Issues

Climate Change
No issue is likely to attract as much attention in the years ahead as Climate Change. Growing global energy demand, rising instability in resource-rich areas, and unprecedented changes to the world’s climate have created an imperative for innovation and cooperation.

Defense & Security
New threats posed by nuclear proliferation, failing states, global pandemics, cyber warfare, and narcoterrorism are making the task of ensuring national security even more difficult. The realities of conflict in today’s world are changing how governments confront significant defense and security challenges and how militaries spend and equip themselves.

Economy
Globalization has forced the integration of emerging and developing markets into the global economy and increased the flow of goods and human capital through trade and investment. In some parts of the world this has caused unprecedented growth, as in China and Brazil, but still, for many globalization is a distant reality. The challenge in the coming decades will be to distribute the benefits of economic integration more evenly.

Education
Our education system is outdated and it is disadvantaging our nation’s children. The realities of today’s market and modern society necessitate a different set of skills than in the past. How will we modernize the way we teach to meet the way we live and work?

Environment & Resources
Have we reached or surpassed the limits of sustainability? For the answer we must in part look at the strategic resources of food, water, and energy and the complex linkages that exist between them. How leaders meet the challenge of managing these resources will significantly impact economic development, geopolitics, and stability and security the world over.

Global Development
The United States can only be a safe and prosperous nation if the rest of the world is safe and prosperous as well. The commitment to reducing poverty and expanding opportunity is the cornerstone of U.S. global leadership abroad, however, managing the tradeoffs with other national priorities will be extremely important.

Governance
We have entered a new era wherein power lies beyond the hands of traditional governments. Strategic coalitions consisting of governments, corporations, NGOs, and academic institutions will need to be stood up in order to govern our world more effectively and to protect against emerging threats.

Health
The spectrum of health challenges is truly amazing. The interdependence of our increasingly cosmopolitan society is making it more likely that we will one day face a global “super bug” pandemic. In some parts of the world, people are still dying from diarrhea and cholera. How can the U.S. and the international community ensure basic human health worldwide and at the same time prepare for cataclysmic events?

Information Flows
Our world is defined more than ever before by its information economy. Communication technologies are fueling this evolution by spreading new ideas and innovations to even greater numbers of people each day. This is allowing the world’s poor to compete more directly with those in the developed world.

Population
Over the next twenty years, the vast majority of the world’s population growth will occur in the developing world, in nations least capable of supporting it politically, environmentally, or economically. The developed world will face its own set of challenges, including declining populations, rising aging segments, and changing migration patterns.

Technology
Computers are becoming faster and even more ubiquitous, medical breakthroughs are prolonging and enriching our lives, and machines are becoming smaller and smaller by the day. We are looking to technology to solve some of today’s most daunting crises in areas as diverse as climate change, resource scarcity, and global health.

U.S. Competitiveness
America is facing ever stiffer competition from emerging powers like Brazil, India, and China. How can America keep its edge in a multi-polar world? What effect will this decentralization of power have on our economy and our way of life?