Foreign Policy for America 2026 Leadership Summit

The Trump administration’s oil embargo, strong-arming of regional partners, and declaration of Cuba as an “unusual and extraordinary threat” have not only intensified suffering on the island but also raised questions about American influence and credibility. This session will explore the administration’s motivations for pursuing regime change, the consequences for the Cuban people, and the short- and long-term implications for U.S.-Latin American relations.


Speakers:

1. María José Espinosa, Executive Director, Center for Engagement and Advocacy in the Americas (CEDA)
2. Juan Gonzalez, Resident Fellow, Georgetown America’s Institute
3. Ricardo Herrero, Executive Director, Cuba Study Group
4. Rep. Jim McGovern (MA-02)

Moderator:
Francesca Chambers, White House Correspondent, USA Today

The development and application of artificial intelligence tools have become central priorities for U.S. national security officials, as well as policymakers in other countries. AI debates have surfaced multiple, at times competing priorities: speed of development and adoption, safety concerns in context of defense and intelligence applications, and the need for concerted international action to reduce risks for humans in a world of proliferating, increasingly intelligent AI agents.


This session will explore considerations for American deployment of AI tools, how other countries are deploying AI in their own national security strategies, and implications for U.S. policy including with regard to the sale of frontier chips and other technologies.


Speakers:

1. Saif Khan, Distinguished Fellow, Institute for Progress
2. Maher Bitar, Executive Director, National Security Action
3. Christopher Fonzone, Adjunct Professor and Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Reiss Center on Law and Security at NYU School of Law
4. Helen Toner, Interim Executive Director, Center for Security and Emerging Technology, Georgetown University

Moderator:
Daniella Cheslow, National Security Reporter, POLITICO

With expanding great power competition and the breakdown of nonproliferation norms, a growing number of countries have embarked on nuclear modernization and expanding nuclear arsenals. The Trump administration has announced an unprecedented request for a $1.5 trillion dollar defense budget. Current estimated costs for maintaining the current U.S. nuclear arsenal and modernizing the entire program run to nearly $1 trillion over the next 10 years. The Trump administration has also set in motion the Golden Dome project, a multi-layered missile defense system to neutralize nuclear threats to the U.S. homeland, projected to cost $3.6 trillion over the next 20 years. This panel will discuss rising nuclear risks, the costs and trade-offs imposed by the new nuclear arms race, and potential ways forward. 


Speakers:

1. Hon. Corey Hinderstein, Vice President for Studies, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; former principal Deputy Administrator for the National Nuclear Security Administration and the Deputy Administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation
2. Hon. Mallory Stewart, CEO, Council on Strategic Risks; former Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Arms Control, Deterrence, and Stability, U.S. Department of State
3. Mr. Ankit Panda, Stanton Senior Fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Moderator:
- Geoff Brumfiel, Senior Editor and Correspondant, NPR

The Trump administration official in charge of the State Department’s Africa Bureau recently wrote to his staff: “To put it bluntly, Africa is a peripheral – rather than a core – theater for U.S. interests that demands strategic economy.” This argument is out-of-step with contemporary realities. The continent’s population is booming, its people are innovating, and its resources power modern economies. It’s also the source of real threats, especially as armed groups hostile to the U.S. gain strength and territory. Americans, state and local governments, private companies and the next administration in Washington need to fashion a new approach to Africa based on mutual respect, learning and benefit.

This panel will address the building blocks of that approach, exploring how to strengthen broad U.S.-Africa relations when the federal government pursues transactional policies, and the planning and positioning that can happen now to prepare for the day that the federal government, regardless of the party in charge, recognizes the benefits of strengthening U.S.-Africa ties.


Speakers:

1. Dr. Fonteh Akum, Director, Africa Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
2. Katie Auth, Deputy Executive Director, Energy for Growth Hub
3. Dr. Ebenezer Obadare, Douglas Dillon senior fellow for Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations
4. Dr. Lesley Anne Warner, Former Senior Policy Advisor to U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations

Moderator:
Jon Temin, Visiting Fellow, SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University 

The U.S.–Israel security relationship is at a crossroads. In 2025, the United States authorized more than $15 billion in arms sales to Israel. However, growing numbers of lawmakers, particularly within the Democratic party, have opposed unconditional weapons transfers to the Netanyahu government, citing gross human rights abuses in the conflict in Gaza campaign and illegal settlement activity in the West Bank. This panel will discuss the potential trajectories of the US-Israel security relationship and the specific factors that could impact the relationship in the coming years.


