High Stakes: Preparing the Next President
High Stakes: Preparing the Next President is CNAS’s new election-year initiative to explore the most pressing national security issues that will face the next administration.
Whether 2025 sees a Harris or Trump term, High Stakes will identify key topics, explore options, and propose policies.
From today through Inauguration Day, CNAS will develop a targeted collection of resources to inform candidates, policymakers, and the public on vital national security issues.
Explore the latest High Stakes content and events on this page throughout the year, and be sure to subscribe to receive new series updates directly in your inbox.
High Stakes Highlight:
The Axis of Upheaval
The West has been too quick to dismiss the coordination among China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia....
Read MoreRead:
Securing U.S. Democracy Initiative
How to Stop Rogue States Like Russia from Interfering in Our Politics
Democratic governments have done much to protect themselves in recent years. Still missing, however, is a mechanism for collective action....
Energy, Economics & Security
Disorderly Conduct
The United States must develop a strong, pragmatic strategy for advancing its economic and security interests within the U.S.-China economic relationship, accounting for the f...
Defense
Swarms over the Strait
The United States is betting that it can out-innovate China and use drones to defeat a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) invasion of Taiwan. Here, the United States should view U...
Technology & National Security
The Quest for Qubits
The United Nations General Assembly recently declared 2025 the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology. Quantum information science, a field once exclusive to aca...
Indo-Pacific Security
Beyond China's Black Box
China’s foreign and security policymaking apparatus is often described as a metaphorical black box about which analysts know little. That is true to an extent, but at the same...
Energy, Economics & Security
America’s China Strategy Has a Credibility Problem
An effective U.S. sanctions strategy should play to U.S. strengths in the financial sector while reserving the most severe measures for acute crises or conflicts....
CNAS Responds: $95 Billion Foreign Aid Package
Last night, in a remarkable show of bipartisanship, the U.S. Senate passed the $95 billion foreign-aid package. What all was included in the package, and what is its significa...
Indo-Pacific Security
CNAS Responds: Biden-Kishida Meeting
More Insights from the Indo-Pacific Security Program:...
Securing U.S. Democracy Initiative
Americans Need Domestic Unity for Effective Foreign Policy
Today’s international challenges threaten the security, prosperity, and freedom of the American people. But Americans will naturally shy from a focus on overseas problems unti...
Indo-Pacific Security
Countering Coercion
The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC or China) has been engaging in gray zone activity—coercive behavior that is aimed at changing the status quo but that is below a threshol...
Securing U.S. Democracy Initiative
CNAS Responds: State of the Union 2024
Following President Biden’s address to Congress at the 2024 State of the Union, CNAS experts analyze key policy points from the speech and weigh in on the state of U.S. nation...
Securing U.S. Democracy Initiative
CNAS Responds: High Stakes in National Security for 2024
Foreign policy and national security are top of mind for many Americans in 2024. The looming election and mounting threats set the stage for a high-stakes year, intensifying t...
Technology & National Security
The Perilous Coming Age of AI Warfare
The end state of this competition will likely be war executed at machine speed and beyond human control....
Indo-Pacific Security
Rumors of China’s Decline Are Premature and Dangerous
The chief near-term risk is not that Beijing’s ascent will fizzle, but rather that Washington will fail to muster the strength necessary for an adequate response....
Transatlantic Security
CNAS Responds: Two Years of War in Ukraine
Saturday, February 24, marks the sobering occasion of two years since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. In preparation for the anniversary, CNAS experts analyze the many impacts t...
Indo-Pacific Security
The ‘Lost Decade’ of the US Pivot to Asia
The Diplomat author Mercy Kuo regularly engages subject-matter experts, policy practitioners, and strategic thinkers across the globe for their diverse insights into U.S. Asia...
Transatlantic Security
Congress Can Help Ukraine With Confiscated Iranian Weapons
Sending more Iranian weapons to Ukraine would be an effective complement to a larger aid effort at almost no additional cost to the U.S. taxpayer....
Watch:
Middle East Security
Virtual Event | Confronting the Axis of Upheaval
Sep 20, 2024
Indo-Pacific Security
Why Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran are teaming up
Probably the most surprising thing about the war in Ukraine is that Russia is getting a ton of help. North Korea and Iran are sending it millions of rounds of ammunition and l...
Indo-Pacific Security
Virtual Event | Beyond China's Black Box: Trends Shaping China’s Foreign and Security Policy Decision-Making under Xi Jinping
Apr 30, 2024
Indo-Pacific Security
Lisa Curtis on U.S. and Japan's Security Alliance
Lisa Curtis talked about Japanese Prime Minister’s trip to the U.S. and the security alliance between the two countries amid threats from China. Watch the full video and more ...
Indo-Pacific Security
Japan will probably be a member of AUKUS Pillar 2 'before too long,' Richard Fontaine says
Richard Fontaine, CEO of the Center for New American Security, discusses Japan's relation to AUKUS, the Indo-Pacific security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom...
Middle East Security
Blaise Misztal and Jonathan Lord on U.S. Ceasefire Push in Israel-Hamas War
Blaise Misztal of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America and Jonathan Lord from the Center for a New American Security talked about the new push by the U.S. for...
Defense
National security leaders worry about U.S. failure to ratify Law of the Sea treaty
Thomas Shugart, a former U.S. Navy submarine warfare officer and a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, said being outside the treaty undercuts American cr...
Indo-Pacific Security
Virtual Event | AUKUS: Securing the Indo-Pacific, A Conversation with Kurt Campbell
Apr 3, 2024
Listen:
Indo-Pacific Security
How The U.S. Failed To Meet the China Challenge
It’s a rare subject of bipartisan agreement that China is the greatest strategic challenge facing the U.S., perhaps the greatest it has ever faced. And yet, despite a decade o...
Transatlantic Security
Russia, Putin, and Ukraine in 2024 with Fiona Hill
This week’s Brussels Sprouts discusses expectations for Russia in the pivotal year ahead. As we approach the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine this...
Transatlantic Security
Hal Brands on the Looming Threat of Global Conflict
During the past two years, the world has seen the eruption of two major conflicts in two different regions. In Europe, Russia has launched a war of aggression against Ukraine ...
Indo-Pacific Security
The State of the US-India Relationship
Michael Green is joined by Lisa Curtis, Senior Fellow and Director of the Indo-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security. The conversation begins with...
Transatlantic Security
A Look at 2024 with Richard Fontaine and Michèle Flournoy
On this week’s episode of Brussels Sprouts, we are setting out to identify some of the big-picture trends shaping the transatlantic relationship and international affairs more...
Energy, Economics & Security
Sanctioning China: Examining the Dilemma
China’s regular muscle-flexing and other threatening moves towards Taiwan poses a great challenge. How should the West think about this behaviour, given the integration of Chi...
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