Maxar Technologies/Reuters

Europe

The United States’ appetite for engagement in European affairs is diminishing while Europe is endeavoring to rearm itself in a bid to achieve some measure of strategic autonomy and support Ukraine.

Ukraine

Russia holds a sizable advantage over Ukraine on troop numbers and weaponry yet the two sides have fought to a standstill. Russia this spring has ramped up attacks on civilian targets while resisting U.S. ceasefire calls.

Ukraine

Ukraine said it had used 117 drones to target airfields deep in Russian territory. The daring attack demonstrated low-cost precision strikes accessible to almost any state or militant group.
United States

United States

The Trump administration has moved to cut international enrollments, alleging disruptive political activism and immigration abuses.

Education

For decades, international students have enjoyed bipartisan support in the United States, with strong consensus that they fuel American innovation, job creation, and competitiveness. But in recent years, their access to U.S. colleges and universities has come under threat, and other nations are seizing the opportunity to bring in the world’s brightest students.
Max Boot

 

Trade War

Trade

President Trump doubled almost all aluminum and steel import tariffs, seeking to curb China’s growing dominance in global trade. These six charts show the tariffs’ potential economic effects.
Michael Froman

 

Trade

Though Congress holds power over regulating commerce with foreign nations, it has incrementally delegated significant authority to the president, giving him broad discretion to take trade actions.    
Russia

Ukraine

The Sanctioning Russia Act would impose history’s highest tariffs and tank the global economy. Congress needs a better approach, one that strengthens existing sanctions and adds new measures the current bill ignores.

Sanctions

The United States and its allies have imposed broad economic penalties on Russia over its war in Ukraine. As the conflict continues, experts debate whether the sanctions are working.

 

India

China Strategy Initiative

At the Shangri-La dialogue in Singapore last week, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said that the United States would be expanding its defense partnership with India. His statement was in line with U.S. policy over the last two decades, which, irrespective of the party in power, has sought to cultivate India as a serious defense partner. The U.S.-India defense partnership has come a long way. Beginning in 2001, the United States and India moved from little defense cooperation or coordination to significant gestures that would lay the foundation of the robust defense partnership that exists today—such as India offering access to its facilities after 9/11 to help the United States launch operations in Afghanistan or the 123 Agreement in 2005 that paved the way for civil nuclear cooperation between the two countries. In the United States, there is bipartisan agreement that a strong defense partnership with India is vital for its Indo-Pacific strategy and containing China. In India, too, there is broad political support for its strategic partnership with the United States given its immense wariness about its fractious border relationship with China. Consequently, the U.S.-India bilateral relationship has heavily emphasized security, with even trade tilting toward defense goods. Despite the massive changes to the relationship in the last few years, and both countries’ desire to develop ever-closer defense ties, differences between the United States and India remain. A significant part of this has to do with the differing norms that underpin the defense interests of each country. The following Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) memos by defense experts in three countries are part of a larger CFR project assessing India’s approach to the international order in different areas, and illustrate India’s positions on important defense issues—military operationalization, cooperation in space, and export controls—and how they differ with respect to the United States and its allies. Sameer Lalwani (Washington, DC) argues that the two countries differ in their thinking about deterrence, and that this is evident in three categories crucial to defense: capability, geography, and interoperability. When it comes to increasing material capabilities, for example, India prioritizes domestic economic development, including developing indigenous capabilities (i.e., its domestic defense-industrial sector). With regard to geography, for example, the United States and its Western allies think of crises, such as Ukraine, in terms of global domino effects; India, in contrast, thinks regionally, and confines itself to the effects on its neighborhood and borders (and, as the recent crisis with Pakistan shows, India continues to face threats on its border, widening the geographic divergence with the United States). And India’s commitment to strategic autonomy means the two countries remain far apart on the kind of interoperability required by modern military operations. Yet there is also reason for optimism about the relationship as those differences are largely surmountable. Dimitrios Stroikos (London) argues that India’s space policy has shifted from prioritizing socioeconomic development to pursuing both national security and prestige. While it is party to all five UN space treaties that govern outer space and converges with the United States on many issues in the civil, commercial, and military domains of space, India is careful with regard to some norms. It favors, for example, bilateral initiatives over multilateral, and the inclusion of Global South countries in institutions that it believes to be dominated by the West. Konark Bhandari (New Delhi) argues that India’s stance on export controls is evolving. It has signed three of the four major international export control regimes, but it has to consistently contend with the cost of complying, particularly as the United States is increasingly and unilaterally imposing export control measures both inside and outside of those regimes. When it comes to export controls, India prefers trade agreements with select nations, prizes its strategic autonomy (which includes relations with Russia and China through institutions such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the BRICS), and prioritizes its domestic development. Furthermore, given President Donald Trump’s focus on bilateral trade, the two countries’ differences will need to be worked out if future tech cooperation is to be realized.