Speakers:

1. Alex Carnes, Senate Appropriations Subcommittee Staff Director
2. Sarah Harrison, Senior Fellow, Center on Ethics and the Legal Profession, Georgetown Law
3. Andrew Miller, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress

Moderator:
Abigail Hauslohner, US - Middle East Foreign Affairs Correspondent, Financial Times

The Trump administration's haphazard tariffs and wars of choice have driven up costs for American families while isolating the United States on the international stage. But reverting to the status quo fails to address the needs of average Americans who have grown frustrated by foreign policy decisions that for decades have failed to deliver for them. This session will explore these concepts and develop a new vision for how we can build a foreign policy that delivers for the working class.

Speakers:

1. Rep. Jason Crow (CO-06)
2. Cathy Feingold, Director of the AFL-CIO International Department
3. Thea Lee, Distinguished Visiting Practitioner, American University School of International Service

Moderator:
Rachel Oswald, Staff Writer, Foreign Policy

Description:

From foreign investments in meme coins, to gifts of gold bars and luxury jets, to pardons for convicted drug traffickers, to human rights abuses and war crimes, the institutions and principles of U.S. foreign policy have been under assault from corruption, greed, and graft. Americans can no longer trust that their government is putting them first. Violators of both parties have largely enjoyed impunity, which undermines confidence in our democracy. Lawmakers need to act now to rebuild and revitalize systems of accountability to deter future abuses and hold bad actors responsible for the damage that has already been done. This panel will discuss key risks and implications of future corruption, strategies for developing and enacting an oversight agenda, and tactics for raising public awareness. 

Speakers:
1. Rep. Joaquin Castro, (TX-20)
2. Casey Michel, Director, Combating Kleptocracy Program
3. Sarah Yager, Washington Director, Human Rights Watch

Moderator:
Ishaan Tharoor, Contributer, The New Yorker

The conventional debate over the pace and scale of an inevitable energy transition has been upended by stark and messy realities. Energy systems built for a more stable and predictable world are coming under strain from surging electricity demand, the weaponization of energy and supply-chain interdependence, intensifying great-power competition, and accelerating climate impacts that are no longer distant or abstract, but immediate and destabilizing at home and abroad.

This panel brings together leaders from Congress, local government, and civil society to discuss practical solutions to new energy security imperatives, including how clean energy can anchor a new affordability and abundance agenda. The conversation will examine where policy, markets, and international frameworks are falling short, what is working, and how to accelerate deployment through smarter energy, industrial, and trade policy; more robust energy and economic statecraft; and new approaches to mobilizing public and private capital. The core question is simple and urgent: can we build fast enough to turn clean energy into a durable foundation for lower costs, stronger and more impactful partnerships, and real energy security?


Speakers:

1. Mayor Alyia Gaskins, Alexandria, VA
2. Rep. Mike Levin (CA-49)
3. Lauren Sidner, Senior Advisor, MIT Clean Economy Project
4. Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (VA-10)

Moderator:
Zack Colman, Climate & Energy Reporter, POLITICO

Despite efforts across multiple decades to shift the United States’s strategic focus to Asia, the United States remains unable or unwilling to do so. And with the Trump administration focused on the Western Hemisphere and the Middle East, experts are asking: how far will Trump pull back from Asia? With the recent examples of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the United States using extraordinary military force in Iran and Venezuela—an open question now looms about how China might internalize this new landscape and adjust its approach to Taiwan. This panel will explore how changes to the status quo in the Taiwan Strait would reshape the region and the world, how the United States should respond and what is realistic in this current environment, and how are our allies like Japan and South Korea are reacting to these changes and what can be done to manage these relationships.


Speakers:

1. Dr. Jessica Chen Weiss, David M. Lampton Professor of China Studies, Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies
2. Dr. Zack Cooper, Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
3. Ellison Laskowski, Senate on Foreign Relations

Moderator:
tba

In January 2026, the Trump administration announced an unprecedented expansion of the global gag rule, weaponizing foreign aid and jeopardizing decades-long diplomatic and humanitarian partnerships across the globe. The revised policy—which covers new issues, new entities, and new funding—threatens people’s freedoms, health, rights, and lives, by restricting access to a range of health and humanitarian services, silencing doctors and experts and advocates, and erasing whole communities.

Through this session, attendees will learn how the expanded “rule” weakens U.S. investments in foreign assistance and global health and undermines universal human rights. Panelists will discuss strategies to mitigate the harm of this policy in the short term and consider a path forward for an effective, collaborative, and sustainable foreign aid infrastructure that affirms the dignity of all people. 


Speakers:

1. Keifer Buckingham, Managing Director, Council for Global Equality
2. Desirée Cormier Smith, Co-Founder and Co-President, the Alliance for Diplomacy and Justice
3. Caitlin Horrigan, Senior Director, Global Advocacy at Planned Parenthood Federation of America
4. Sadia Kidwai, Senior Policy Advocate, Women’s Refugee Commission

Moderator:
Stephanie Psaki, Distinguished Senior Fellow, Brown University School of Public Health