Analysis

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.

Since the days before its independence, America has gone to the extremes of foreign economic policy.

As it prepares to turn 250, the once-respected nation is becoming harder to recognize. Yet America retains the capacity for reinvention.

As it enters its 250th year, the United States faces an international political system it can neither dominate nor disregard. American leaders will have to do something they have long resisted: learn how to actually play the game.

The world will continue to watch the outcomes of US elections, cultural conflicts, and social protests, which will shape global debates about justice, identity, education, and democratic possibility.

As the current administration tries to hold back the tide on energy innovation, China is dominating in the production and sale of clean technologies.