India

The United States and India have developed a strong defense partnership in recent years, especially in relation to China. However, they have major differences to bridge: how much to spend on defense, the role of civilian governance, and the independence of their defense-industrial bases.

India

India’s space policy, once driven primarily by domestic development goals, is increasingly aligning with that of the United States. How it approaches the norms of space governance, however, could provide a path for other Global South nations.
Tariffs

United States

The Court of International Trade’s ruling on Donald Trump’s tariffs is the most consequential potential setback for the president’s trade agenda to date. CFR experts weigh in.

United States

CFR experts discuss the recent court rulings on the legality of the Trump administration’s sweeping tariffs, and analyze the implications for U.S. trade policy, the impact on global markets, and the legal challenges ahead. This meeting is presented by RealEcon: Reimagining American Economic Leadership, a CFR initiative of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies. To register for this virtual meeting, please click the Register button. Please make note of the log-in information listed in this invitation so you may access the meeting.

United States

A court ruling on Wednesday could pose a major threat to President Donald Trump’s tariff agenda. CFR Trade Policy Fellow Inu Manak unpacks what could happen next.

Events

India

Shashi Tharoor discusses the Pahalgam attack, the launch and objectives of Operation Sindoor, and the subsequent political and security developments arising from these events.Please note there is no virtual component to the meeting. Please note the audio, video, and transcript of this meeting will be posted on the CFR website.

United States

Lisa D. Cook discusses the U.S. economic outlook and monetary policy. The C. Peter McColough Series on International Economics brings the world’s foremost economic policymakers and scholars to address members on current topics in international economics. This meeting series is presented by the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies. If you wish to attend virtually, log-in information and instructions on how to participate during the question and answer portion will be provided the evening before the event to those who register. Please note the audio, video, and transcript of this hybrid meeting will be posted on the CFR website.

United States

CFR experts discuss the recent court rulings on the legality of the Trump administration’s sweeping tariffs, and analyze the implications for U.S. trade policy, the impact on global markets, and the legal challenges ahead. This meeting is presented by RealEcon: Reimagining American Economic Leadership, a CFR initiative of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies. To register for this virtual meeting, please click the Register button. Please make note of the log-in information listed in this invitation so you may access the meeting.

United States

Panelists discuss the current global state of the critical mineral landscape, the importance of supply chain resilience to address national security concerns in an evolving geopolitical environment, and the recent minerals deal between the United States and Ukraine. This meeting is presented by RealEcon: Reimagining American Economic Leadership, a CFR initiative of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies.

Explainers

Featured Publications

International Law

Few Americans have done more than Jerome A. Cohen to advance the rule of law in East Asia. The founder of the study of Chinese law in the United States and a tireless advocate for human rights, Cohen has been a scholar, teacher, lawyer, and activist for more than sixty years. Moving among the United States, China, and Taiwan, he has encouraged legal reforms, promoted economic cooperation, mentored law students—including a future president of Taiwan—and brokered international crises. In this compelling, conversational memoir, Cohen recounts a dramatic life of striving for a better world from Washington, DC, to Beijing, offering vital first-hand insights from the study and practice of Sino-American relations. In the early 1960s, when Americans were not permitted to enter China, he met with émigrés in Hong Kong and interviewed them on Chinese criminal procedure. After economic reform under Deng Xiaoping, Cohen’s knowledge of Chinese law took on a new importance as foreign companies began to pursue business opportunities. Helping China develop and reconstruct its legal system, he made an influential case for the roles of Western law and lawyers. Cohen helped break political barriers in both China and Taiwan, and he was instrumental in securing the release of political prisoners in several countries. Sharing these experiences and many others, this book tells the full story of an unparalleled career bridging East and West.

Public Health Threats and Pandemics

A detailed exploration of the most sweeping government border closures in human history during the COVID-19 pandemic and the implications for the future of global mobility.

United States

Son of the Midwest, movie star, and mesmerizing politician—America’s fortieth president comes to three-dimensional life in this gripping and profoundly revisionist biography.