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Below you will find a chronological list of current Council research projects. You can search by issue or region by selecting the appropriate category. In addition to this sorting control, you can search for specific subjects within the alphabetical, regional, and issue categories by choosing from the selections in the drop-down menu below.
Each project page contains the name of the project director, a description of the project, a list of meetings it has held, and any related publications, transcripts, or videos.
October 1, 2002—Present
August 1, 2002—May 1, 2003
| Director: | David L. Phillips, Executive Director, The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity |
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| Chair: | Dennis C. Blair, Former Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Command |
September 1, 2002—Present
| Director: | Benn Steil, Senior Fellow and Director of International Economics |
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This quarterly meetings series brings together major U.S. and foreign policymakers, business leaders, and independent commentators to discuss and debate current issues in international economics, such as global energy markets, tax policy, global demographic change, and securities regulation.
January 1, 2002—Present
| Director: | Radha Kumar |
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May 1, 2002—June 30, 2003
September 1, 2002—Present
| Director: | Isobel Coleman, Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy |
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This series invites scholars, policymakers, and leaders to discuss a wide range of issues related to social, political, and economic development, women's empowerment, and education.
February 1, 2002—June 30, 2003
| Director: | Eugene A. Matthews |
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March 1, 2002—December 31, 2002
| Staff: | James M. Goldgeier, Whitney Shepardson Senior Fellow for Transatlantic Relations |
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November 1, 2002—Present
| Director: | Anne-Marie Slaughter, Dean, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University |
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Project Vice-Chair: Charlotte Ku Co-sponsered by ASIL
The Roundtable Series, “Old Rules, New Threats,” is a project on global governance that brings administration officials together with lawyers, professors and policymakers to look at areas in foreign policy and national security where the rules of the road, formal and informal, may or may not need to be adapted, amended, or replaced to address the challenges currently facing the nation.
The roundtable addresses a broad range of security issues, including threats related to force and war, as well as challenges requiring transnational cooperation. Past sessions have explored the administration’s announced doctrine of preemption; humanitarian intervention; military tribunals and unlawful combatants; use of force and the laws of war; and regulating the movement of black and gray market goods, technology, and people. Memos prepared by roundtable speakers and summary reports of the roundtable meetings are posted below. The roundtable, which met six times beginning in November 2002, will reconvene in the fall of 2003.
The Council and ASIL, with the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, will begin the 2003 season with a one-day conference on September 19. The conference will focus on four areas: intervention and weapons proliferation; global climate change; bringing war criminals to justice; and counterterrorism and transnational law enforcement.
January 1, 2002—September 1, 2002
| Director: | Jesse H. Ausubel |
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| Staff: | David G. Victor, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Science and Technology |
June 1, 2002—March 1, 2004
| Director: | Richard L. Garwin |
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| Staff: | David Braunschvig, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Business and Foreign Policy |
In March 2002, the European Union embarked on a $3.2 billion project to build a fee-for-service satellite navigation system, “Galileo.” The United States has operated the Global Positioning System (GPS) for nearly 25 years and, since 1983, has made GPS signals freely available to users worldwide – since 1998 without limitation on accuracy. GPS is a critical resource for a wide variety of civil and military applications, including positioning, navigation, mobile communication, the internet, and international banking.
In light of the enormous importance of GPS to the United States and hundreds of millions of users worldwide, the prospect of a second – competing and potentially interfering – global satellite navigation system could have serious military, foreign policy, and industrial implications. The Bush administration has expressed various views on Galileo and would benefit from a heightened awareness of risks and possible opportunities for the United States.
This series of Roundtable meetings has been convened to bring together high-level European and American representatives of government, industry, academia, and the policy community for constructive dialogue about global satellite navigation. Specifically, the group will address the European Union's proposed Galileo initiative and its implications for the U.S. GPS system. We will meet in the United States and Europe, in conjunction with IFRI (Institut Français des Relations Internationales). Our discussions will focus on identifying "win-win-win" situations to benefit U.S. and E.U. interests as well as the global user community.
May 1, 2002—June 30, 2006
The South Asia Roundtable series addresses U.S. policy in the region, key domestic economic and political shifts in India and Pakistan, as well as the prospects for peace between the two countries. Initiated in June 2002, the series took as its starting point the heightened U.S. interest in both India and Pakistan – for different reasons. From sanctioned states, both have become policy priorities in the post 9/11 world.
The Roundtable draws on a range of speakers – government officials, scholars, development aid practitioners, and analysts from the United States and the region to help inform U.S. foreign policy debates about South Asia. Invitees are primarily Council members as well as a few regional experts. To date, fifteen roundtables have been convened; and, in 2005 attendance averaged over 40 persons per session with some sessions attended by close to 50 persons. Member interest in the region has grown substantially. The roundtables are the only such in-depth, regular forum in New York City.
The 2005 South Asia Roundtable series has focused more closely on Pakistan as its changing political, economic and security circumstances are having significant repercussions not only inside the country but also in the broader global community. Pakistan continues to present one of the most complex policy challenges for the U. S. administration. In addition, the Indo-Pakistan peace process and India’s domestic and foreign policy under the new Congress government have received attention.
Specific 2005 roundtable topics have included the state of aid and development in Pakistan where security remains the biggest concern for international donors; challenges posed by Pakistan’s nuclear program and the A.Q. Khan network in the context of the non-proliferation regime; and, the problematic relationship of the army and religious parties in Pakistan. The roundtables also have explored U.S. interest in helping India attain major power status; new directions in Indian foreign policies towards Pakistan and China; and China’s emerging regional and global role as it relates to India, Pakistan, and U.S. foreign policy in Asia.
