In 2025 signs of weakness in the Russian economy are increasingly visible: high inflation, growing financial stresses, gasoline and food shortages, rapidly slowing oil revenues, shortages of key manufacturing parts, failed auctions of sovereign bonds, and depletion of its sovereign wealth fund. Many analysts predict the Kremlin’s ability to maintain its war economy will be severely stressed in the coming months, especially as Ukrainian strikes reach more Russian infrastructure and degrade the petroleum industry that pays for the war. Join noted economists Anders Aslund and Volodymyr Lugovskyy and Hudson Senior Fellow Thomas Duesterberg for an event that will analyze how growing economic problems are affecting Vladimir Putin’s war effort and his ability to avoid an economic crisis.

Refining capacity is the greatest vulnerability in the United States’ critical minerals supply chain. After a decades-long campaign to price out competitors, China now dominates the refining sectors for many minerals and metals that are central to the global economy and to the US defense sector. In some sectors, Chinese firms account for as much as 90 percent of global capacity. This dominance is central to Beijing’s quest to recenter the international system away from the US and toward China. Washington needs to engage in a strategic and sustained effort to escape this predicament—and African nations will play a critical role. Hudson Senior Fellow Joshua Meservey will host senior representatives from Rainbow Rare Earths, ReElement, and US Strategic Metals—firms on the frontier of the critical minerals industry—to discuss what this effort will entail. The discussion will cover the scale of the challenge, how the US government can better support domestic and allied refining, and how African nations can climb the critical minerals supply chains.

On October 10, Chinese Communist Party authorities handcuffed and detained the lead pastor of Zion Church, Ezra Jin Mingri, beginning China’s largest crackdown against a single house church in over 40 years. Party officials also detained or disappeared an estimated 30 other pastors and associates of Zion Church. Days earlier, the CCP escalated its rhetoric in the ongoing trade war between the United States and China. Beijing often demands that other nations remain silent about its human rights record as part of negotiations. But Pastor Jin’s arrest is a reminder of the human cost of acquiescence to that demand. Join Hudson for a conversation with Pastor Jin’s daughter and son-in-law about Pastor Jin, why he and the other detained Zion Church members matter for US foreign policy, and what the US government can do to secure the church members’ release. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Representatives Young Kim (R-CA), John Moolenaar (R-MI), and Jim McGovern (D-MA) will provide virtual remarks.

Hudson Institute’s Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East will host a conference, featuring a keynote address by Senator Steve Daines (R-MT), to examine the implications of the recent Armenia-Azerbaijan peace agreement. The conference will also explore the evolving role of the United States in the South Caucasus and assess how renewed peace efforts could reshape the Eurasian strategic landscape.

Southeastern Europe presents many opportunities to the transatlantic community, yet the region still poses numerous challenges. Adversaries have taken advantage of local divisions to cause security problems that could quickly escalate to strategic threats. The region also suffers from poor energy security, and many Southeastern European nations have stalled in their progress toward Euro-Atlantic integration. Concurrent with the World Bank–International Monetary Fund annual meetings in Washington, DC, Hudson will host a high-level discussion on Southeastern Europe. The first panel will explore the geoeconomic opportunities and challenges, while the second will examine the geopolitical and security dimensions of the region.

Hudson Institute’s Nadia Schadlow will host a conference on the future of America’s industrial base. The event will bring together representatives from new firms at the forefront of reindustrialization—companies working to address supply chain vulnerabilities, strengthen national security, and overcome institutional barriers. Company representatives will discuss their experiences, how their firms have navigated obstacles, and what changes the United States needs to make to fortify its manufacturing base. Additionally, investors and manufacturing sector experts will outline the most effective frameworks for attracting private capital and building sustainable public-private partnerships.

The China threat has become increasingly acute during President Donald Trump’s second term. While the White House and Congress navigate economic, security, and political relations with Beijing, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continues to undermine the security and sovereignty of the United States and other nations. By funding Russia’s war in Ukraine, bolstering Iran’s military capabilities, and deepening engagement with North Korea, the CCP seeks to increase its global influence and weaken the US and its allies. Congressman John Moolenaar (R-MI), chairman of the House Select Committee on the CCP, will join Hudson Senior Fellow David Feith to discuss how Washington should approach the US-China relationship in an era of rising geopolitical competition.

The “no limits” partnership between China and Russia appears to be deepening. China’s provision of weapons components has served as a lifeline for the Kremlin in its war of aggression against Ukraine. Meanwhile, the two nations’ information warfare is increasingly aligned in its anti-American and anti-Western messaging. Yet there is an asymmetry between Beijing and Moscow. Join Hudson Institute for a panel discussion on how the United States and its allies can combat the rise of this authoritarian alliance.

