Our experts provide commentary on public opinion, national security, US foreign policy, international issues, and Chicago's global connections and news.
News that the World Economic Forum may come down from the mountain is symbolic of the end of an era but also signals the beginning of new thinking about internationalism. In Davos, Trump, Carney, and Zelenskyy offered competing visions for the future international order.
With the death toll rising in Iran amid a crackdown on protests, US President Donald Trump is weighing a strike against the nation. Iran’s capacity to respond to such an action is far more limited than its leaders suggest.
As foreign ministers from Denmark and Greenland prepare to meet with Trump officials, Ambassador Julianne Smith explains what US actions to acquire the autonomous territory could mean for the United States’ most important alliance.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Chinese President Xi Jinping are set to meet this week in Beijing, with bilateral trade high on the agenda. What does it mean for Trump’s efforts to exert control over the Western Hemisphere?
Trump's first foreign policy moves of the new year included invading Venezuela, threatening to coerce Greenland into becoming a US territory, and withdrawing the US from 66 international organizations.
The US capture of Venezuela’s Maduro echoed intents outlined by Trump in the 2025 National Security Strategy. While the action might have appealed to his Republican base, the strategy’s principles are mostly out of step with US public opinion on America’s engagement in the world.
We need to think about an approach to international law's control of the use of force that is true to the moral and power political realities of today's world.
"Whether one loves Donald Trump or hates him, this daring operation shows what leadership in the executive branch looks like," Council Board Member Richard Porter writes following the US intervention in Venezuela.
The US military captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro during a large-scale strike. Experts assess what the unprecedented US intervention means for Venezuela, US foreign policy, and regional and global stability.