The South Asia Roundtable series is made possible through a grant from Ford Foundation.
September 1, 2002—December 31, 2004
| Staff: | Elizabeth C. Economy, C.V. Starr Senior Fellow and Director for Asia Studies |
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China’s diplomatic offensive in Southeast Asia is a source of growing concern within the U.S. policy community. While advocates of a China threat scenario have long argued that China desires regional hegemony, even more sanguine policy analysts are now taking notice of China’s recent advances in the region. This study group will address several important questions:
What is the nature of China’s economic, security, and political diplomacy in the region?
What issues outside security and trade and investment shape China’s relations with Southeast Asian countries (e.g. drugs, environment, health, migration and the overseas Chinese communities)?
How has China’s more proactive policy been received by the various Southeast Asian states?
What are the potential areas for cooperation and conflict between the United States and China in the region?
What role does Japan play? And how do U.S. relations with Japan affect U.S.-China relations?
How is the U.S. war against terrorism changing the political dynamics in the region, offering greater or lesser opportunities for each of the three powers—China, Japan, and the U.S.—to strengthen its position?
After two study group meetings and a two-week trip to Southeast Asia, the project director will produce an article for publication addressing these issues.
January 1, 2002—March 31, 2002
| Staff: | Caroline Atkinson, Adjunct Senior Fellow for International Economics |
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February 1, 2002—May 1, 2003
| Chair: | W. Bowman Cutter |
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Meetings of this series help to review and critique draft chapters of Jagdish Bhagwati's book analyzing the origins of globalization, its social consequences, and the institutional innovations—domestic and international—that govern it. Bhagwati assesses the various critiques of globalization through the lenses of poverty, insecurity, labor standards, gender, the environment, culture, sovereignty, and democratic deficit and concludes that globalization is not merely economically benign, but socially benign as well.
July 1, 2002—February 28, 2003
| Director: | Calvin Sims |
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| Chair: | Stanley O. Roth, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, U.S. Department of State |
April 1, 2002—December 9, 2004
| Director: | Michael Doran |
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This Study Group will result in a book that provides an alternative to the prevailing wisdom that the thwarted self-determination of the Palestinian people is the primary cause of Arab anti-Western sentiment: The Great Powers, so the argument goes, have historically supported an aggressive Israel, thereby undermining their Arab friends and providing sustenance to their enemies. Doran counters that Arab states have used the conflict with Israel as a means of pursuing agendas wholly unrelated to the cause of Palestine. He describes the Arab-Israeli conflict as a proxy war that the Arab states have fought against each other and against the Great Powers.
In addition to reinterpreting the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Doran provides policy makers with tools for analyzing the complex crosscurrents that blur the lines between the Palestine question, inter-Arab politics, and relations between the Western powers and Middle Eastern states.
July 1, 2002—October 1, 2003
| Chair: | Stephen J. Friedman |
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January 1, 2002—February 28, 2003
| Directors: | Richard L. Garwin Bruce M. DeBlois |
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This Study Group brings together a diverse array of expert individuals from the aerospace community for constructive debate about U.S. space policy. In the absence of a clear and soundly based national consensus over military activities in space – specifically the role of space weapons – America runs the risk of rushing prematurely into an unbalanced, short-sighted policy on space weaponization. Discussions critique and complement independent research performed by the project directors and a core team of expert individuals.
Informed by the Study Group’s discussion and debate, the project directors will craft a balanced policy opinion about weapons in space and develop alternative strategies to satisfy national security needs with or without the weaponization of space. Results from research and debate will be disseminated to the larger U.S. aerospace and policy communities through a series of public forums and a substantial article, authored by the project directors, in a journal such as Foreign Affairs.
Explore the international finance regime with a new interactive from CFR's program on International Institutions and Global Governance.
Identifying international threats and acting on them may be the most difficult job for U.S. policymakers. This report
provides an actionable road map for managing international threats before they erupt into crises and makes a strong case that preventive action is not a luxury but a necessity.
For more than a decade, the United States has mostly watched from the sidelines as Asian countries organize themselves into an alphabet soup of new multilateral groups. In this report, the authors review the relationship between pan-Asian and trans-Pacific institutions and suggest policy guidelines for a new U.S. approach to this new Asian landscape.
Complete list of Council Special Reports
Start-Up Nation addresses the trillion-dollar question: How is it that Israel—a country of 7.1 million, only sixty years old, surrounded by enemies— produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada, and the UK? With the insights of geopolitical experts and investors, the authors examine this nation’s adversity-driven culture to answer this question and offer prescriptions for a global economy on the rebound.
In Forces of Fortune, Vali Nasr presents a paradigm-changing revelation that will transform the understanding of the Muslim world at large. He reveals that there is a vital but unseen rising force in the Islamic world—a new business-minded middle class—that is building a vibrant new Muslim world economy and that holds the key to winning the cold war against Iran and extremists.
In Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know, Julia E. Sweig presents a remarkably accessible portrait of Cuba's unique place on the world stage over the past fifty years, including its internal politics, its often fraught relationship with the United States, and its shifting relationship with the global community.
Complete list of CFR Books
For more information on the David Rockefeller Studies Program, contact:
James M. Lindsay
Senior Vice President, Director of Studies, and Maurice R. Greenberg Chair
+1.212.434.9626 (NY); +1.202.509.8405 (DC)
jlindsay@cfr.org
Janine Hill
Deputy Director of Studies Administration
+1.212.434.9753
jhill@cfr.org
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