Both Washington and Bucharest underwent leadership changes in 2025. Less than four months after President Donald Trump’s second inauguration, Romanians elected a new president, who soon formed a new government. Hudson will welcome a key member of this new Romanian administration, Minister of Foreign Affairs H.E. Oana-Silvia Țoiu. Foreign Minister Țoiu entered office amid heightened tensions between Moscow and the West. Russia has repeatedly violated North Atlantic Treaty Organization airspace, including a drone incursion into Romanian skies on September 14. And in late August, a Russian naval drone struck a Ukrainian vessel in the Danube River on the Romanian border. With Peter Rough, Foreign Minister Țoiu will discuss Black Sea security, the war in Ukraine, Russia’s hybrid attacks, and Romania-US relations.

After the Cold War, Western leaders embraced the illusion that globalization and the spread of democracy would lead to the outbreak of peace around the world. But just decades later, great powers are once again competing for territory, resources, and prestige. In his new book Great Power Diplomacy: The Skill of Statecraft from Attila the Hun to Kissinger, one of America’s foremost strategists, Wess Mitchell, argues that the United States needs to relearn how to build winning alliances, splinter enemy coalitions, and, when necessary, make peace with former adversaries. By looking to the great empires of the past, Mitchell argues, Washington can better prepare itself for a dangerous new era of great power competition. Join Hudson’s Peter Rough for a discussion with Wess Mitchell on the book’s findings, how they apply to the present moment, and the future of great power diplomacy.

To face the China challenge, the United States needs a better understanding of the Chinese Communist Party’s origins. How has the CCP maintained legitimacy and control while pursuing market reforms and private sector development? How has the party overcome geographic and historical challenges to maintain its centralized control over ideology? In Institutional Genes: The Origins of China’s Institutions and Totalitarianism, Professor Chenggang Xu argues that, unlike the Soviet Union, China has developed a system of regionally administered totalitarianism. Like other totalitarian regimes, the CCP’s system is inherently expansionist and positions China as not only a domestic oppressor but a global security threat. Join Dr. Miles Yu, senior fellow and director of Hudson’s China Center, for a conversation with Professor Xu on why misunderstanding China’s political order may create critical strategic risks for the US amid intensifying geopolitical rivalry.

This February, the United States Institute of Peace Senior Study Group on Strategic Stability released its 2025 report, Sustaining the Nuclear Peace. The study concludes that Russia and China have developed new ways of war built on a belief in the utility of nuclear weapons for broad purposes that encompass not just deterrence but also coercion and defeat. Further, the report concludes that a new axis is emerging. The US no longer faces a China problem and a separate Russia problem. Any crisis or conflict involving one adversary will likely involve the other, either directly or indirectly. And, because the United States has been slow to come to terms with this reality, the risk of nuclear use in war is increasing. Finally, the study recommends that policymakers urgently prioritize deterrence and prepare to enhance the United States’ ability to defend its vital interests and those of its allies if deterrence does fail. At Hudson, cochairs Dr. Brad Roberts and Dr. Rebeccah L. Heinrichs, study group member Dr. Christopher Ford, and Scowcroft Group Principal Frank Miller will discuss the report and its recommendations.

The Chinese Communist Party is an opaque authoritarian regime that many observers mistake as monolithic. But behind the image of strongman leadership lie precarious factions, power struggles, and a dangerous tension between reform and stability. Few figures in modern Chinese history embody these contradictions more vividly than Hu Yaobang, a former party official who was forced to resign due to his alleged tolerance of pro-liberalization protests. Join Senior Fellow Michael Sobolik for a conversation with Robert Suettinger and Piero Tozzi about Suettinger’s book The Conscience of the Party, which explores how Hu’s story illuminates the broader patterns of CCP factional struggle. They will discuss what Hu’s experiences and legacy can teach policymakers about contemporary CCP power struggles, purges, and the ongoing tension between reformist impulses and the pursuit of stability under Xi Jinping.

Over the past decade, the United States and Canada have emerged as the world’s leading producers of oil, natural gas, uranium, and other critical energy inputs. This strength has undercut authoritarians’ leverage in energy markets, providing allies with new options. Yet challenges remain in securing critical minerals, diversifying global supply chains, and advancing innovation. With the Group of Seven energy ministers set to meet in late October, Hudson Institute and the Center for North American Prosperity and Security (CNAPS) will host a forum on North America’s role in global energy security and economic resilience. This discussion will examine the policies and priorities driving transatlantic energy strategy, North America’s unmatched resource base and the opportunities this gives Washington, Ottawa, and Mexico City, and the geopolitical stakes of ensuring continued North American leadership.

