Independent Task Force Program

The Council on Foreign Relations sponsors Independent Task Forces to assess issues of critical importance to U.S. foreign policy. Diverse in backgrounds and perspectives, Task Force members work to reach meaningful consensus across partisan lines on matters of policy. Since the program’s inception in 1995, Task Forces have become a trademark of the Council. For more information, please contact [email protected]
  • Iraq

    Written a year after U.S. and coalition forces went to war with Iraq, a time when American officials faced questions about U.S. staying power, this timely report strongly urges President Bush and sen…
  • Defense Technology

    Integrating nonlethal weapons (NLW) more widely into the U.S. Army and Marine Corps could have reduced damage, saved lives, and helped limit the widespread looting and sabotage that occurred after th…
  • India

    South Asia may be halfway around the globe from the United States, but what happens there—as the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks by al-Qaeda tragically underscored—can affect all Americans. Aft…
  • Diplomacy and International Institutions

    The world’s opinion of the United States and of U.S. policy has plummeted in the wake of the war in Iraq. The resulting widespread anger, fear, and mistrust, warns this timely report of the independe…
  • Terrorism and Counterterrorism

    Written nearly two years after September 11, 2001, this report concludes that the United States is drastically underfunding local emergency responders and remains dangerously unprepared to handle a c…
  • Iraq

    With mounting costs to American lives and treasure in Iraq, and success there so clearly tied to American staying power and the coherence of U.S. strategy, the Bush administration must sharpen and de…
  • Afghanistan

    The United States successfully toppled the Taliban in the Afghan war, but it is in danger of losing the peace following the conclusion of that war. Without greater international support for the trans…
  • Myanmar

    Burma is one of the most tightly controlled dictatorships in the world. For more than four decades, Burma’s 50 million people have been oppressed by military rulers who have systematically impoverish…