CarnegieCorporate Circle

The incoming U.S. administration has made clear that it will focus on domestic priorities – COVID-19, economic recovery (Build Back Better), climate, and racial justice – but each of these priorities has international dimensions, and the incoming administration will be led by a President with long experience in foreign policy. What, then, are the open questions about U.S. engagement with the world in 2021 and beyond, and how will domestic politics in the U.S. affect its foreign policy?

Relations threaten to further sour between the U.S. and Russia after it was recently determined that a hacking, deployed against upward of 250 federal agencies and American corporations, was the work of Russia’s S.V.R intelligence service. With the bilateral New START proliferation treaty, a nuclear arms control agreement between the U.S. and Russia, set to expire in early February 2021 and a new U.S. administration at the helm, what does the future hold for relations between the U.S. and Russia and how will the future of arms control be affected?

The United States is using sanctions more often than ever before and is increasingly relying on sanctions to influence the decisions of foreign governments and their leaders. The question remains if U.S. sanctions policy yields desired policy goals. This conversation will examine the future of U.S. sanctions policy and what we might expect under the new Biden administration specifically in relation to Iran, China, Russia and Venezuela.

The U.S.-China trade war and the COVID-19 pandemic have damaged the cause of free trade, but the nature of trade has been evolving for more than a decade as countries and industries restructure and demand for services expands. This conversation will examine the Biden administration’s need to move away from Trump’s tariff-based approach in confronting China and other nations on economic differences and reevaluate the role for WTO and regional trade agreements.

This conversation will examine the state of democracy around the world, focusing on negative trend lines as well as bright spots and discuss if and to what extent democratic challenges are shared across regions and key drivers of democratic discontent. Speakers will reflect on potential opportunities and innovative strategies to reinvigorate democracy around the world.

Several countries across the Middle East are grappling with uncertainty as 2021 unfolds. Israelis will have faced their fourth election in two years as of March. The Palestinian president is pushing back elections in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, quelling hopes that Palestinians would get to vote for the first time since 2006 and fueling Israeli fears of further conflict with the Islamist group Hamas. Furthermore, Iran, crippling under Washington’s economic sanctions pressure, is set to hold a presidential election in June after President Hassan Rouhani has been in office for two four-year terms. How will relations unfold between these countries and with other countries across the Middle East and how will the United States move forward in this challenging policy landscape?

With Tokyo set to host the 2021 summer Olympics, this conversation will explore Japan’s foreign policy priorities, expectations for the relationship between Japan and the United States under the Biden Administration, and the prospects and potential implications for Japan’s new economic national security bill.

Latin America entered the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic consequences with weakening pre-existing conditions: It was already suffering a severe economic contraction, its healthcare systems were underfunded and dysfunctional and massive street protests fed political instability and threatened governments. What have been the consequences of the multiple shocks that rocked the region? What are the likely political, economic and business trends?

The doom and gloom that characterized transatlantic relations during the past four years was replaced, virtually overnight, with a burst of new energy and excitement upon the election of Joe Biden. European governments, in no subtle terms, welcomed Biden’s election victory as a chance to restore closer ties with Washington. Reflecting on almost a full year since the election, this conversation will cover the future of the European Union and what we can expect for the future of the transatlantic partnership.

Nearly a year into the Biden administration, with leaders having just met at the COP26 summit to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, this event will look back into how the U.S. has managed to deliver on two strands of climate action: adaptation and transition. We will also address what needs to be done and how quickly in order to close the gap with climate emergency demands in terms of actions, and what type of geopolitical behavior will best deliver on the needed action.

Emerging markets and developing economies grew consistently in the two decades before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, only to have their progress put at risk. Join Carnegie scholars who will discuss what the future might look like for emerging market economies such as India, Turkey, and South Korea.