Research Library

Will 2024 be another chaotic year in U.S. foreign policy? From Ukraine to the Israel-Hamas war, fellow Joe Barnes reviews the major challenges President Joe Biden faced in 2023 and what they could mean for the November election.

To build brain resilience and compete effectively, America needs to re-double its efforts to boost its domestic brain capital i.e., social, emotional, and cognitive resources.

Almost all of the progress the U.S. has made toward its Paris Agreement target for 2025 has come from falling CO2 emissions from energy use. But greater declines in other greenhouse gas emissions are needed to reach our goal, writes fellow Mark Finley.

"Decoupling” from China would come at the cost of American opportunity and influence, writes fellow Gabriel Collins. Instead, “de-risking” — loosening China’s grip on global supply chains without cutting ties entirely — would better serve American interests.

Do remittances — the money sent home by migrants working abroad — drive economic growth? Research scholar Jose Ivan Rodriguez-Sanchez explores their impact Mexico's economy and argues that Mexico needs a more robust economic strategy for sustained growth.

How can Texas secure an affordable, sustainable, and reliable power supply for all its citizens? This report explores key insights from research conducted at Rice University.

Are our views of sustainability becoming distorted by the often unsubstantiated “green” actions of companies and organizations? This brief explores why we urgently need a new framework for sustainability — one that relies on a holistic, cross-disciplinary, and multidimensional life cycle approach.

Fellows Ed Emmett and David Gantz explore climate change, international shipping, and what happens when a vital passage for global supply chains becomes unreliable.

As China appears ever closer to attempting a coercive annexation of Taiwan, this report explores how such a move could trigger a chain of nuclear proliferation — potentially adding thousands more warheads to stockpiles globally.

Houston faces long-term financial challenges, including a persistent structural budget deficit. Fellow John Diamond examines the fiscal issues at stake and explores opportunities for government, industry, and community to help the city thrive in the coming decades.