Anya Schmemann

CFR Staff

Anya Schmemann

Managing Director, Global Communications and Media Relations & Managing Director, Task Force Program

Anya directs communications and digital marketing and manages the Task Force program at CFR in Washington, DC. Task Force reports reach consensus on issues of critical importance to U.S. foreign policy. Previously, she served as assistant dean of communications and outreach at American University's School of International Service, managed communications at Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center, was a project manager at the East West Institute, and was assistant director of CFR's Center for Preventive Action. She received a BA and MA from Harvard University.

Most Recent

  • Labor and Employment

    The Work Ahead

    Task Force Report by Edward Alden, Laura Taylor-Kale, PhD, Anya Schmemann, Penny Pritzker and John Engler April 10, 2018

    The world is in the midst of a transformation in the nature of work, as smart machines, artificial intelligence, new technologies, and global competition remake how people do their jobs and pursue th…

  • China

    China’s Belt and Road

    Task Force Report by Jacob Lew, Gary Roughead, Jennifer Hillman, David Sacks and Anya Schmemann March 23, 2021

    The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Chinese President Xi Jinping’s signature foreign policy undertaking and the world’s largest infrastructure program, poses a significant challenge to U.S. economic, political, climate change, security, and global health interests.

  • North Korea

    A Sharper Choice on North Korea
    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…

    Task Force Report by Mike Mullen, Sam Nunn, Adam Mount and Anya Schmemann September 16, 2016

  • Space

    Securing Space: A Plan for U.S. Action
    Executive Summary It is impossible to overstate the importance of space to the United States. For Americans, modern life depends on information from the thousands of satellites orbiting the globe,…

    Task Force Report by Nina M. Armagno, Jane Harman, Esther Brimmer and Anya Schmemann February 11, 2025

  • Technology and Innovation

    Innovation and National Security

    Task Force Report by Adam Segal, James Manyika, William H. McRaven and Anya Schmemann September 18, 2019

    The United States has led the world in innovation, research, and technology development since World War II, but that leadership is now at risk. Addressing the challenge from China and other rising sc…

  • Cybersecurity

    Confronting Reality in Cyberspace

    Task Force Report by Nathaniel Fick, Jami Miscik, Adam Segal, Gordon M. Goldstein and Anya Schmemann July 12, 2022

    The early advantages the United States held in cyberspace have largely disappeared as the internet has become more fragmented, less free, and more dangerous. The United States needs a new foreign policy for cyberspace to secure its economic and security interests. 

  • Arctic

    Arctic Imperatives

    Task Force Report by Thad W. Allen, Christine Todd Whitman, Esther Brimmer and Anya Schmemann March 21, 2017

    Overview “The United States, through Alaska, is a significant Arctic nation with strategic, economic, and scientific interests,” asserts a new Council on Foreign Relations-sponsored (CFR) Independ…

  • COVID-19

    Improving Pandemic Preparedness

    Task Force Report by Thomas J. Bollyky, Stewart M. Patrick, Sylvia Mathews Burwell, Frances Fragos Townsend and Anya Schmemann October 8, 2020

    COVID-19 has confirmed the U.S. and global vulnerabilities that were repeatedly identified in high-level reports, commissions, and intelligence assessments on pandemic threats for nearly two decades …

  • Taiwan

    U.S.-Taiwan Relations in a New Era

    Task Force Report by Susan M. Gordon, Adm. Michael G. Mullen, David Sacks and Anya Schmemann June 20, 2023

    Although a conflict in the Taiwan Strait has thus far been avoided, deterrence has dangerously eroded. To maintain peace, the United States must restore balance to a situation that has been allowed to tilt far too much in China’s favor.

Mexico

Mexico’s Long War: Drugs, Crime, and the Cartels
Violence continues to rage some two decades after the Mexican government launched a war against drug cartels.

Backgrounder by CFR.org Editors February 21, 2025

United States

How the U.S. Asylum Process Works
Asylum has become a central part of the U.S. immigration debate in recent years after border crossings reached a record high in fiscal year 2023. Here’s how the asylum process works.

Backgrounder by Diana Roy February 19, 2025

China

China’s Environmental Crisis
China’s mounting environmental crisis is endangering the pace of its economic growth and threatening the legitimacy of the ruling party.

Backgrounder by Eleanor Albert and Beina Xu February 12, 2025

Top Stories on CFR

Ecuador

Ecuador’s Next President Will Face Debt, Drought, and Gangs
April’s runoff election could decide whether Ecuador continues a descent into instability and violence, or charts a new course.

Expert Brief by Will Freeman February 20, 2025

RealEcon

Donald Trump Wants Reciprocity in Trade: Here’s a Closer Look
The president’s plan for reciprocal tariffs sounds good in theory. But there was a reason the United States abandoned the approach a century ago. The gains would be few and the costs enormous.

Article by Edward Alden and Jennifer Hillman February 14, 2025 RealEcon

China Strategy Initiative

India, the United States and the Future of the International Trade Order
India has enjoyed bipartisan support in the U.S. as a critical economic counterbalance to China, but the United States still has a tenuous grasp on its interests. In this series, three experts examine India’s position on digital trade, the World Trade Organization (WTO), and industrial policy.

Article by Manjari Chatterjee Miller February 10, 2025 China Strategy Initiative