The world’s two largest economies remain deeply interdependent even as they race toward greater self-sufficiency. Recently, the United States and China reached a fragile détente in their trade war, anchored by China’s agreement to resume rare earth magnet exports and America’s lifting of technology export controls. This captures the paradox of US-China competition: mutual reliance collides with mutual distrust as both sides build up their supply chains for critical minerals and advanced technology. Beijing’s integrated control over rare earths and other processing chokepoints reflects a deliberate, long-term strategy. Meanwhile, Washington’s shifting mix of tariffs and export controls suggests a more reactive, ad hoc approach. Is that contrast real or overstated? What lessons have emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic, semiconductor shortages, and other disruptions? What more should the United States do—through reshoring, friend-shoring, and public–private partnerships—to forge a credible path to resilience? How might a US-China trade deal, potentially at a fall summit, alter this competition and the broader strategic rivalry? And finally, how can Washington leverage international relationships and tools like the Defense Production Act to secure its leadership in technology? Senior Fellow Nadia Schadlow will join leading experts on supply chains and US-China competition for a panel discussion of these questions, moderated by Asia-Pacific Security Chair Patrick Cronin.

China is undertaking an unprecedented strategic nuclear breakout and refuses to engage in productive discussions about its nuclear intentions. Meanwhile, Russia has announced it will no longer observe the Treaty Between the United States and the Russian Federation on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (New START). Moscow has since violated New START’s verification provisions and could have grown its stockpiles of nuclear warheads beyond the treaty’s limits. The National Institute for Public Policy (NIPP) recently published A New Strategic Review for a New Age, which concludes that the US has a legal right and strategic imperative to terminate the New START Treaty, which expires in February 2026. The study also recommends ways the US can adapt its nuclear forces to increase the credibility of its deterrent and maintain peace. Join Dr. Rebeccah L. Heinrichs, senior fellow at Hudson Institute, and Dr. Keith Payne, president and cofounder of NIPP, for discussion about the report’s analysis and recommendations.

The Trump administration has taken unprecedented measures to increase the pressure on Venezuela’s repressive Maduro regime, which illegitimately maintained power despite losing the July 2024 election. The United States has doubled the bounty on Nicolás Maduro’s capture to $50 million, designated two Venezuelan criminal groups as foreign terrorist organizations, and deployed naval assets to the southern Caribbean to disrupt drug trafficking operations. Most recently, the US stationed 10 F-35 fighter jets and other assets in Puerto Rico. Washington’s escalation is a response to the continued threat the criminal regime poses. Maduro’s Venezuela has emerged as Latin America’s greatest destabilizing force, serving as a major sanctuary for transnational criminal organizations, a critical node in international drug trafficking networks, and a strategic foothold for Russian and Chinese influence projection. What does America’s show of force mean for its broader strategy toward Venezuela? Could sustained US pressure fundamentally alter the political dynamics within the regime? Can outside pressure sufficiently weaken Maduro’s grip on power? Join Adjunct Fellow Daniel Batlle and a panel of experts as they examine these questions.

After decades of growth, global electricity access has hit a downturn in recent years, especially in Africa. Roughly half the population of sub-Saharan Africa still lacks electricity, limiting access to water and modern medicine and preventing the expansion of industry. Yet international organizations like the International Energy Agency and the World Bank have prioritized reducing emissions over eliminating poverty. Many development agencies stopped granting loans or finance for projects that either produce fossil fuels or burn them to generate electricity. This has forced more sub-Saharan Africans to burn wood, dung, or biomass, sources that produce more emissions, pollution, and health risks than fossil fuels. The West’s refusal to fund fossil fuel energy in Africa has also created an opportunity for China to increase its influence on the continent. Hudson’s Zineb Riboua will host Professor Brenda Shaffer, faculty member of the US Naval Postgraduate School and senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center, to discuss international energy policy shifts that can help address the challenge.

In February 2025, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and United States President Donald Trump announced the US-India COMPACT (Catalyzing Opportunities for Military Partnership, Accelerated Commerce, and Technology) for the Twenty-First Century. Though India is not an American security ally, changing geopolitics have drawn the two democracies closer together in the last two decades. Stronger defense and military partnership benefits both parties’ core strategic interests. The US and India have expanded their joint military exercises, defense trade, and cooperation in the defense tech arena. But the two countries can do more. Dr. Aparna Pande will host an expert panel to discuss how Washington and New Delhi can increase security collaboration to bolster security both bilaterally and multilaterally in the broader Indo-Pacific region. This event is part of the Motwani Jadeja US-India Dialogue Series funded by the Motwani Jadeja Family Foundation.