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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.
December 1, 2004—January 1, 2006
| Staff: | Benn Steil, Senior Fellow and Director of International Economics |
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This meeting series is designed to bring Council members together in a small seminar environment to discuss new and innovative thinking at the intersection of economics and foreign policy.
December 1, 2004—Present
| Staff: | Peter B. Kenen, Adjunct Senior Fellow for International Economics |
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This roundtable series examines the prospects for regional monetary integration and other developments likely to affect the organization and functioning of the international monetary system.
January 1, 2004—Present
February 10, 2004—February 10, 2004
| Staff: | Benn Steil, Senior Fellow and Director of International Economics |
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This conference explored NAFTA's economic performance, its implications for continued North American integration and its lessons for the crafting of American trade policy.
November 12, 2004—November 12, 2004
| Staff: | Benn Steil, Senior Fellow and Director of International Economics |
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Morning Panel 1: Macroeconomic Policy and the U.S. Deficits
Morning Panel 2: Monetary Policy in a Liquidity Trap
Luncheon Panel: Policy Challenges in an Interdependent World
Afternoon Panel 1: Inflation Targeting
Afternoon Panel 2: Macroeconomic Policy in the European Union
March 1, 2004—June 30, 2004
| Director: | Kenneth R. Maxwell, Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations |
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This series showcases some of the brightest younger scholars in the field and addresses some very tough and interesting issues confronting the Hemisphere with a fresh approach. Seminars take place over breakfast from 8:00 - 9:30 AM at the Council on a monthly basis.
For further information, please contact Marcio Siwi, research associate in Latin America Studies, at 212-434-9675 or msiwi@cfr.org.
May 2004—April 2005
| Director: | David L. Phillips, Executive Director, The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity |
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March 8, 2004—July 16, 2006
| Director: | Laurie A. Garrett, Senior Fellow for Global Health |
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March 8, 2004—May 25, 2005
| Staff: | Elliot Schrage, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Business and Foreign Policy |
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This roundtable series explored the influence of multinational corporations and business leaders in the Middle East and North Africa and discussed whether the private sector, as a byproduct of its operations, could influence development.
July 1, 2004—Present
| Staff: | Steven A. Cook, Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies |
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Since September 11, 2001, U.S.-Middle East policy has sought to promote reform in the Arab and Islamic World as a U.S. national security priority. This roundtable series sheds light on the complex issues that the countries of the Middle East present and explores the different avenues available to U.S. policymakers seeking to promote change in that region. By drawing on the experience of a variety of speakers with particular expertise on social, political, and economic reform, women’s issues, education, and the media, this roundtable series intends to enrich the current debate on reform promotion in the Arab world with a range of top-tier perspectives and policy recommendations in an informal discussion setting.
January 1, 2004—Present
| Staff: | James P. Dougherty, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Business and Foreign Policy |
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America’s ability to encourage innovative ideas has helped to establish it as the world’s economic and military leader. However, technological developments over the past thirty years have spawned an increasingly globalized world and created new challenges to American pre-eminence. This roundtable series investigates how the government’s response to these challenges will affect America’s global economic and political standing.
This roundtable series is made possible by the Bernard and Irene Schwartz Foundation.
January 1, 2004—Present
| Chair: | Ellen Laipson |
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| Staff: | Rachel Bronson, Former Adjunct Senior Fellow for Middle East Studies |
For fifty five years, the United States and Saudi Arabia were solid partners. Since 9/11 this partnership has been sorely tested. InThicker than Oil: Ameica's Uneasy Relationship with Saudi Arabia(forthcoming Oxford University Press), funded in part by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation, Rachel Bronson shows why the partnership became so intimate and the problems that it spawned.
Drawing on a wide range of archival material, declassified documents, and interviews with leading Saudi and American officials, Bronson chronicles a long history of close contact. Contrary to popular belief, Bronson shows that the relationship was never just about “oil for security.” Saudi Arabia’s religiously motivated foreign policy was deemed an asset when fighting “godless communism,” as was Saudi Arabia’s geographic location. From Africa to Afghanistan, Egypt to Nicaragua the two worked to beat back Soviet influence. Overlapping strategic interests helped compartmentalized differences around issues such as the Arab-Israeli conflict. But decisions taken for hard headed Cold War purposes left behind a legacy that today enflames the Middle East.
In today’s fight against terrorism Saudi Arabia is both part of the problem and part of the solution. Not withstanding real troubles, Bronson outlines the dangers of allowing the relationship to further deteriorate. Saudi Arabia, she notes, faces a violent and zealous opposition. If this opposition gains complete control of the state's huge resources, it will direct its efforts towards destroying the United States, auguring a true clash of civilizations.
July 1, 2004—January 1, 2006
| Chair: | Lisa Anderson, Columbia University |
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| Staff: | Steven A. Cook, Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies |
This Study Group is organized around chapters of Steven Cook’s recently completed book manuscript titled: Ruling, But Not Governing: The Military and Political Development in Egypt, Turkey, and Algeria. Historically, Egypt, Turkey, and Algeria have exhibited a fairly predictable and similar set of political patterns which reflected the stability of authoritarian politics in these countries. In late 1990s and early 21st century, Turkey was able to break the political logjam of authoritarianism. What accounts for regime stability in Egypt, Algeria, and previously Turkey? Why was Turkey successful and Egypt and Algeria not successful? This book is intended to combine a scholarly approach to interesting questions concerning regime stability, Islamist political activity, civil-military relations, and transitions to and from democracy; yet it also contains a conscious policy edge that is relevant to current debates about democracy in the Arab and wider Muslim world.
The Study Group is made possible by the generous support from the Kauffman Foundation.
June 2004—June 2005
| Staff: | William L. Nash, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Military Affairs and Director of the Military Fellows Program |
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July 1, 2004—June 30, 2005
| Staff: | James M. Goldgeier, Whitney Shepardson Senior Fellow for Transatlantic Relations |
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This series provides a forum for policy experts, U.S. and foreign government officials, and journalists to discuss specific items on the G8 agenda and to assess the progress being made in achieving the goals set forth at the June 2004 summit meeting.
November 1, 2004—Present
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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