The Lessons of September 11 By James M. Lindsay Global Experts Reflect on the Legacy of the War on Terrorism September 8, 2026 Global Experts Reflect on the Legacy of the War on Terrorism Much Ado About Mapping September 9, 2026 By Michelle Gavin Much Ado About Mapping By Michelle Gavin Twenty-Five Years After 9/11, the United States Is Unprepared for Terrorism’s Next Wave September 8, 2026 By Bruce Hoffman and Farah Pandith Twenty-Five Years After 9/11, the United States Is Unprepared for Terrorism’s Next Wave By Bruce Hoffman and Farah Pandith Hunger Warfare and a Fertilizer Crisis Are Straining Global Food Supplies September 8, 2026 By Michael Werz Hunger Warfare and a Fertilizer Crisis Are Straining Global Food Supplies By Michael Werz Artificial Intelligence Iran War’s Ripple Effect Crude Calculations: Why the Iran War Hasn’t Yet Caused an Oil Shock The Iran War at Six Months: A Region—and Its Relationship With the U.S.—Transformed Six Months Into the Iran War, the United States Has No Good Options The U.S.-Led Middle East Order Is Over. The Mecca Agreement Proves It. Trump’s Iran Negotiations: Less Art of the Deal, More Art of Concealing Defeat What the War on Terrorism Got Right and Wrong In this conversation, CFR Senior Fellow Steven A. Cook sits down with counterterrorism experts Farah Pandith and Bruce Hoffman to revisit the day of the 9/11 attacks, examine the legacy of the global war on terrorism, and explore new security challenges facing the U.S. homeland. Navigating the AI Moment The Influence Operation That Ran on Borrowed Reputations AI Needs a Ten Commandments The Latest in U.S.-China AI Competition CFR Surveyed 350 Experts About AI’s Future. Here Are the Takeaways. AI’s Economic Winners Around the World CFR analyses and explainers that address global issues and challenges. Timeline: U.S.-Canada Relations Far-Right AfD and Russian Hybrid Campaign Pose Twin Threat for Germany’s Merz September 3, 2026 By Liana Fix and Rafaela Uzan Far-Right AfD and Russian Hybrid Campaign Pose Twin Threat for Germany’s Merz By Liana Fix and Rafaela Uzan The U.S. Corporate Tax Base That Now Resides in Ireland September 3, 2026 By Brad W. Setser and Michael Weilandt The U.S. Corporate Tax Base That Now Resides in Ireland By Brad W. Setser and Michael Weilandt Mladic and the Genocide That Wasn’t September 1, 2026 By David J. Scheffer Mladic and the Genocide That Wasn’t By David J. Scheffer The Renminbi Appears to be Undervalued by 30 Percent September 1, 2026 By Brad W. Setser The Renminbi Appears to be Undervalued by 30 Percent By Brad W. Setser How I Got My Career in Foreign Policy: Bruce Hoffman September 1, 2026 By Diana Roy and Bruce Hoffman How I Got My Career in Foreign Policy: Bruce Hoffman By Diana Roy and Bruce Hoffman A Guide to Trump’s Travel Ban and Visa Pause, by Country September 1, 2026 By Mariel Ferragamo A Guide to Trump’s Travel Ban and Visa Pause, by Country By Mariel Ferragamo The 2026 Midterm Elections The Battle Over Mail-in Voting May Disrupt the 2026 Midterm Elections The National Debt Hit $40 Trillion, But It’s Not an Issue in the Midterms Rahm Emanuel Talks Israel, Midterm Elections, and the Democratic Party The Supreme Court, Mail-in Voting, Campaign Spending, and the 2026 Midterm Elections Starting From Scratch By Paul B. Stares Where Does American Strategy Go From Here? May 20, 2026 By Rebecca Lissner Where Does American Strategy Go From Here? By Rebecca Lissner The Coming AI Backlash May 20, 2026 By Chris McGuire The Coming AI Backlash By Chris McGuire

Between Two Orders May 20, 2026 By Charles A. Kupchan Between Two Orders By Charles A. Kupchan After Hegemony May 20, 2026 By Gideon Rose Overreach and Retrenchment May 20, 2026 By Stephen Sestanovich Overreach and Retrenchment By Stephen Sestanovich Congress Checks Out May 20, 2026 By Elliott Abrams Congress Checks Out By Elliott Abrams Every geopolitical event — a war, an election, a new tariff, a technological breakthrough — sends ripples through the global economy. On The Spillover , Sebastian Mallaby and Rebecca Patterson trace those ripples, examining how international developments shape markets, policy, finance, and the future of business. Can AI Help the U.S. ‘Grow’ Its Way Out of Debt? Beyond ‘Drill, Baby, Drill’: Why Efficiency Is the Real Path to Energy Security AI Companies Are Piling on Debt. Could It Trigger the Next Financial Crisis? The U.S. Is Good at Building AI, but Bad at Using It China Is Quietly Winning the Iran War Energy Crisis Spillover Summer Reading: The Best Books on Forecasting, Silicon Valley, and the Future Crisis Response Playbooks The Wachenheim Center for Peace and Security has developed a set of Crisis Response Playbooks for U.S. policy planners when bandwidth is limited and decisions are consequential. Conflict-Driven Chokepoint Disruptions When armed conflict disrupts a critical maritime trade route, the United States can monitor, contain, or escalate the situation economically or militarily. Gray Zone Attacks