Maintaining international security and pursuing American interests is more difficult now than perhaps at any time in history. The security environment that the United States faces is more complex, dynamic, and difficult to predict. At the same time, no domestic consensus exists on the purposes of American power and how best to pursue them. The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) will look ahead in this annual volume at the “flashpoints” that will likely arise in 2015, how best to deal with them, and what lasting effects they might leave for the next American administration and its allies around the world.

Contributions by: Jon B. Alterman, Samuel J. Brannen, Ernest Z. Bower, Heather A. Conley, Anthony H. Cordesman, Victor Cha, Edward C. Chow, Jennifer G. Cooke, Zack Cooper, Michael J. Green, Matthew P. Goodman, John J. Hamre, Kathleen H. Hicks, Christopher K. Johnson, Stephanie Sanok Kostro, Andrew C. Kuchins, Sarah Ladislaw, Maren Leed, James A. Lewis, Haim Malka, Jeffrey Mankoff, Carl Meacham, Sarah Mendelson, Andrew A. Michta, Scott Miller, J. Stephen Morrison, Clark A. Murdock, Richard M. Rossow, Daniel F. Runde, Thomas M. Sanderson, Conor M. Savoy, Sharon Squassoni, Amy Studdart, Nicholas Szechenyi, and Juan C. Zarate.

Introduction by: John Hamre