Anya Schmemann

CFR Staff

Anya Schmemann

Managing Director, Global Communications and Media Relations & Managing Director, Independent Task Force Program

Anya directs communications and digital marketing and manages the Task Force program at CFR in Washington, DC. Task Force reports reach consensus on issues of critical importance to U.S. foreign policy. Previously, she served as assistant dean of communications and outreach at American University's School of International Service, managed communications at Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center, was a project manager at the East West Institute, and was assistant director of CFR's Center for Preventive Action. She received a BA and MA from Harvard University.

Cybersecurity

Confronting Reality in Cyberspace

The early advantages the United States held in cyberspace have largely disappeared as the internet has become more fragmented, less free, and more dangerous. The United States needs a new foreign policy for cyberspace to secure its economic and security interests.

Task Force Report by Nathaniel Fick, Jami Miscik, Adam Segal, Gordon M. Goldstein and Anya Schmemann July 12, 2022 Renewing America
Arctic

Arctic Imperatives

Overview “The United States, through Alaska, is a significant Arctic nation with strategic, economic, and scientific interests,” asserts a new Council on Foreign Relations-sponsored (CFR) Independ…

Task Force Report by Thad W. Allen, Christine Todd Whitman, Esther Brimmer and Anya Schmemann March 21, 2017
COVID-19

Improving Pandemic Preparedness

COVID-19 has confirmed the U.S. and global vulnerabilities that were repeatedly identified in high-level reports, commissions, and intelligence assessments on pandemic threats for nearly two decades …

Task Force Report by Thomas J. Bollyky, Stewart M. Patrick, Sylvia Mathews Burwell, Frances Fragos Townsend and Anya Schmemann October 8, 2020 Renewing America
Taiwan

U.S.-Taiwan Relations in a New Era

Although a conflict in the Taiwan Strait has thus far been avoided, deterrence has dangerously eroded. To maintain peace, the United States must restore balance to a situation that has been allowed to tilt far too much in China’s favor.

Task Force Report by Susan M. Gordon, Adm. Michael G. Mullen, David Sacks and Anya Schmemann June 20, 2023
Labor and Employment

The Work Ahead

The world is in the midst of a transformation in the nature of work, as smart machines, artificial intelligence, new technologies, and global competition remake how people do their jobs and pursue th…

Task Force Report by Edward Alden, Laura Taylor-Kale, PhD, Anya Schmemann, Penny Pritzker and John Engler April 10, 2018 Renewing America
China

China’s Belt and Road

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Chinese President Xi Jinping’s signature foreign policy undertaking and the world’s largest infrastructure program, poses a significant challenge to U.S. economic, political, climate change, security, and global health interests.

Task Force Report by Jacob Lew, Gary Roughead, Jennifer Hillman, David Sacks and Anya Schmemann March 23, 2021
North Korea

A Sharper Choice on North Korea

A new Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Independent Task Force report, A Sharper Choice on North Korea: Engaging China for a Stable Northeast Asia, finds that the United States’ policy of “strategic…

Task Force Report by Mike Mullen, Sam Nunn, Adam Mount and Anya Schmemann September 16, 2016
Technology and Innovation

Innovation and National Security

The United States has led the world in innovation, research, and technology development since World War II, but that leadership is now at risk. Addressing the challenge from China and other rising sc…

Task Force Report by Adam Segal, James Manyika, William H. McRaven and Anya Schmemann September 18, 2019 Renewing America

Iran

Iran’s Regional Armed Network

Iran’s web of armed partners such as Hezbollah and the Houthis serves to strengthen its influence in the Middle East and could pose a significant threat to the United States and U.S. allies in the region, especially Israel.

Article by Kali Robinson and Will Merrow April 15, 2024

United States

What Does the U.S. National Guard Do?

The National Guard is a special part of the U.S. military that answers to both state governors and the president. While it began as a “strategic reserve,” the guard has come to play an important role in domestic and overseas operations.

Backgrounder by Anshu Siripurapu and Noah Berman April 3, 2024

Canada

What Is Canada’s Immigration Policy?

With its comparatively open and well-regulated immigration system, Canada remains a top destination for immigrants and refugees.

Backgrounder by Diana Roy and Amelia Cheatham March 28, 2024

Top Stories on CFR

Middle East and North Africa

Virtual Media Briefing: Addressing the Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza

CFR experts Steven A. Cook and David J. Scheffer join Amnesty International’s Agnes Callamard and Refugee International’s Jeremy Konyndyk to discuss the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Virtual Event with Agnès Callamard, Steven A. Cook, Jeremy Konyndyk, David J. Scheffer and Kate Brannen April 11, 2024 Media Briefings

Japan

Prime Minister Kishida’s Tour de Force

The highlights from Kishida Fumio's busy week in Washington.

Blog Post by Sheila A. Smith April 15, 2024 Asia Unbound

Genocide and Mass Atrocities

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 militias killed around eight hundred thousand people. Would-be killers were incited to violence by the radio, which encouraged extremists to take to the streets with machetes. The United Nations stood by amid the bloodshed, and many foreign governments, including the United States, declined to intervene before it was too late. What got in the way of humanitarian intervention? And as violent conflict now rages at a clip unseen since then, can the international community learn from the mistakes of its past?

Podcast with Gabrielle Sierra, David J. Scheffer and Claude Gatebuke April 10, 2024 Why It Matters