The State of the Middle East with Representative Joe Wilson

As 2025 approaches, the new United States presidential administration will need to define and implement a new approach to the world’s two most populous nations, India and China. As decades of US economic engagement with Communist China give way to global competition, India’s rise as an economic and military partner presents new opportunities for American grand strategy. Understanding the rivalry between Asia’s largest nations will be critical in a potentially pivotal year. Join Hudson’s Dr. Aparna Pande, author of Making India Great: The Promise of a Reluctant Global Power, and Dr. Jonathan Ward, author of The Decisive Decade: American Grand Strategy for Triumph Over China, along with South Asia expert Dr. Daniel Markey of the US Institute of Peace, for an overview of India and China in 2025.They will discuss trade and technology, each nation’s foreign policy outlook, and flashpoints both on the disputed China-India border (which spans over 2,000 miles of Himalayan territory) and in the maritime domain from the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea. They will also give recommendations for the incoming administration as it defines a grand strategy in the Indo-Pacific and beyond.

Since the October 7 attack, Israel has been engaged in a multifront war against Iran and its resistance axis proxies. While Israel has notched significant successes—neutralizing Hamas, crippling Hezbollah, and undermining Iran’s strategic posture—Jerusalem still faces substantial threats.  Join Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East Director Michael Doran for a conversation with Brigadier General (res.) Amir Avivi on the Israeli military’s achievements, the evolving strategic landscape in the region, and the challenges that lie ahead. 

The United States is growing increasingly concerned over the security of Taiwan. While Taipei is not a US treaty ally, peace and stability around the island serve America’s political, security, and economic interests. But the People’s Republic of China is increasingly threatening Taiwan’s democratic political system, territorial security, and free economy.Will new administrations in Taipei and Washington deepen the nations’ relationship? Or will new challenges emerge? What does Taiwan need to boost its hard and soft powers? How can Taiwan build stronger whole-of-society resilience in areas such as food and energy security? Join Hudson experts for a discussion on these topics and more.

In 2018, President Donald Trump signed into law the National Quantum Initiative (NQI), which set aside $1.2 billion to advance quantum technology and information science.Almost six years later, the NQI reauthorization bill, which will extend federal support for this technology that promises to transform economic and national security, awaits approval by Congress and the president.Join Hudson Institute Senior Fellow and Director of the Quantum Alliance Initiative Arthur Herman and a panel of leading experts for a discussion on why NQI reauthorization matters to government, industry, and the economy—as well as the important changes that will come with the reauthorization process.

Moldova recently held presidential elections and a national referendum on the country’s possible European Union membership. In both cases, Moldovans voted for the Euro-Atlantic cause. Still, the country faces a number of challenges, including Russian hybrid warfare and political meddling. Additionally, Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine threatens Moldova’s security.Next year the country will hold important parliamentary elections, which Russia will doubtlessly try to undermine using disinformation. To discuss recent developments in Moldova and the region, Hudson is honored to welcome President of the Parliament of Moldova Igor Grosu and Moldovan Foreign Minister Mihai Popșoi.

In December 2023, Nippon Steel agreed to purchase US Steel for $14.9 billion and to invest an additional $2.7 billion in local plants. Many supported the deal because it would strengthen the American steel industry and protect the United States market from Chinese dumping. But United Steel Workers (USW) leadership joined various national politicians in opposition to the deal. Media coverage of this issue has undervalued the perspectives of union steelworkers and their communities.Hudson’s Japan Chair will host a panel discussion with stakeholders from the Mon Valley in Pennsylvania. Mayor of West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, Chris Kelly and USW Local 2227’s Jack Maskil and Jason Zugai will share their thoughts on the deal’s local impact.

Join Director of the Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East Michael Doran for a conversation with United States Representative Joe Wilson (R-SC), senior member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and chair of the Subcommittee on the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia. They will discuss the post–October 7 Middle East and the current state of US-Israel relations.

In the 100 years since the 1924 Rogers Act, many reforms have been proposed to make the Foreign Service more effective. Congress this year funded the bipartisan Congressional Commission on Reform and Modernization of the Department of State to “examine the changing nature of diplomacy and the ways in which the department can modernize to advance the interests of the United States.”In recent years, prominent former foreign service officers have published studies on how to strengthen the Foreign Service and the State Department. But despite America’s massive deficit spending and declining US influence abroad, most proposals double down on the status quo: they recommend larger staffs and budgets, more emphasis on race and sex preferences in hiring, and greater control by career officials at the expense of elected leaders. The incoming Trump administration has a rare opportunity to address these weaknesses and help the Foreign Service, and more broadly the State Department, advance the US national interest in the context of intensifying great power competition.Join Senior Fellow Matt Boyse for a conversation with three former senior foreign service officers: Heritage Foundation Senior Research Fellow Simon Hankinson, Ambassador (ret.) Tibor Nagy, former assistant secretary of state for Africa, and University of Pittsburgh Adjunct Professor Drew Peterson. They will take stock of where the Foreign Service is today and highlight the opportunities for and challenges to reform during the second Trump administration.

Earlier this year, international headlines reported that Nicaraguan human rights leader Bishop Rolando José Álvarez was exiled. The Nicaraguan regime had recently thrown him and hundreds of Nicaraguan priests into prison without basic due process for spurious, political reasons. But media coverage did not evaluate how this persecution fits into a pattern of repression found today in China, Cuba, Venezuela, and other Communist and Marxist governments. Religious persecution has been a feature of such regimes since the Soviet era, when the Communist government envisioned the eradication of all religious organizations.For most of the twentieth century, Soviet and Eastern European Communism imprisoned priests, pastors, rabbis, and imams. Members of religious communities disappeared by the thousand into gulags and execution cellars. In Eastern Europe, resistance heroes included Polish Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, Hungarian Cardinal Jozef Mindszenty, and Croatian Cardinal Aloysius Stepinac—the latter two of whom were subjected to show trials and long prison sentences. They became famous in the West for their faithful courage.Across the Soviet bloc, places of worship were closed and destroyed unless they belonged to approved, Communist-controlled religions. Police relied on surveillance, threats, coercion, regulation, cooptation, and atheistic education. These tools were used to varying degrees from Joesef Stalin’s reign of terror and Nikita Khrushchev’s crackdown, to the more selective persecution between 1965 and 1985, and straight through to the end of Mikhail Gorbachev’s glasnost. These same tools, enhanced by high tech, are used today in Beijing, Managua, and Havana.To discuss modern religious persecution by far-left regimes and the martyrs and heroes of these systems, a panel of experts will examine common ideology and practices of the repression of churches in China and Latin America. Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone will open the discussion with a keynote address titled “Why Marxist and Neo-Marxist Regimes Fear Religion.” Then Nina Shea will speak about her Hudson report Ten Persecuted Catholic Bishops in China, which details the Chinese government’s oppression of Catholic clergy.

On August 6, Ukraine launched an audacious military operation into Russia’s Kursk Oblast. One hundred days later, the Ukrainians still hold a sizeable chunk of Russian territory. The operation has achieved its initial objectives: changing the narrative of the conflict, reminding the world that Ukraine can succeed on the battlefield, and forcing Russia to commit resources to Kursk that could otherwise be used elsewhere. But Russia has started a counteroffensive in the region with the help of 10,000 North Korean troops. How can the United States help Ukraine maintain its momentum?A distinguished panel of experts will assess the first 100 days of the Kursk operation and what to expect from the next US presidential administration.