Amid rising conflict, strategic rivalry and other alarming global trends, “instability has become somewhat of the new norm,” says USIP’s Michael Bruhn. But USIP’s Passing the Baton event offers a chance for incoming and outgoing national security officials to show that the U.S. “doesn’t skip a beat” when it comes to meeting these challenges.

As the incoming administration prepares for “the enormity of the tasks that they [will be] confronting,” USIP’s Passing the Baton event offers a chance for national security leaders from across the political spectrum to discuss critical foreign policy challenges, says USIP Board Chair Ambassador John Sullivan: “It’s in everyone’s interest and our national interest.”

Baring a “tipping point” sparked by mass demonstrations against President Nicolás Maduro’s inauguration this week, “a grand bargain between the opposition, the regime and the United States … is what many people think is the only thing that can work” to bring stability back to Venezuela, says USIP’s Keith Mines.

As Ukraine considers the “political loaded” question of whether to lower the age of military mobilization, Putin increasingly sees the war “not just as a land grab, but as a civilizational battle between Russia and the West,” says USIP’s Donald Jensen, adding: “We should not think that the war is anything close to being settled.”

The fall of Assad is “nothing short of a tectonic shift in power” across the Middle East, with Iran emerging as “the biggest loser” and Turkey “positioned to be a big winner,” says USIP’s Mona Yacoubian. But “the situation is going to bear very close watching … the stakes in Syria aren’t just regional, they’re global.”

After the “stunning” collapse of the Assad regime, “the geostrategic stakes [in] Syria couldn’t be higher,” says USIP’s Mona Yacoubian. The question now on everyone’s mind is “Who rebuilds Syria? … The process [should] be Syrian-led and Syrian-owned.”

President Biden’s recent trip to Angola sought to offer African countries a U.S.-led alternative to China’s dominance in the critical mineral sector, says USIP’s Thomas Sheehy: “The hope is that we can operate in the same environment [as China] and raise the standards and ultimately have Africans expect higher standards” from international investors.

When it comes to meeting the world’s growing energy demands without furthering carbon emissions, there is room for a “both-and” approach that safely expands nuclear power while still advancing nonproliferation, says USIP’s Brittany Croll: “There really is an interest and need for robust cooperation.”

While the outcomes of the recent G20 summit in Brazil can be seen “as a glass half full or a glass half empty,” perhaps the most noteworthy takeaway from this year’s proceedings was “the Global South having a bigger and bigger voice in global issues,” says USIP’s Andrew Cheatham.

In firing the country’s interim prime minister, Haiti’s transition presidential council “generated a fair amount of concern” over whether the country could stabilize governance to meet the timeline for elections in early 2026, says USIP’s Georges Fauriol, adding: “The outlook doesn’t look all that positive.”