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On Sunday, President Donald Trump announced that a deal with Iran had been completed. Michael Froman, Elliott Abrams, Steven A. Cook, Elisa Ewers, and Ray Takeyh assess the deal: what it achieves, what it defers, and what it means for the region. Read the analysis

Experts have become increasingly concerned about China’s stranglehold on the global critical minerals supply chain, but the United States is also overly dependent on China in another critical area—its pharmaceutical supply chain. In “The Pharma Choke Point: How to Reduce U.S. Dependence on Chinese Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Supply Chains,” Thomas J. Bollyky, Rush Doshi, Olivia Kosloff, Prashant Yadav, and Elena Every catalog the current shortcomings of the pharma environment and recommend a replicable framework for policymakers. Read the report

The Marshall Plan is widely considered one of the best U.S. foreign policy decisions in history. As part of the America at 250 series, Benn Steil sits down with James M. Lindsay on The President’s Inbox podcast to discuss how a Republican Congress was persuaded to support an initiative of a Democratic administration, whether the plan can take sole credit for Western Europe’s economic rebound in the late 1940s, and what lessons the United States should take away from the Marshall Plan almost eighty years later. Listen to the episode

In “The Stockpile Gap: How America Can Secure the Strategic Materials It Needs to Win,” Jonathan E. Hillman and Ishaan Thakkar cast a critical eye on the United States’ three strategic stockpiles—the health-based Strategic National Stockpile, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and the National Defense Stockpile—and declare them inadequate for modern economic warfare. To truly create a modern stockpile—and prepare for potential armed conflict with China—they recommend creating a fourth stockpile for strategic minerals and expanding private-sector collaboration with the new Project Vault initiative. Read more

The relationship between Minsk and Moscow has reached a tipping point, and U.S. policymakers should not ignore the possibility that Russia might decide to annex Belarus within the next two years. In “Russian Annexation of Belarus,” Thomas Graham proposes several preventive measures the United States could take, including normalizing relations with Belarus while keeping backchannel communications open with Russia, and mitigating options, in the event of a coercive seizure—most importantly, strengthening NATO’s deterrent stance along the Russian border. Read more

About the David Rockefeller Studies Program

The David Rockefeller Studies Program—CFR’s think tank—analyzes global challenges and offers steps to address them. More than eighty fellows cover the world’s major regions and significant foreign policy issues. CFR produces reports, articles, videos, podcasts, and more for the interested public, the academic community, business leaders, foreign policy experts, and policymakers.

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