One year ago CSIS convened the Executive Council on Development-a bipartisan group of leaders from government, business, nongovernmental organizations, and philanthropy-to explore how the U.S. government and private sector can work together to support the economic success of developing countries. In their final report, "Our Shared Opportunity: A Vision for Global Prosperity," the Council provides a targeted set of recommendations for the U.S. government and private sector, calling for a greater reliance on business, trade, and investment tools to achieve better development outcome.

Since World War II, the Arctic has been a region of geostrategic importance to the United States. As unprecedented environmental transformation occurs in the Arctic, this region will increase in significance. When historians look back at this critical opportunity to develop U.S. Arctic policy, we do not want the question to be posed, "Who lost the Arctic?" but rather, "How did the United States win the Arctic?" Crafting U.S. policy toward the Arctic, however, is a complex and challenging undertaking. Arctic policy must respond to the economic, environmental, security, and geopolitical...

Every three weeks, a major political crisis begins somewhere in the world. The United States intervenes in less than a fifth of them. But that is still a new U.S. intervention about every two months. And almost all of them are civilian interventions; less than a third involve the military. CSIS has released a new dataset of "potential transitions" worldwide, covering responses to 758 political crises between 1989 and 2010, including 134 civilian and military interventions. The report describes the dataset and presents the results of the initial analysis. Its recommendations focus on the...

At the beginning of the 1990s, China intensified its Asia policy. While the United States was waging a war on terrorism in the Middle East, China tried to engage countries in Asia through its diplomatic "charm offensive" or "smile diplomacy." However, since President Barack Obama took office in 2008, the United States has shown interest in Asia with renewed vigor. This pivoting toward Asia by both China and the U.S. has thus provided countries in the region with significant challenges and opportunities. China and the U.S. have naturally impinged on each other, and this has also been the case...

This report examines police reform in the Americas and suggests a strategic approach--considering trends, the threat environment, available resources, institutional strengths and weaknesses, and leadership--that will permit U.S. assistance to be successful.

This report traces the evolution of Hamas's health care services from the movement's origins to its current role as the de facto government of Gaza. The analysis focuses primarily on the impact of Palestinian divisions on the development of Gaza's health sector since Hamas's takeover of Gaza in June 2007, and it examines how regional trends in 2011 have influenced internal Palestinian dynamics that will likely shape Gaza's health care sector and the Palestinian population more broadly in the future. Finally, the report examines the U.S. policy implications of Hamas's successful management of...

Potential sales of billions of dollars of energy equipment produced by U.S. companies are at stake in the major economies of the region. They are expected to import as much as $16 billion worth of energy products over the next few years to power their economic growth. But unless the United States launches new initiatives to snare sizable shares of this investment, U.S. companies are unlikely to be major players in all this trade.