State and Local Officials Newsletter

July 2026

Global Health Security

REUTERS/Monicah Mwangi

Recent cuts to foreign aid have impacted global health response and coordination. From Ebola to the resurgence of vaccine-preventable diseases, the world is confronting public health consequences not seen in decades. This State and Local Officials Newsletter highlights resources from CFR.org, ForeignAffairs.com, and ThinkGlobalHealth.org that examine these shifting dynamics and equip officials with the necessary information and context to serve their states and communities across the country. We look forward to your continued participation in the CFR State and Local Officials Initiative and welcome your feedback on how we can better support the work you are doing. Please email us at stateandlocal@cfr.org.  

Best regards,
Irina A. Faskianos
Vice President, National Program and Outreach

A New Ebola Outbreak Spreads Through Conflict and a Weak U.S. Response

REUTERS/Gradel Muyisa Mumbere

CFR’s Michelle Gavin breaks down the current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and now Uganda, as concerns about the global authorities’ ability to effectively respond continue to rise.

Read more on CFR.org »

Tracking Measles and the World’s Vaccine-Preventable Diseases

Think Global Health’s Allison Krugman, in collaboration with the International Society for Infectious Diseases, maps the outbreaks of nine preventable infectious diseases. Updated weekly, the tracker follows outbreak developments alongside global shifts in vaccine access.  

Read more on ThinkGlobalHealth.org »

The End of Foreign Aid Is Not the End of Development

The roughly $30 billion in global foreign aid cuts throughout 2025 have been catastrophic, writes the Gates Foundation’s Mark Suzman. Yet he sees a chance to reinvent conventional aid models and build programs designed for self-reliance. 

Read more on ForeignAffairs.com »

    REUTERS/Shakeel

Why the United States Needs an Africa Strategy

In this episode of The President’s Inbox, Host James M. Lindsay and CFR’s Michelle Gavin discuss how Africa’s emergence as a defining arena for great power competition is reshaping its relevance to U.S. foreign policy.

Listen on CFR.org

Charting Ebola Responses: How 2026 Stacks Up After Aid Cuts

Writing in Think Global Health, CFR’s Stephanie Psaki, Anya Hirschfeld, and Allison Krugman assess the current response to the third-largest Ebola outbreak on record, drawing on a comparative analysis of the five other outbreaks between 2000 and 2021.

Read more on ThinkGlobalHealth.org »

Attending the 2026 National Conference of State Legislators Legislative Summit? So are we!

The Council on Foreign Relations will be in Chicago from July 27 to 29 for the 2026 National Conference of State Legislators Legislative Summit this year. If you’re planning to be there, we’d love to connect and share more about CFR resources available to state legislators and their staff. Please email stateandlocal@cfr.org to connect with the team.

The Pharma Choke Point 

U.S. dependence on Chinese pharmaceutical supply chains has left an opening that China has quickly and effectively exploited. In this report, CFR’s Thomas J. Bollyky, Rush Doshi, and Prashant Yadav present an archetype model for researchers and policy makers to anticipate and minimize the crisis.

Read more on CFR.org »

REUTERS/Andrew Silver

Ebola’s Lessons

REUTERS/Larry Downing