Foreign Policy In Focus

Foreign Policy in Focus (FPIF) is a unique initiative known as a “Think Tank Without Walls.” It brings together the knowledge and efforts of over 600 researchers, advocates, and activists who aim to encourage the United States to be a more responsible player on the global stage. This project is part of the Institute for Policy Studies.

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The Point of Philosophy Is to Change the World: A Review of Walden Bello's "Global Battlefields"

1 week ago | fpif.org | Peter Certo

A great political memoir uses an individual story to humanize the dilemmas of fighting to remake the whole world. Such is the case with Walden Bello’s compelling new memoir, Global Battlefields. Throughout the book Bello dissects a central tension in his political life: the dance of ideas and action.
Small Island States Are Leading the Fight Against Climate Change

1 week ago | fpif.org | Shafraz Rasheed |John Feffer

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) face some of the most severe threats from climate change. Dispersed across the world’s oceans, these nations are among the first to confront rising sea levels, extreme weather events, and shifting ecological patterns. Despite their vulnerabilities, however, SIDS have emerged as global leaders in climate advocacy, championing ambitious commitments and urgent international action.
The Disintegration of North America

1 week ago | fpif.org | John Feffer

Almost exactly 30 years ago, Canadian Bacon depicted a U.S. president picking on his neighbor to the north to boost his sagging approval ratings. Starring Alan Alda, John Candy, and Rhea Perlman, the film was supposed to be a comedy. Director Michael Moore was trying to satirize the U.S. penchant for invading other countries. Taking that notion to its absurd limit, Moore chose to depict a skirmish with Canada. Ah, the good old days, when you could laugh about such things.
Kenneth Roth on Why Human Rights Advocacy Still Works — If We Fight for It - FPIF

1 week ago | fpif.org | Peter Certo

In an era of collapsing global norms and authoritarian resurgence, Kenneth Roth insists that the strategies of the human rights movement still work — but only if people fight for it. Kenneth Roth has been called “the godfather of human rights”. The former executive director of Human Rights Watch built the organization from a small nonprofit to one of the most powerful human rights organizations globally. He stepped down in 2024, to write his memoir Righting Wrongs.
Trump’s Soviet Coup Against Reality

1 week ago | fpif.org | Frazer Merritt |John Feffer

American democracy faces an unprecedented crisis. Trump’s second victory represents more than a mere political setback or symptom of political polarization—it constitutes a systemic assault on shared reality and a gradual erasure of objective truth. America is experiencing what scholars call “hypernormalization”—a quiet coup against reality, replacing it with an artificially engineered alternative, leaving citizens disoriented within an increasingly surreal existence.
Why Moscow Won’t Play Ball on a Ceasefire—Yet - FPIF

1 week ago | fpif.org | Sveta Yefimenko |John Feffer

Russia’s cross-border attack on Sumy in northeast Ukraine this Palm Sunday killed at least 34 people and injured 117 others. The missile barrage seems particularly egregious considering that Moscow blocked Ukraine’s efforts last month to negotiate a full and unconditional U.S.-brokered ceasefire. Putin’s delaying tactics are costing lives as he stalls in an opportunistic attempt to gain leverage. Does it mean that Russia doesn’t want peace? Not necessarily.
A Look at USAID from the Inside

1 week ago | fpif.org | John Feffer

Originally published in TomDispatch. What put the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), with an annual budget hovering at just about 1% of federal spending, at the top of Elon Musk’s budget-cutting target list? Was it just a political calculation that foreign aid is a safe target because it’s unpopular with so many Americans and cutting those funds will only hurt foreigners, not U.S. voters?
Trump’s Tariff Gambit: A Blunt Instrument in a Sharpening Global Trade War

1 week ago | fpif.org | Imran Khalid |John Feffer

In another characteristically brash maneuver, Donald Trump has intensified his economic confrontation with Beijing, announcing an unprecedented 125 percent tariff on Chinese imports while granting a 90-day tariff reprieve to every other major trading nation. Far from being a calculated economic strategy, the move appears tailor-made for campaign optics, an attempt to project toughness against China while mollifying allies and partners he had antagonized on April 2.
Ripping up Constitutions

2 weeks ago | fpif.org | John Feffer

Originally published in Hankyoreh. Dictators defend their rule with guns. Democrats defend their rule with paper. Of course, the constitution that upholds democracy is not just any piece of paper. It is a document backed up by political institutions, by courts, and by the public will. In a normal situation, this paper is stronger than military force or police actions because the product of the pen is indeed mightier than the sword.
What America Misunderstands About China's Trade Resolve

2 weeks ago | fpif.org | John Feffer

Following the U.S. implementation of new reciprocal tariffs on Chinese goods, China’s swift and decisive imposition of on American imports, coupled with tightened export controls on rare earths and the blacklisting of U.S. companies, underscores to defend its economic interests against what it perceives as unilateral bullying.