100 Ideas for the First Hundred Days of the Biden Administration

#10: Proactively Prevent Pyongyang’s Provocations

By: Markus Garlauskas What is the kernel of the issue? North Korea is almost certainly considering ballistic missile tests this year, including the first launches of several new missiles it unveiled in October 2020 and this month. Why is the issue important? If North Korea resumes ballistic missile launches, this would enable it to increase […]

#9: Support Nuclear Power—Domestically and Internationally—as a Reliable, Low-carbon Energy Source

By: Jennifer T. Gordon What is the kernel of the issue? To uphold US safety and nonproliferation standards, it is crucial for the US and its allies to be the leading vendors of nuclear reactors. However, Russian and Chinese state-owned nuclear enterprises are seeking to dominate the international civil nuclear market, and they have the […]

#8: Pull the World Out of the Food Crisis

By: Mathew Burrows What is the kernel of the issue? The UN has warned that the world is heading towards its worst food crisis in at least 50 years. The World Food Program believes that four countries across the developing world may already be suffering famine conditions and another 16 are heading in that direction. […]

#7: Establish A Cybersecurity Alliance

By: Safa Shahwan Edwards What is the kernel of the issue? While existing security alliances, such as NATO, have been retrofitted to include cybersecurity, disruptive technologies and the rise of digital governance highlight the need for a new kind of alliance—a cybersecurity alliance. Why is the issue important? The United States engages in military alliances […]

#6: End US Strategic Ambiguity Policy Regarding Taiwan

By: Sarah Kirchberger What is the kernel of the issue? Strategic US ambiguity on the Taiwan issue has run its course. This risks the United States’ ability to sustain deterrence in the face of an increasingly belligerent China. Why is the issue important? As Zbigniew Brzezinski outlined in “The Grand Chessboard,” it is in US […]

#5: Develop A National Investment Plan

By Harlan Ullman

What is the kernel of the issue? A COVID-relief and infrastructure funding plan are insufficient to power an economic renaissance. A National Investment Fund would do so. Why is the issue important? The post-pandemic economy must be rebuilt and restructured for the 21st century. Following the 1918-1920 Spanish Flu Pandemic, the U.S. entered the greatest economic boom […]

#4: Develop A Universal Pandemic Vaccine

By: Mathew Burrows What is the kernel of the issue? So long as there is no universal vaccine, more coronavirus pandemics are inevitable.  Why is the issue important? Consider what the world might have looked like today if after the 2003 SARS outbreak, a universal vaccine against all variations of coronaviruses had been developed, saving […]

#3: Push Back On Putin’s Aggression; Cooperate If We Can

By: Ambassador Daniel Fried What is the kernel of the issue? In US relations with Putin’s authoritarian, aggressive, and adversarial Russia, what place is there for bilateral US-Russia cooperation—within an overall U.S. and transatlantic policy of pushback against Russia—without compromising US interests, values, and friends? Why is the issue important? A core principle for the […]

#2: Scope US Forces’ Involvement in ‘Endless’ Mideast Wars

By: David Petraeus What is the kernel of the issue? Ending US involvement in “endless wars” doesn’t necessarily end the wars, it just ends our participation. And withdrawing US forces from the so-called “endless wars” against Islamist extremists in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere, could result in an escalation of the conflicts. If what transpires […]

#1: Make HHS a member of the Intelligence Community to Strengthen Pandemic Prevention

By: James P. Danoy What is the kernel of the issue? The COVID-19 pandemic has made it crystal clear that combatting infectious diseases must be the top national security priority, requiring a whole-of-government approach. Why the issue is important? The US Intelligence Community possesses worldwide collection and analytic capabilities that can be used for global […]