Against U.S. Allies and Partners When a U.S. partner state faces a hybrid attack by an unknown aggressor, the United States should draw on various available response options to protect its treaty commitments, credibility, and commercial interests. Coups and Other Irregular Leadership Changes When a coup occurs abroad, the early hours of the crisis are most crucial for preserving and promoting U.S. interests—whether countering terrorism, checking adversaries’ regional influence, upholding human rights norms, or maintaining diplomatic and economic relationships. Policy planners should therefore prepare for the unexpected. Insurgency-Related Conflict Insurgency-related conflicts often start without warning and can last over a decade, making the pre-crisis and early crisis phases crucial for U.S. policymakers seeking to prevent national security threats and humanitarian disasters from emerging. Effective responses involve a complex set of legal authorities and international frameworks and require the sustained support of the American public and local communities. A Conversation With Under Secretary Luke Lindberg France’s UN Security Council Presidency Priorities: A Conversation With Ambassador Jérôme Bonnafont Early Career Professionals Series: UN General Assembly—Key Issues to Watch How Will the Iran War End? North American Trade and the USMCA Review Religion and Foreign Policy Webinar: Pope Leo XIV and Human Dignity in the Age of AI CFR publishes reports and papers for the interested public, the academic community, and foreign policy experts. Out of Ammo: A Two-Year Sprint to Rebuild the American Arsenal and Deter China Executive Summary The United States is increasingly ill-equipped to deter or defeat Chinese aggression in the Western Pacific, particularly a potential invasion or blockade of Taiwan. The U.S. military no longer possesses the requisite quantity of warfighting systems—nor the industrial capacity to produce them at scale—needed to counter the People’s Liberation Army’s burgeoning arsenal. To […] The Pharma Choke Point Executive Summary U.S. dependence on China for essential medicines is structural—deeper, broader, and more consequential than conventional market analyses suggest. That dependence began with generic medicines and their ingredients but is now growing in biologics manufacturing, first-in-human trials, and synthetic DNA. That dependence is not simply the result of market conditions but rather decades of […] Russian Annexation of Belarus Introduction Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, Russia has made a concerted effort to keep Belarus in its sphere of influence. Belarus’s political, economic, and military autonomy has ebbed and flowed over time, depending on geopolitical circumstances, Russia’s needs, and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s political adroitness. Nevertheless, the present moment poses unique challenges for […] Washington's Growing Portfolio: Tracking U.S. Government Investments CFR’s U.S. Government Deal Tracker shows how the government is experimenting with new tools and financing structures to advance a range of strategic sectors, including critical minerals, energy, global logistics, manufacturing, telecommunications, and other technologies. By Jonathan E. Hillman Financing the Missing Middle A gap in private funding for companies and projects inhibits energy innovation in the United States. This “missing middle” slows or blocks technologies that could help the energy system become more secure, affordable, reliable, and sustainable from advancing through the demonstration and scale-up stages. Recent events have made the missing middle wider. After Khamenei: Planning for Iran’s Leadership Transition Suzanne Maloney, vice president and director of the Brookings Institution’s Foreign Policy Program, recommends that the United States reconsider its assumptions around eventual leadership change in Tehran, revive regime accountability efforts, prepare for opportunistic escalation by proxy groups, and ready itself for renewed nuclear diplomacy. Preventing Renewed Conflict in Colombia CFR International Affairs Fellow in National Security Roxanna Vigil argues that the United States should engage early with Colombia’s next administration to signal support for full implementation of the 2016 Peace Accords and provide targeted assistance. CFR in the News Will Venezuela's Oil Lower Gas Prices? Shaoshan, Mao's Village That Lives Off Communist Souvenirs Why Germany Isn’t Punishing Russia Harder Mao, Cultural Revolution cast long shadow over China 50 years on Far-Right AfD Win Signals Shift in Germany, Raises Alarm in Europe What the AfD's Electoral Victory Means for Germany and Europe Ten Resources Debunking September 11 Conspiracy Theories The Lessons of September 11 Much Ado About Mapping CFR Welcomes 2026–27 Class of Visiting Fellows Hunger Warfare and a Fertilizer Crisis Are Straining Global Food Supplies Global Experts Reflect on the Legacy of the War on Terrorism