Council on Foreign Relations

In The Spillover, a new weekly podcast from CFR, international economics experts @scmallaby and Rebecca Patterson follow the ripple effects of global events across policy, geopolitics, financial markets, and more. Listen and subscribe: cfr.org/podcasts/spill…

“President Trump said last week that he would know in his gut when it’s over, because there doesn’t seem to be any kind of objective metric by which you can judge the success or failure of this endeavor,” says CFR expert @MaxBoot. Boot joined @JamesMLindsay on The President’s Inbox podcast to discuss the tactical and strategic lessons learned from the U.S. and Israeli military operations against Iran. Watch or listen to the latest episode of The Spillover here on.cfr.org/4rNqULx or wherever you get podcasts.

"While the overall outcome of the [war in Iran] remains anyone’s guess, there is no question that it will leave Iran considerably weakened, thus jeopardizing its longstanding diplomatic, economic, religious, and military engagement in Africa," writes expert Ebenezer Obadare. cfr.org/articles/afric…

On this day 23 years ago, President George W. Bush announced to the nation that the United States had begun “military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people, and to defend the world from grave danger.” "The United States quickly discovered, however, that military success did not equal political victory. Inspectors found no evidence of the weapons of mass destruction that had been the reason for the war," writes expert @JamesMLindsay. cfr.org/articles/remem…

March 2026 marks the 15th anniversary of the Fukushima disaster the largest nuclear disaster since the end of the Cold War. Experts Daniel Poneman and @claireuh discuss the complicated legacy of the accident and what it means for Japan's energy future. cfr.org/articles/japan…

The war in the Middle East escalated yesterday with attacks on natural gas facilities in Iran and Qatar, threatening to deepen strains in global energy markets. Read more and subscribe to the Daily News Brief: on.cfr.org/3PiD9SQ

“All administrations make mistakes, but that list, I think, demonstrates that the liberal internationalism of recent years would not be recognized by Harry Truman, by Jack Kennedy, or by Bill Clinton because it got progressively weaker,” says Robert D. Blackwill, distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, senior fellow at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and former senior fellow at CFR. 🔗 Watch the full conversation: on.cfr.org/4kSVbXu

“[Former U.S. Secretary of State] Henry Kissinger was concerned in the last years of his life that we were headed for a war with China on the current trajectory. And I think the same thing,” says Robert D. Blackwill, distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, senior fellow at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and former senior fellow at CFR. 🔗 Watch the full conversation: on.cfr.org/4kSVbXu

“We’ve done a lot to reduce our vulnerability to the foreign terrorism threat, as we understood it, coming out of 9/11. The idea must be that you have to continue—it’s an iterative process,” says Frances Fragos Townsend, former deputy national security advisor for combatting terrorism, and former assistant to President George W. Bush for homeland security and counterterrorism and chair of the Homeland Security Council. “We can’t just rely on the measures that we put in place to fight the last threat.” 🔗 Watch the full conversation: on.cfr.org/3Mt9IvZ

"The [Iran] war is now but 20 days old. If it lasts through the summer, it could have calamitous effects on Asian growth and political stability," write expert @JoshKurlantzick and Annabel Richter. cfr.org/articles/the-i…

.@stuartareid knew early on he was interested in journalism and international affairs. After college, he wound up at the intersection of both, working as an assistant editor at Foreign Affairs magazine. He worked his way up to executive editor over the years as he edited—or as he called it, “translated”—countless articles, turning complex topics into compelling prose and digestible insights. Reid sat down with CFR to discuss the importance of good writing to convey global issues, and how he started writing his own stories. cfr.org/articles/how-i…

Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae will arrive in Washington, D.C. this week for a much-anticipated meeting with President Donald Trump. "What had been designed as a comfortable opportunity to develop an agreed-upon agenda for strengthening the U.S.-Japan alliance has been transformed into a high-stakes test of whether the alliance can deliver in the Middle East," writes expert Sheila Smith. cfr.org/articles/takai…

“I think that this conflict and the lasting effects of it are going to require the United States to maintain a significant engagement with the Middle East going forward,” says Meghan L. O’Sullivan, director of and a professor at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and CFR Board member. 🔗 Watch the full conversation: on.cfr.org/4sC8aPO

The escalating war in Iran and the Middle East has disrupted two of the world's most critical logistics corridors—the Strait of Hormuz and major Gulf air hubs—triggering delays across global supply chains and affecting the transport of critical medicines. "Rerouting costs will burden pharmaceutical export-dependent economies, as well as consumers," write CFR expert @Prof_Yadav_SCM and Anya Hirschfeld. on.cfr.org/4dy807E

A top Trump administration counterterrorism official resigned yesterday over the war in Iran. The news came amid continued friction between the U.S. and NATO allies over U.S. demands for support in securing the Strait of Hormuz. Read more and subscribe to the Daily News Brief: on.cfr.org/473S6Oz

"The United States needs a coordinated policy and financing architecture that treats innovation not as an afterthought but as the primary means by which it and its allies can leapfrog China in critical minerals—and secure the material foundations of economic and strategic strength," write @heidirediker and Mahnaz Khan in a new report. cfr.org/reports/leapfr…

“So there’s going to be a pretty big shock—the kind of shock that might lead to something close to a recession—if there isn’t a resolution in the near term,” says CFR expert @Brad_Setser. “You’re looking at a level of the price of oil that would be exceptionally noticeable. And would it be at least a percentage point hit to the U.S. economy? Probably more. There’s probably some nonlinearities.” 🔗 Watch the full conversation: on.cfr.org/4sols2U

“Here we have a country that views the origins of the war in remarkably similar ways as the Russian Federation...At the same time, China tries to play a double game by positioning itself as a country that's not a party to the war,” says CFR expert @JosephTorigian, describing China's relationship with Russia. Listen to the latest episode of Why It Matters here on.cfr.org/4drgSfo or wherever you get podcasts.

“If you look at the bilateral agreements that have been reached so far, they tend to be extremely one sided,” argues Marc Levinson, an independent historian and economist. “These agreements may not be very stable because it will occur to people in these other countries that these agreements are, in ways, quite disadvantageous to them.” 🔗 Watch the full conversation: on.cfr.org/4bORxuA

The economic consequences of the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran are coming into sharper focus as the conflict enters its third week. As the fallout expands beyond the Middle East and ripples through the global economy, 6 CFR experts assess the challenges that could lie ahead: cfr.org/articles/how-t…

“We have this 10% tariff in place until mid-July because it can only go on for 150 days,” says CFR international trade expert @inumanak. “And at that point, the administration is going to need to replace it with some other tariffs, likely going to be Section 301 tariffs—this is the unfair trade practices statute, which has been used in the trade war against China—and they’ll try to largely recreate the existing regime with that.” 🔗 Watch the full conversation: on.cfr.org/4s9fB0G