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Topics for Great Decisions 2027

This list of proposed discussion topics for 2027 gives an idea of the type of content Great Decisions participants can expect during an eight-week season. The topics are selected by the Foreign Policy Association as international events unfold and with feedback from Great Decisions programs around the country.  Final selection of topics for the program beginning in January 2027 will be announced and posted here in the fall of 2026. The list below may change.

John G. Ikenberry will continued as the editor of the GD 2027 source book for a third year.  Professor Ikenberry is the Albert G. Milbank Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University.  The proposed list of topics and authors for the 2027 program is shown below.

American Foreign Policy and the Future of Multilateralism by G. John Ikenberry

Over the postwar decades, the United States played a leadership role in building multilateral regimes and institutions across a wide range of policy areas. What is the future of multilateralism, and what are America’s choices? Does supporting and operating within multilateral frameworks for cooperation still serve America’s interests, and what might the agenda be for rebuilding the global system of multilateralism?

American Options in the Middle East  by Phil Gordon

The Trump administration’s war with Iran marks another major upheaval in the United States’ fraught strategic relations with the region.  What are America’s interests in the Middle East and how are they best advanced and defended?

The Future of Germany in Europe and the Atlantic World by Liana Fix

Germany has tied its foreign policy to Europe and the Atlantic alliance, fashioning what some have called a civilian great power role.  What is the future of US-Germany relations, and what choices to Washington and Berlin face in giving shape to those relations?

U.S.-China:  The Case for Engagement by Jessica Chen Weis

The trajectory of US-China relations in the years ahead will be a defining feature of world politics.  What principles of international order – starting with Westphalian norms of sovereignty and power management – might provide the basis for Washington and Beijing to negotiate the terms for a wider consensus among states in East Asia and the wider world about international order?

Brazil and the Global South:  Confronting a New America by Matias Spektor

Under the banner of America First, Donald Trump has redefined the country’s relations with the rest of the world, including Brazil and the Global South.  Can Brazil and the United States forge a stable and mutually beneficial relationship in the years area, and if so, what would be its terms? What sorts of relationships between Brazil/Global South and the United States might be built in the aftermath of Trump 2.0?

AI and American Choices by Michael Horowitz

The AI is the leading edge of a technological revolution that is shacking the world. How will the AI revolution, and its associated economic, technological, military, and political transformations, alter the terms of international relations?  For American foreign policy decision-makers, what choices with the country face in dealing with this rapidly unfolding technological revolution in the years ahead?

Energy Security:  Challenges for American Foreign Policy by Daniel Yergin

The American/Israeli war with Iran and the ongoing blocking of the flow of oil from the Strait of Hormuz has triggered a crisis in the global oil and energy economy. After Trump, if the United States wanted to again step forward as a global leader in this area, what should it seek to do? What allies and partners might the United States work with in advance national and international energy security?   

Organized Crime in the Americas by Jorge Castaneda

Organized crime in the Americas has become a sprawling and multifaceted transitional activity, unfolding on many fronts -- drug smuggling, human trafficking, illegal mining, cybercrime, money laundering, private militaries, narco-violence, and so forth. What are America’s foreign policy choices? This essay will explore how U.S. drug policy intersects with diplomacy and border security in Latin America and what strategies might reduce cartel power without undermining the fragile governments we partner with.