become more authoritarian at home and more aggressive overseas. As China becomes increasingly economically dominant, what are the economic, political, and military realities of America’s most important “frenemy”? Panelists with unique insights into the world’s most populous country give us an in-depth look.