High Stakes: Preparing the Next President

High Stakes: Preparing the Next President is CNAS’s new election-year initiative to explore the most pressing national security issues that will face the next administration.

Whether 2025 sees a Harris or Trump term, High Stakes will identify key topics, explore options, and propose policies.   

From today through Inauguration Day, CNAS will develop a targeted collection of resources to inform candidates, policymakers, and the public on vital national security issues. 

Explore the latest High Stakes content and events on this page throughout the year, and be sure to subscribe to receive new series updates directly in your inbox.

High Stakes Highlight:

Indo-Pacific Security

The Axis of Upheaval

The West has been too quick to dismiss the coordination among China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia....

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Upcoming High Stakes Events:

Middle East Security

Virtual Event | Confronting the Axis of Upheaval

Sep 20, 2024

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Securing U.S. Democracy Initiative

How to Stop Rogue States Like Russia from Interfering in Our Politics

Democratic governments have done much to protect themselves in recent years. Still missing, however, is a mechanism for collective action....

Energy, Economics & Security

Disorderly Conduct

The United States must develop a strong, pragmatic strategy for advancing its economic and security interests within the U.S.-China economic relationship, accounting for the f...

Defense

Swarms over the Strait

The United States is betting that it can out-innovate China and use drones to defeat a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) invasion of Taiwan. Here, the United States should view U...

Technology & National Security

The Quest for Qubits

The United Nations General Assembly recently declared 2025 the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology. Quantum information science, a field once exclusive to aca...

Indo-Pacific Security

Beyond China's Black Box

China’s foreign and security policymaking apparatus is often described as a metaphorical black box about which analysts know little. That is true to an extent, but at the same...

Energy, Economics & Security

America’s China Strategy Has a Credibility Problem

An effective U.S. sanctions strategy should play to U.S. strengths in the financial sector while reserving the most severe measures for acute crises or conflicts....

CNAS Responds: $95 Billion Foreign Aid Package

Last night, in a remarkable show of bipartisanship, the U.S. Senate passed the $95 billion foreign-aid package. What all was included in the package, and what is its significa...

Indo-Pacific Security

CNAS Responds: Biden-Kishida Meeting

More Insights from the Indo-Pacific Security Program:...

Securing U.S. Democracy Initiative

Americans Need Domestic Unity for Effective Foreign Policy

Today’s international challenges threaten the security, prosperity, and freedom of the American people. But Americans will naturally shy from a focus on overseas problems unti...

Indo-Pacific Security

Countering Coercion

The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC or China) has been engaging in gray zone activity—coercive behavior that is aimed at changing the status quo but that is below a threshol...

Securing U.S. Democracy Initiative

CNAS Responds: State of the Union 2024

Following President Biden’s address to Congress at the 2024 State of the Union, CNAS experts analyze key policy points from the speech and weigh in on the state of U.S. nation...

Securing U.S. Democracy Initiative

CNAS Responds: High Stakes in National Security for 2024

Foreign policy and national security are top of mind for many Americans in 2024. The looming election and mounting threats set the stage for a high-stakes year, intensifying t...

Technology & National Security

The Perilous Coming Age of AI Warfare

The end state of this competition will likely be war executed at machine speed and beyond human control....

Indo-Pacific Security

Rumors of China’s Decline Are Premature and Dangerous

The chief near-term risk is not that Beijing’s ascent will fizzle, but rather that Washington will fail to muster the strength necessary for an adequate response....

Transatlantic Security

CNAS Responds: Two Years of War in Ukraine

Saturday, February 24, marks the sobering occasion of two years since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. In preparation for the anniversary, CNAS experts analyze the many impacts t...

Indo-Pacific Security

The ‘Lost Decade’ of the US Pivot to Asia

The Diplomat author Mercy Kuo regularly engages subject-matter experts, policy practitioners, and strategic thinkers across the globe for their diverse insights into U.S. Asia...

Transatlantic Security

Congress Can Help Ukraine With Confiscated Iranian Weapons

Sending more Iranian weapons to Ukraine would be an effective complement to a larger aid effort at almost no additional cost to the U.S. taxpayer....

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Indo-Pacific Security

Why Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran are teaming up

Probably the most surprising thing about the war in Ukraine is that Russia is getting a ton of help. North Korea and Iran are sending it millions of rounds of ammunition and l...

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Indo-Pacific Security

Virtual Event | Beyond China's Black Box: Trends Shaping China’s Foreign and Security Policy Decision-Making under Xi Jinping

Apr 30, 2024

Indo-Pacific Security

Lisa Curtis on U.S. and Japan's Security Alliance

Lisa Curtis talked about Japanese Prime Minister’s trip to the U.S. and the security alliance between the two countries amid threats from China. Watch the full video and more ...

Indo-Pacific Security

Japan will probably be a member of AUKUS Pillar 2 'before too long,' Richard Fontaine says

Richard Fontaine, CEO of the Center for New American Security, discusses Japan's relation to AUKUS, the Indo-Pacific security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom...

Middle East Security

Blaise Misztal and Jonathan Lord on U.S. Ceasefire Push in Israel-Hamas War

Blaise Misztal of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America and Jonathan Lord from the Center for a New American Security talked about the new push by the U.S. for...

Defense

National security leaders worry about U.S. failure to ratify Law of the Sea treaty

Thomas Shugart, a former U.S. Navy submarine warfare officer and a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, said being outside the treaty undercuts American cr...

Indo-Pacific Security

Virtual Event | AUKUS: Securing the Indo-Pacific, A Conversation with Kurt Campbell

Apr 3, 2024

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Indo-Pacific Security

How The U.S. Failed To Meet the China Challenge

It’s a rare subject of bipartisan agreement that China is the greatest strategic challenge facing the U.S., perhaps the greatest it has ever faced. And yet, despite a decade o...

Transatlantic Security

Russia, Putin, and Ukraine in 2024 with Fiona Hill

This week’s Brussels Sprouts discusses expectations for Russia in the pivotal year ahead. As we approach the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine this...

Transatlantic Security

Hal Brands on the Looming Threat of Global Conflict

During the past two years, the world has seen the eruption of two major conflicts in two different regions. In Europe, Russia has launched a war of aggression against Ukraine ...

Indo-Pacific Security

The State of the US-India Relationship

Michael Green is joined by Lisa Curtis, Senior Fellow and Director of the Indo-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security. The conversation begins with...

Transatlantic Security

A Look at 2024 with Richard Fontaine and Michèle Flournoy

On this week’s episode of Brussels Sprouts, we are setting out to identify some of the big-picture trends shaping the transatlantic relationship and international affairs more...

Energy, Economics & Security

Sanctioning China: Examining the Dilemma

China’s regular muscle-flexing and other threatening moves towards Taiwan poses a great challenge. How should the West think about this behaviour, given the integration of Chi...

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