Why It Matters

What powers artificial intelligence (AI)? As global electricity use is surging, with unprecedented demand coming from an increase in data centers, AI’s dependence on...

Why It Matters sits down with the hosts of The World Next Week to talk about what the United States–and a closely watching world–should expect in the weeks and month...

For most of our history, the realm of international relations was dominated by nation-states. They waged wars and signed treaties through the framework of governance...

With the rise of social media, influencers around the world have increasingly taken on the role of newscaster without a traditional media organization behind them. S...

The United States national debt is rising to levels not seen since World War II. Many economists say Washington is on an unsustainable track, but no one knows when i...

The world is watching the U.S. presidential contest between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris with intense interest. Few countries are t...

West Africa is losing many of its best and brightest. Across the region, doctors, lawyers, and engineers are leaving, depriving some of the world’s youngest countrie...

In the past thirty years, sixty countries have expanded access to abortion care as an underpinning of maternal health. The 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision overturni...

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the most popular man in India. On track to be elected for a third term, he has boosted the country’s global standing and propelled st...

In a wide-ranging conversation, Foreign Affairs Editor Dan Kurtz-Phelan joins Why It Matters to discuss nonpartisan publishing in a polarized political climate, the ...

Thirty years ago, Rwanda’s government began a campaign to eradicate the country’s largest minority group. In just one hundred days in 1994, roving militias killed ar...

Many Americans are losing faith in the benefits of internationalism. But whether it’s wars in the Gaza Strip and Ukraine, worsening extreme weather as a result of cl...

Unidentified flying objects (UFOs) are real. And the truth about them is often hidden from the public, for reasons related to national security. That secrecy has fed...

Every January, CFR’s annual Preventive Priorities Survey analyzes the conflicts most likely to occur in the year ahead and measures their potential impact. For the f...

Billions of people will take to the polls next year, marking the world’s largest-ever electoral field. But this historic scale is not the only thing that will make 2...