The Council on Foreign Relations

The Red Sea region is in a state of upheaval. Iran’s stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz led to an outsized Saudi dependence on the Bab el-Mandeb, and Yemen’s Houthis seized the moment. As my colleague Steven Cook has explained, these developments have strengthened the hand of the Iranian regime, and worsened supply chain disruptions, energy price increases, and both Saudi and Egyptian anxiety. But anyone who thinks the situation could not get much worse is not paying attention.

Despite being the world’s two largest democracies, the United States and India have often been at odds over issues of strategic autonomy and Western-dominated rules and institutions. The end of the Cold War presented the two with a window for rapprochement, and while the bilateral partnership progressed, India largely remained a reluctant participant in the U.S.-led global order. India has been skeptical of that order from the start.

Edward Fishman’s fascination with foreign policy started with his childhood love of hockey and its international players. His interest in world affairs developed into a career that has spanned government, tech, media, and think tanks. After working on Iran and Russia sanctions at the State Department, he left the government to get an MBA at Stanford and cut his teeth at Silicon Valley start-ups. He currently leads the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomics at CFR.

David Sacks is a fellow for Asia studies whose work focuses on U.S.-China relations, U.S.-Taiwan relations, Chinese foreign policy, and cross-Strait relations. It is by now a cliché to note that meetings between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are high on symbolism and low on substance. Xi’s visit to Washington this week, though, may have set a new high-water mark for symbolism and a new low for substance.

The U.S national debt stands at $40 trillion, but it won’t stand there long. With the government running an annual budget deficit of 6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), the debt will rise another $7 billion by the end of today—and each subsequent day. Treasury secretary Scott Bessent recently made front-page headlines by asserting that “with 3% growth, we grow our way out of this.” But is he right?

Two major diplomatic events this week—the UN General Assembly and the meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping—brought thousands of diplomats and dignitaries, hundreds of hours of meetings and conversation, and countless pages of opinions and analyses to New York and Washington. What did we get from all of it—besides a lot of traffic? The General Assembly and the U.S.-China summit came at a moment of particular international volatility.

This article was originally published on the Future of American Strategy Substack. Since the Future of American Strategy Initiative launched in late May, we’ve shared nearly thirty essays about where U.S. foreign policy should go from here, on topics ranging from artificial intelligence (AI) governance and climate change to China policy and the future of the transatlantic alliance.

This transcript was generated using AI and may contain errors. MALLABY: You know, Rebecca, I really love our Spillover listeners. PATTERSON: Me too. MALLABY: You know which listener I love the absolute best? PATTERSON: Well, I feel as parents we should always say we love all our children equally, but who do you have in mind?

CFR experts discuss the meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. As the summit unfolds, read the latest CFR expert analysis: “Xi Jinping Visits the White House” by Jim Lindsay “Ten Issues to Watch at the Trump-Xi Summit in Washington” by Rush Doshi CHANG: Good morning, everyone. As people join our Zoom, I’ll do a brief introduction. My name is Ben Chang. I am the vice president for global communications here at the Council on Foreign Relations.

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