Washington’s Iran policy should be grounded in human rights, liberalism, democracy, regional stability, national security, and economic opportunity—and treated as both a strategic and a moral issue.

May 9, 2025, RESEARCH Public Opinion Survey by Lama El Baz and Dina Smeltz, Bernat Armangue / AP, Download Report (PDF), To address the Red Sea attacks, Americans would rather use economic sanctions to force the Houthis (and Iran) to concede the waters., On May 6, US President Donald Trump announ...

April 14, 2025, RESEARCH Public Opinion Survey by Lama El Baz and Denis Volkov, Leo Correa / AP, Download Report (PDF), After a decade of involvement in Syria, some Russians are eager to withdraw their forces from the country., The formation of a new transitional government after the ouster of f...

January 10, 2023, RESEARCH Public Opinion Survey by Craig Kafura, Reuters, Download Topline (PDF), American public opinion toward Japan has never been warmer, Council data show., Key Findings, Two-thirds of Americans (67%) support long-term US bases in Japan, an all-time high in Chicago Council S...

February 12, 2026, RESEARCH Public Opinion Survey by Lama El Baz , Dina Smeltz , and Craig Kafura, Iryna Rybakova / Ukraine's 93rd Mechanized Brigade via AP, Download Report (PDF), They are also divided on the United States’ participation in Europe’s “Coalition of the Willing” to defend a...

Cohort, 2021, Industry, Law, Sector, Public Sector, Paul Mower is an assistant United States attorney in the violent crimes section of the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois, where he prosecutes federal crimes involving gang violence, racketeering, illegal firearms, and ...

November 25, 2024, RESEARCH Public Opinion Survey by Lama El Baz , Craig Kafura , Dina Smeltz , Jordan Tama , and Joshua Busby, Leo Correa / AP, When it comes to the conflict in the Middle East, American foreign policy professionals are more divided along partisan lines than the general public., ...

August 5, 2026, RESEARCH Public Opinion Survey by Dina Smeltz and Lama El Baz, Jose Luis Magana / AP, Download Report (PDF), New polling finds 68 percent of Americans believe the costs of the war with Iran have outweighed the benefits, though Republicans stand apart., The 2026 Chicago Council Sur...

April 4, 2024, RESEARCH Public Opinion Survey by Dina Smeltz and Lama El Baz, Jacquelyn Martin / AP, Download Report (PDF), Americans are also slightly more likely to say Israel has gone too far in its war with Hamas than to say Israel’s actions are justified., US President Joe Biden has warned...