Earlier this week, Emily hosted Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Investment Security Chris Pilkerton for a live discussion at CNAS.

Investment security has emerged as a central pillar of U.S. national security and foreign policy, with expanding sets of U.S. and partner government policies addressing the national security implications of certain investment flows. The discussion will explore the administration’s perspectives on investment security and its ongoing efforts to both strengthen and streamline investment security programs, as well as how investment security fits into broader U.S. work to manage intensifying geopolitical competition.

You can watch the full event here.

Emily is joined by Rachel Ziemba, CNAS adjunct senior fellow and energy markets expert, to unpack the ongoing energy crisis resulting from the U.S.-Iran military conflict and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. They delve into why stabilizing oil prices will be easier said than done and what the current crisis has demonstrated about the effectiveness of U.S. economic pressure. Emily Kilcrease, Hit It With Your Best Shot: An American Doctrine of Economic Pressure

This episode was recorded on Tuesday, April 7, before a 2-week ceasefire was announced between the United States, Israel, and Iran.

A year ago, the Trump administration unveiled an ambitious plan to reset the global trading system on a day President Donald Trump dubbed “Liberation Day,” overturning decades of precedent and ushering in a new era of a far more assertive U.S. trade policy. While the long-term effects of the administration’s trade strategy remain uncertain, one year of the new trade approach has fundamentally shifted how America talks about the legal, economic, and political dynamics of trade. ​​​​​​​This live episode was hosted by CNAS experts Emily Kilcrease and Geoffrey Gertz and features Kathleen Claussen, professor of law at Georgetown Law; Laura Silver, associate director at the Pew Research Center; and Chris Kennedy, adjunct senior fellow at CNAS. The discussion assessed the legal ramifications of the administration’s trade approach, highlighted new polling data from Pew Research on American views on U.S. trade policy, and examined why the economic impacts of the tariffs have not been as severe as initially projected.

Watch the event and find the fun graphs from Pew Research here.

USTR, Liberation Day One Year Later: Protecting American Jobs and Delivering Greater Market Access for American Farmers, Ranchers, and Manufacturers CNAS Insights, A Year After Liberation Day, Can Trump’s Trade Wars Be Salvaged?

Pew Research, How Americans View Trump’s Handling of Trade and Tariffs

María Pagán joins Emily and Geoff for a wide-ranging discussion on the past, present, and future of U.S. trade law and policy. They assess what’s working (and what’s not) at the WTO, the path forward for the Trump administration’s tariff strategy, and what to expect at this week’s WTO ministerial conference. María Pagán was most recently Deputy U.S. Trade Representative and Chief of Mission for the Permanent Mission of the United States to the WTO. Prior to that, she was Deputy General Counsel at USTR, responsible for supervising and providing legal advice to senior USTR officials on all legal aspects regarding trade negotiations, implementation of trade agreements, and trade related legislation and regulations. Prior to joining USTR in 2003, she worked as an attorney advisor at the Office of the Chief Counsel for International Commerce at the U.S. Department of Commerce (1993 – 2003).

• Ambassador Jamieson Greer, “Don’t Let International Law Get In the Way of Peace and Prosperity”, Speech at the University of Virginia School of Law, February 24, 2026
• USTR, Further Perspectives On WTO Reform Communication From The United States , March 23, 2026
• Dmitry Grozoubinski, Why Politicians Lie About Trade – and What You Need to Know About It
• Scott Miller and Bill Reinsch, "The Trade Guys" podcast
• Ardian Mollabeqiri and Robert Skidmore, “Trade Splaining” podcast

Paul Scharre joins Emily and Geoff to talk about how commercial markets for AI might evolve and how different market outcomes may mean different types of risks for U.S. national security interests. They also get into the ongoing dispute between the Pentagon and Anthropic over who gets to decide how AI is used in the military.

Paul Scharre is an expert on military AI, Executive Vice President at CNAS, and the author of "Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence." Previously, he served at the Pentagon, where he played a leading role in establishing policies on unmanned and autonomous systems and emerging weapons technologies.

• Paul Scharre, Army of None
• Paul Scharre, Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
• Jon Stewart, Dr. Sarah Shoker, and Paul Scharre, “Military AI: Anthropic, Open AI, & the Future of Warfare”, The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
• Paul Scharre, CNAS Insights | Setting the Rules for AI Warfare
• Epoch.ai Epoch Capabilities Index

In a blow to the Trump administration's trade policy, the Supreme Court ruled that the president cannot use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) as a legal basis to impose tariffs. The Trump administration has relied on IEEPA tariffs as a tool of both economic and diplomatic coercion, seeking to reshape the global trading system and generate revenue for the United States.

The full implications of today's ruling remain unclear, with significant questions outstanding on what new tariffs the administration might introduce to replace IEEPA tariffs, how and whether tariff refunds will be issued, and what will happen to the trade deals signed with foreign governments in recent months.

In a live discussion, Geoff was joined by Carrie Cordero, director of the CNAS National Security Law Program, and Chris Kennedy, CNAS adjunct senior fellow and senior economist with Bloomberg Economics' Geoeconomics practice, to discuss the ruling.

This week, we're bringing you an episode from our friends at CSIS's Asia Chessboard Podcast, where Emily joins host Mike Green to unpack how U.S. national security strategy is shaping technology competition with China. They explore why Washington has rolled back certain tariffs and technology export restrictions, how allies and partners are responding to shifting U.S. trade policies, and whether the United States is still on track to win the U.S.-China tech race.

Find more episodes from the Asia Chessboard here.

Geoff sits down with Mark DiPlacido of American Compass to discuss his recent series of essays, On Balance, that advocates U.S. trade policy should move away from the previous free trade paradigm and instead prioritize balance and reciprocity. They consider the extent to which the Trump administration’s trade policy is aligned with this framework and discuss what to watch for on the big trade stories of 2026, and later delve into what role think tanks play in the current policy environment.

Mark DiPlacido, “On Balance,” American Compass

Douglas A. Irwin, Clashing Over Commerce