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]. 

Recent Task Force Reports

U.S.-Taiwan Relations in a New Era report cover
June 20, 2023

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.

Cover of Confronting Reality in Cyberspace: Foreign Policy for a Fragmented Internet
July 12, 2022

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.

China's Belt and Road Initiative report cover
March 23, 2021

China’s Belt and Road Initiative

China’s globe-spanning Belt and Road Initiative poses risks to participating countries and challenges to U.S. interests abroad. The United States should coordinate with partners to promote a secure and sustainable development agenda of its own.

Staff
Anya Schmemann
Managing Director
Photo of Anya Schmemann
Chelie Setzer
Deputy Director
Photo of Chelie Setzer

  • 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

  • Cybersecurity

    Confronting Reality in Cyberspace

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

    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. 

  • China

    China’s Belt and Road

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

    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.

  • COVID-19

    Improving Pandemic Preparedness

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

    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 …

  • Technology and Innovation

    Innovation and National Security

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

    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…

  • Labor and Employment

    The Work Ahead

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

    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…

  • Arctic

    Arctic Imperatives

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

    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…

  • North Korea

    A Sharper Choice on North Korea

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

    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…