Browse FSI scholarship on geopolitics, global health, energy, cybersecurity and more.
Featured Publications
Autocrats vs. Democrats: China, Russia, America, and the New Global Disorder
A clear-eyed look from Michael McFaul at how the rise of autocratic China and Russia are compelling some to think that we have entered a new Cold War—and why we must reject that thinking in order to prevail.
Gi-Wook Shin explores how Japan, Australia, China, and India achieved economic power and sustained momentum by responding to risks and challenges such as demographic crises, brain drain, and geopolitical tensions.
There is an urgent need for stronger congressional leadership in cyber policy, especially when it comes to countering China’s persistent, aggressive intrusions.
Private equity (PE) firms have increasingly influenced U.S. health care, posing risks to health equity—the idea that everyone should have a fair opportunity for optimal health. While PE investors claim to improve efficiency, raise capital, and leverage economies of scale, evidence indicates that their involvement often leads to reduced access to affordable high-quality care, particularly for rural populations, older adults, low-income communities, and marginalized racial and ethnic groups. Without strong regulation and enforcement, PE practices are likely to continue transforming health care in ways that could harm patients and burden clinicians.
Language development and the home language environment during early childhood are critical for long-term child outcomes. Caregiver mental health may influence early language outcomes directly, but it can also introduce perception bias, which refers to the discrepancies between caregiver self-assessments and the actual status of child language outcomes. This study examines the associations between caregiver mental health symptoms and (1) child language development and home language environment, and (2) caregiver perception bias in self-report assessments of child language development and home language environment. The study recruited 137 rural Chinese households with children aged 16–24 months. Objective measures of child language development and the home language environment were collected using Language Environment Analysis (LENA) technology. Caregiver perception biases were measured by the discrepancies between the objective and caregiver self-report measurements. Results show that caregiver anxiety and stress symptoms were linked to poor child language development, while symptoms of depression and anxiety were associated with less stimulating home language environment. Caregivers with depressive and anxiety symptoms tended to overestimate their children’s language development, and those with depressive symptoms also overestimated their own verbal inputs. These findings call for caution when implementing self-report assessments of early childhood development.
Children deprived of their liberty in the US juvenile justice, criminal justice, and immigration detention systems face profound and evolving health risks that demand a creative, sustained, and urgent pediatric response. These risks unfold within distinct but overlapping systems that share structural gaps in oversight, inconsistent standards of care, and a legacy of harm to children’s health and development. A promising opportunity lies in linking expertise across these systems to strengthen care, safeguard rights, and address the vulnerabilities of this often-overlooked population, which is disproportionately composed of racially and ethnically minoritized children.
Background: High rates of iron-deficiency anemia among school-age children have been a common issue in developing countries. In 2012, China rolled out a school feeding program (SFP) to address this issue. This study assesses changes in anemia rates, as well as potential factors driving these changes, both 3 and 10 years after the SFP was implemented.
Methods: Data were from two cross-sectional surveys (n = 1510) in northwestern China. T-tests were used to compare the differences in health outcomes of students and their dietary diversity across the different sample years. Regressions were used to examine the associations between health outcomes and dietary diversity.
Results: After the SFP was launched, hemoglobin levels of students improved from 126 to 131 g/L between 2015 and 2022/2023; the rates of anemia and stunting decreased from 17% to 6% and 9% to 1%, respectively. A rise in student dietary diversity and an increase in the share of students that consumed iron-rich foods are two main contributing factors.
Implications for School Health Policy, Practice, and Equity: Increase in funding allotted to the SFP over time appears to be a key element in improving the health and nutrition of rural students.
Conclusions: SFP in rural China exemplifies the concrete advantages in improving the health and potential educational outcomes of students.
