The architecture of American commercial diplomacy, built on decades of assumptions about the pacifying power of economic interdependence, now stands in ruins. Russia's defiance and China's weaponization of trade have exposed a fundamental flaw: carrots alone cannot secure national interests when adversaries are willing to absorb economic pain or turn American investments against the United States. As Washington recalibrates its approach to Moscow, a new doctrine is emerging: one that seeks to build leverage into the very infrastructure of commerce, creating relationships that can shift from cooperation to coercion at a moment's notice without destroying American corporate interests in the process.

By Ivan Grek, PhD, Director of the Russia Program at George Washington University’s Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies

This brief proposes establishing a Caracas Economic Development Zone (CEDZ), modeled on the Dubai International Financial Centre. Located in or near the capital, the CEDZ would operate under a distinct commercial code, foreign-staffed courts, and internationally recognized arbitration mechanisms. Governance options include a domestically anchored authority or a framework backed by international oversight, with the latter offering greater investor confidence. The objective is to create a narrow jurisdiction with credible legal standards to enable early investment under controlled conditions, and to use that enclave as a scalable mechanism for rebuilding rule of law

By Carlos Roa

Making foreign policy is very often a compromise between supporting one’s values and securing one’s interests, between moral clarity and strategic realism. In removing Nicolas Maduro from power, Donald Trump was able to advance both American values and American interests. 

By David Rundell and Michael Gfoeller

By Simon Hankinson

Conservative career officials are fighting to break the globalist-woke mindset that is deeply ingrained in the U.S. foreign affairs bureaucracy.

By Phillip Linderman