Council on Foreign Relations

🟦 New episode of The President’s Inbox.

Almost no leader, Eliot Cohen observes, ever gets the war they expected. So is strategy actually possible? Or is war just a matter of chance?

Jim Lindsay talks with Eliot Cohen about his new book, The Strategist: How to Think About War and Politics, what the word strategy really means, the seven deceptively simple questions every strategist must ask before starting a war, why Americans so often fail to understand their enemies, and what Clausewitz can still teach us about war and politics.

📊 Why do strategists get war so wrong? Vote, then tell us why below:

🎧 Watch the full conversation: https://youtu.be/EKe3nOnTvfA

#Strategy #War #ForeignPolicy #CFR #ThePresidentsInbox #Clausewitz

1 day ago | [YT] | 19

Council on Foreign Relations

What do you think is the biggest threat to Ukraine as Russia continues to drive its campaign forward?

Listen to the latest episode of The Spillover to find out more: https://youtu.be/aYiJZ3QXhN8

3 days ago | [YT] | 22

Council on Foreign Relations

🟦 New episode of The President’s Inbox.

The president doesn’t usually drive out to the airport. But if all goes to plan, Donald Trump will personally greet Xi Jinping on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews—a gesture Washington normally reserves for popes.

Jim Lindsay sits down with Julian Gewirtz and Bonny Lin to decode Xi’s first Washington visit in a decade: the lavish optics and what they signal, “constructive strategic stability” on Beijing’s terms, the fights over Taiwan, AI, and Iran, and the world order Xi hopes to build.

💬 Is Trump’s red-carpet courtship of Xi shrewd diplomacy or a giveaway of American leverage? Pick a side and tell us why in the comments.

🎧 Watch the full conversation: https://youtu.be/kvtpAbWdalc

#China #USChina #ForeignPolicy #CFR #ThePresidentsInbox #XiJinping

1 week ago | [YT] | 4

Council on Foreign Relations

🟦 New episode of The President’s Inbox.

In mid-August, a U.S.-Canada trade deal was reportedly all but done. Then, within days, it fell apart, and Prime Minister Mark Carney pulled Canada out of the talks.

Jim Lindsay talks with economist Rohinton Medhora about a U.S.-Canada relationship many Canadians now refer to as undergoing a “rupture”—the new 50 percent tariffs, Carney’s “elbows up” retaliation, messy federation politics from Doug Ford’s Ontario to Alberta and Quebec, and whether decades of North American integration are quietly coming undone.

🎧 Listen to the full conversation: https://youtu.be/PgdcOn2hyIM

#Canada #TradeWar #ForeignPolicy #CFR #ThePresidentsInbox #Tariffs

📊 Where is the U.S.-Canada relationship headed? Vote, then tell us why below:

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 22

Council on Foreign Relations

🟦 New episode of The President's Inbox.

For a growing share of Americans, September 11 is something you learn about—not something you remember. Like Pearl Harbor or the Kennedy assassination, it is passing into history. Twenty-five years after the attacks, Jim Lindsay sits down with Walter Russell Mead—who, like Jim, was at CFR the morning the towers fell—to reckon with the day’s legacy.

They trace how a nation gripped by anger and fear was drawn into the war on terror, why the United States proved so much better at fighting wars than at building order in their wake, and how 9/11 reshaped not only U.S. foreign policy, but the homeland itself through a vast national security state. With the midterms weeks away and the 2028 presidential election on the horizon, Mead asks what today's leaders should take from 9/11’s legacy.

🎧 Watch the full conversation: https://youtu.be/YDU09xT86BY

#September11 #ForeignPolicy #CFR #ThePresidentsInbox #WarOnTerror #NationalSecurity

📊 A quarter-century on, what's the enduring lesson of 9/11? Vote, then share your thinking below:

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 24

Council on Foreign Relations

🟦 New episode of The President's Inbox.

It was supposed to be quiet. Instead, Russian Telegram channels lit up tracking a U.S. military transport plane as it crossed from Latvia into Russian airspace carrying CIA Director John Ratcliffe. So much for secrecy. The bigger question is what he was doing there at all.

Possible explanations are all over the map. Jim Lindsay talks with CFR's Steve Sestanovich about what Ratcliffe's Moscow trip signals, why the administration seemed to want everyone to know about it, and whether Trump's tangled mix of tough talk and diplomatic outreach toward Russia actually adds up.

📊 What was Ratcliffe's Moscow trip really about? Vote, then tell us why below:

🎧 Watch the full conversation: https://youtu.be/eVEr-YSGUJk

#Russia #Ukraine #ForeignPolicy #CFR #ThePresidentsInbox #CIA

4 weeks ago | [YT] | 24

Council on Foreign Relations

🟦 New episode of The President's Inbox.

The day before the war with Iran began, oil moved freely through the Strait of Hormuz, Iran menaced its neighbors mainly through proxies, and Tehran had reason to hold off on a dash for the bomb. Six months later, each of these conditions has flipped: traffic through the strait is a fraction of what it was, Iran has shown it can strike Gulf capitals directly with missiles and drones, and the case for nuclear weaponization has only grown.

Now the White House is opening a new front: what it's calling an "economic D-Day" to isolate Iran, while U.S. partners hedge their bets. The UAE has cut trade ties with Tehran while Saudi Arabia has signed a new defense pact with Pakistan and Turkey. Jim Lindsay speaks with CFR's Steven Cook, author of The End of Ambition, about who's actually winning six months in, and whether the American era in the Middle East may be drawing to a close.

📊 Is the era of U.S. dominance in the Middle East over? Vote, then make your case below:

🎧 Watch the full conversation: https://youtu.be/Asykfcte8ZM

#Iran #MiddleEast #ForeignPolicy #CFR #ThePresidentsInbox #PersianGulf

1 month ago | [YT] | 28

Council on Foreign Relations

🟦 New episode of The President's Inbox.

Here's the math straining the U.S. military: it can take a multimillion-dollar interceptor to shoot down a $50,000 drone. U.S. stocks of the most advanced missiles are running thin—shortages reportedly serious enough to make the Pentagon think twice about a major strike in Iran—and for the first time in decades, there's no U.S. aircraft carrier in the Western Pacific.

Jim Lindsay talks with CFR expert Michael Horowitz about how the United States ended up with an arsenal that's the best in the world but too expensive and too slow to replenish—a problem with roots going back to the 1990s—and what it would actually take to fix it before an adversary decides that this is the moment to test U.S. resolve.

📄 Horowitz and a CFR study group lay out the case for "precise mass" in a new report out this week—link in the show notes.

📊 What's the smartest fix? Vote, then make your case below:

🎧 Watch the full conversation: https://youtu.be/zs4_0tdExwY?si=PVOPr...

#Defense #NationalSecurity #ForeignPolicy #CFR #ThePresidentsInbox #Deterrence

1 month ago | [YT] | 22

Council on Foreign Relations

What is the reason behind Israel’s military campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon?

Watch Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter share his thoughts here: youtube.com/shorts/RfPBY4qwabQ

2 months ago | [YT] | 6

Council on Foreign Relations

Why do you think meat prices are higher?

Watch the Governor of Alaska share his response here: youtube.com/shorts/DzcmkXgjl5A

2 months ago | [YT] | 9