In his latest report, Derek Scissors considers how policymakers should address outbound US investment in China, which bolsters the Chinese regime’s strategic position. To make good policy possible, Scissors says, the Treasury Department must first collect and report accurate data about these investments, which he contends it currently doesn’t.

According to Zack Cooper and Luis Simón, Russia’s threat to Europe and China’s threat to the Indo-Pacific do not necessarily require the US to prioritize one theater over the other. They outline how the US can prioritize across three dimensions—time, military capabilities, and areas of competition—to leverage alliances and counter both threats.

Kevin Corinth reviews Matthew Desmond’s book Poverty, by America (Crown, 2023), which has received criticism from poverty scholars across the political spectrum. From relying on misleading statistics and ideological tropes to dismissing decades of antipoverty progress, the book “provides little of value to readers looking to learn more about poverty in the United States and how to reduce it,” according to Corinth, who marshals scientific evidence to challenge Desmond’s claims.

In a new report, Ruy Teixeira traces the rise of the American environmental movement’s “apocalyptic strain,” which emphasizes the allegedly existential risk of problems such as climate change. Covering more than 70 years of history, Teixeira explains how these beliefs came to dominate the Democratic Party—and alienate working-class voters.

Angela Rachidi highlights research that raises troubling questions about the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program’s (SNAP) approach to nutrition. “SNAP is supposed to give low-income households resources for a nutritious diet, yet recipients have uniquely high rates of diet-related disease,” writes Rachidi.