Explainers

  • The UN Security Council is the premier global body for maintaining international peace and security, but it faces steady calls for reform to better meet twenty-first-century challenges.
  • The United Nations’ top leadership position has broad authority to steer the organization’s agenda, but its impact has varied widely since 1946.
  • Foreign policy issues regularly come to the fore at the national political conventions, especially during periods of global instability. Sometimes the events are marked by bitter disagreements within the parties.
  • The Palestinian militant group struggled to govern the Gaza Strip before launching a surprise attack on Israel in 2023. Now facing Israel’s military campaign to destroy it, Hamas’s future is in doubt, as is Gaza’s.
  • The island’s proximity to Asia makes it a critical outpost for the U.S. military and a potential hub in the event of regional conflict.
  • U.S. President Joe Biden is reportedly planning to block the Japanese takeover of U.S. Steel, raising questions about the administration’s economic and foreign policy priorities.  
  • Georgia’s new law reflects rising Russian influence in the country and has prompted backlash from the United States and the European Union, which fear it could harm the Caucasus state’s democratic development.
  • The Taliban’s outright denial of women’s rights in Afghanistan has spurred a global push to combat gender-based oppression.
  • The U.S. Congress returns from its summer recess to try to pass a budget for federal discretionary programs before the fiscal year ends and avoid a government shutdown; the United States and other Western allies accuse Iran of transferring ballistic missiles to Russia, raising concerns over intensified strikes on Ukraine; Hungary faces a second deadline to pay a $221 million fine for breaking European Union asylum law, which President Viktor Orbán remains unwilling to follow; and China gifts Cambodia two newly built Type 056 corvette warships, raising questions about Beijing’s naval ambitions.
  • Max Boot, the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick senior fellow for national security studies at CFR and a columnist for The Washington Post, sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss Ronald Reagan’s life and his impact on U.S. foreign policy.
  • The United States, Egypt, and Qatar prepare another cease-fire proposal after Hamas killed six Israeli hostages and Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu demanded control of the Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border; Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump hold their first presidential debate; the Toronto International Film Festival showcases independent films spanning from Hungary to Georgia and more; and the United States seizes Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s plane.    
  • 2023 was a tumultuous year, marked by violent conflicts, democratic erosion, and record-high temperatures. This year, experts at the Council on Foreign Relations, along with visiting world leaders and thinkers, unpacked these issues and more. Join CFR’s director of studies, Jim Lindsay, in looking back at his list of the ten most impactful events of the year.  
  • Taiwan's relationship with the United States, China, and the rest of the world has a complex history that informs why the island is so consequential to today's geopolitics. To better understand these dynamics, David Sacks, CFR's fellow for Asia studies, answers questions about Taiwan's history and its significance to diplomacy in East Asia. For more on the relationship between the United States, China, and Taiwan, check out the Council on Foreign Relations–sponsored Independent Task Force, "U.S.-Taiwan Relations in a New Era". cfr.org/us-taiwan
  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) could transform economies, politics, and everyday life. Some experts believe this increasingly powerful technology could lead to amazing advances and prosperity. Yet, many tech and industry leaders are warning that AI poses substantial risks, and they are calling for a moratorium on AI research so that safety measures can be established. But amid mounting great-power competition, it’s unclear whether national governments will be able to coordinate on regulating this technology that offers so many economic and strategic opportunities.
  • Since the end of World War II, nuclear weapons have threatened international relations. The Cold War produced stalemates that seemed to reduce the threat of nuclear conflict, but several countries’ more recent acquisitions of nuclear weapons have brought the world into a dangerous new era of nuclear uncertainty. With nuclear tensions on the rise once again, what lies ahead for nuclear diplomacy?  
  • The quadrennial U.S. presidential nominating conventions often focus on domestic themes. But they have at times been flavored by global economic concerns and national security threats, offering competing Democratic and Republican visions about the United States’ role in the world. In the 2024 race, Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump, and his challenger, Vice President Kamala Harris, are projecting starkly different worldviews.
  • The International Olympic Committee says the games are not meant to be political. But governments and athletes have frequently used the Olympics to make statements through boycotts and protests.
  • The United States and China have one of the world’s most important and complex bilateral relationships. Since 1949, the countries have experienced periods of both tension and cooperation over issues including trade, climate change, and Taiwan.
  • Disputes over overlapping exclusive economic zones in the South China Sea have intensified in recent decades, while the territorial row over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea dates back to the nineteenth century.