Food insecurity among U.S. veterans and military families is a longtime blind spot for policymakers. While the Department of Veterans Affairs had identified approximately 74,000 veterans as food insecure as of September 2019, researchers could improve the data through measures such as including homeless veterans in their assessments or accessing information on different military ranks, dates of service, genders, races, and other characteristics.

SOURCE: "Food Insecurity among U.S. Veterans and Military Families" by CSIS' Caitlin Welsch.

A potential revival of the Iran nuclear deal would lift the sanctions that have crippled the country’s oil exports since 2018 and could bring in at least 500,000 b/d in new Iranian oil exports within several months, with more to come in late 2021 and into next year. This return to the market could be a cause for concern for OPEC states hoping to reap the benefits of an improving demand environment.

SOURCE: "OPEC Hopes Iran Won’t Spoil the Party" by CSIS' Ben Cahill.

Contrary to the expectations of many analysts, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) has been a fiscally conservative leader. However, this fiscal austerity has buffeted Mexico’s economy, already in recession before the pandemic, into an 8.5 percent contraction—the harshest since the 1930s—and shuttered more than 1 million small and medium-sized businesses.

SOURCE: "Mexico’s Midterm Elections Matter to the United States" by CSIS' Mariana Campero and Ryan C. Berg.

Improving supply chain management is now front and center for governments and in c-suites and board rooms. More than 80 percent of supply chain leaders surveyed by Capgemini in late 2020 reported that their supply chains were negatively impacted during the pandemic, and 66 percent said that supply chains will need to change significantly in order to adapt to a new normal after the pandemic.

SOURCE: "Supply Chains Face New Demands after Covid-19: Digital Transformation, Climate, and Security" by CSIS' Pamela Passman.