About the Foreign Policy program at Brookings

Our Goals

In a world that is more connected and interdependent — where technology has eclipsed traditional understandings of borders and security, and where great power competition and transnational threats alike challenge American security and prosperity — the United States faces a complex foreign policy environment. The Foreign Policy program, under the direction of Vice President and Director Suzanne Maloney, has two goals:

1. To understand the dynamics of world affairs and the challenges they pose to the international community; and
2. To influence policies and institutions in the United States and abroad that promote sustainable peace, security, and prosperity around the world.

Our Areas of Focus

• Established and emerging powers
  The re-emergence of China and India as powers and their rapid industrialization have raised security, economic, and governance questions linked to trade, proliferation, poverty, and the environment. Established powers — the United States, Europe, Japan, Russia — must build common approaches to questions linked to the rapid development of emerging countries, and to issues such as terrorism, ethnic conflict, energy security, and infectious diseases. Our challenge is to influence the dynamics of change to avoid zero-sum solutions to problems that require today’s powers to commit to collective security, recognizing that no state alone can make itself invulnerable.
• Redefining security
  Increasingly, we face international challenges and threats from poor, weak, and failing states that cannot exert the rule of law or meet the aspirations of their people. Instability abroad can lead to regional instability and become a platform for terrorism, drug trafficking, and organized crime. The United States is challenged to defuse these emerging threats and respond competently. Both civilian and military entities must modernize and adapt technology and response capabilities. Experience has shown that the United States must act in partnership with others to advance our interests in unstable regions; this requires a new understanding of international engagement and capabilities.
• Politics, economics, security
  Foreign Policy studies works closely with the Brookings Global Economy and Development program to examine ways in which economics affect political and security issues, and vice versa. For example, achieving U.S. energy security demands that we understand the geopolitical factors driving key consumers and producers and how they affect global markets. Even voting patterns at the U.N. on issues of international security may be driven by the economic interests of voting nations.
• Adapting institutions
  The profound changes in international relations require institutional changes to formulate and carry out sound policy. Do current models for regional and international institutions work? Does the U.S. system for engaging the rest of the world reflect the challenges and opportunities we face? The United States has a unique opportunity to redefine its role in the world and to help shape the nature of multilateral and regional institutions as we adjust to the deep challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and others. Conversely, failure to adapt institutions will almost guarantee that we cannot advance our security and prosperity as the world changes around us.

Our Structure

The Foreign Policy program conducts its research through its five major regionally and functionally oriented centers, as well as an array of dedicated projects and initiatives, staffed by independent experts with expertise ranging from military reform to the geopolitics of energy. For information on general employment, fellowships, internships, and guest affiliations, please reference the employment section of the Brookings website.

Our Centers, Projects, and Initiatives

Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology

• Africa Security Initiative
• Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Initiative
• Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors
• Project on International Order and Strategy
• The Intelligence Project

Center for East Asia Policy Studies

• The India Project

Center for Middle East Policy

Center on the United States and Europe

• The Turkey Project

Energy Security and Climate Initiative

John L. Thornton China Center

Latin America Initiative

Staff