Why It Matters
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Why It Matters
Each episode of Why It Matters breaks down an issue that is shaping our world’s future. Join host Gabrielle Sierra as she speaks with the leaders and thinkers who are facing these questions head on. Fueled by the minds at the Council on Foreign Relations, Why It Matters brings some of the world’s mo...
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Where Does U.S. Trade Go From Here?
The unprecedented trade policies since the beginning of this year, driven largely by the Donald Trump administration’s pro-tariff agenda, have propell...
Mind the Trade Gap
Is having a trade deficit necessarily a bad thing? Many experts argue that the U.S. trade deficit is largely good for our economy. It allows Americans...
Why It Matters Live!: Food Diplomacy
Host Gabrielle Sierra and podcast guests Johanna Mendelson Forman and Matthew Costello discuss food diplomacy, share stories from White House state di...
Trade Agreements: Deal or No Deal
What role does the president have when it comes to making trade deals? In this episode, we dig into the expansive powers of the U.S. president when it...
Tariff Turmoil, Part 2: Steel and Dog Gelato
Tariffs have sparked intense debate in Washington, but their consequences land far from Capitol Hill. Tariffs can shape paychecks, shift prices for co...
Tariff Turmoil, Part 1: How Tariffs Are Affecting Farmers
Tariffs are often discussed in big, abstract terms—trade wars, economic strategy, global power struggles. But for ginseng farmers in Wisconsin, their...
The Washington Consensus Could Not Hold
When it comes to trade, there is no consensus in Washington. The issue has become deeply polarizing, with lawmakers split over whether free trade agre...
We’ve Been Looking At Trade All Wrong
There was once a broad consensus in Washington that trade was a force for good—a way to connect, grow, and prosper. But today, trade has evolved into...
Why Trade Matters
Why It Matters is back and this time we are dedicating an entire season to talking about trade. Alongside CFR’s leading experts, we are bringing you s...
Why Climate Matters: Nuclear Energy
As the climate crisis intensifies, so do discussions about the utilization of nuclear energy. In the aftermath of nuclear meltdowns such as Chernobyl...
New Podcast Spotlight: The Interconnect
Emerging technologies are transforming international relations and our country’s economy. So how do we connect science and engineering labs with Washi...
Why Climate Matters: Water Scarcity
Fresh water sustains all life, but in many regions, especially arid ones, it is becoming increasingly scarce due to climate change. Aging infrastructu...
Why Climate Matters: The Arctic
Under international law, the North Pole and the Arctic waters surrounding it are not owned by any country. But this January, President Donald Trump an...
Why Climate Matters: Pricing Climate
What does it mean to price our climate? The goal of fees like the “carbon tax” is to put a price on pollutants such as carbon dioxide that contribute...
Why Climate Matters: Home Insurance
For decades, U.S. homeowners have counted on property insurance to protect them from catastrophic loss if their homes are destroyed. But last year, pr...
The Dirty Energy Powering AI
What powers artificial intelligence (AI)? As global electricity use is surging, with unprecedented demand coming from an increase in data centers, AI’...
Why the World Next Week Matters
Tumultuous events have rocked the last four years: the COVID-19 pandemic, Europe’s largest land war in eighty years, and an escalating Middle Eastern...
The New Tech World Order
For most of our history, the realm of international relations was dominated by nation-states. They waged wars and signed treaties through the framewor...
A World Under the Influence
With the rise of social media, influencers around the world have increasingly taken on the role of newscaster without a traditional media organization...
Who’s Afraid of the National Debt?
The United States national debt is rising to levels not seen since World War II. Many economists say Washington is on an unsustainable track, but no o...
Why Is the World Obsessed With the U.S. Election? Ask Germany
The world is watching the U.S. presidential contest between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris with intense interest. Few...
Can West Africa Curb Its Brain Drain?
West Africa is losing many of its best and brightest. Across the region, doctors, lawyers, and engineers are leaving, depriving some of the world’s yo...
Global Abortion Access After Roe
In the past thirty years, sixty countries have expanded access to abortion care as an underpinning of maternal health. The 2022 U.S. Supreme Court dec...
India, Modi, and Hindu Nationalism
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the most popular man in India. On track to be elected for a third term, he has boosted the country’s global standing a...
Publishing in a Polarized World
A free and independent press is at the core of many democracies. But threats to the safety of journalists abound worldwide, and the rise of generative...
Can Israel and Iran Step Back From the Brink? (Podcast Takeover)
A little over a week ago, Iran directly attacked Israel from its own territory for the first time in history. And while the United States and Israel s...
Remembering the Rwandan Genocide
Thirty years ago, Rwanda’s government began a campaign to eradicate the country’s largest minority group. In just one hundred days in 1994, roving mil...
Local Leaders in the Global Economy
Many Americans are losing faith in the benefits of internationalism. But whether it’s wars in the Gaza Strip and Ukraine, worsening extreme weather as...
UFOs: Close Encounters of the National Security Kind
Unidentified flying objects (UFOs) are real. And the truth about them is often hidden from the public, for reasons related to national security. That...
2024: What’s the Worst That Could Happen?
Every January, CFR’s annual Preventive Priorities Survey analyzes the conflicts most likely to occur in the year ahead and measures their potential im...
The Year of AI and Elections
Billions of people will take to the polls next year, marking the world’s largest-ever electoral field. But this historic scale is not the only thing t...
Will India Take America’s Side Against China? (Podcast Takeover)
The United States and India have a long and complex history. In recent years, the two democracies have grown closer, linked by their shared concern ab...
Understanding the U.S. Role in the Israel-Hamas War
Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas are again at war. The most recent iteration of the conflict, which erupted after Hamas attacked Israel...
A Turning Point for Global Trade
International trade has shaped the world for much of the past century. Countries benefited from the global flow of goods, and the world became richer...
America’s Fentanyl Epidemic: The China Connection
Over the past few years, a new threat has emerged as a leading cause of death in the United States: fentanyl. Yet even as the drug wreaks havoc on Ame...
The Case for Rebuilding Ukraine
Russia has caused unprecedented damage in Ukraine. And with no diplomatic end in sight to the conflict, many Ukrainians are wondering when, if ever, t...
Could Climate Change Break Home Insurance?
For decades, U.S. homeowners have counted on property insurance to protect them from catastrophic loss if their homes are destroyed—and the U.S. econo...
Who Runs the World?... Not Women
Female representation in politics leads to numerous benefits, but the vast majority of the world’s most powerful politicians are men. Using the Counci...
Taiwan, China, and the Threat of War
A small island one hundred miles off the coast of China could be the flashpoint that determines the future of great-power competition. Experts increas...