All eyes remain on the president's Iraq policy, but other significant international challenges continue to grow. Iran's efforts to export terror and develop weapons of mass destruction present a potent threat to American interests. Efforts to engage North Korea with multilateral diplomacy have failed. Al Qaeda, though hobbled, seeks to stage attacks on the United States and its interests abroad. As Washington looks for new and creative ways to stymie enemies abroad, Vladimir Putin’s government in Russia increasingly uses its growing oil wealth to defend rogue allies the world over. China, too, seeks to reinvent itself as a global power and counterweight to American interests in the Pacific and further afield. Meanwhile, anti-dictators such as Venezuela's Hugo Chávez seek to create new alliances against the United States throughout Latin America and the Middle East. In his seventh State of the Union address, President George W. Bush has little good news to report to the American people. What agenda should the United States pursue with its former Cold War competitor? Can progress be made on stopping the proliferation of aggressive nuclear programs? How will the new Congressional balance of power affect foreign policy in the coming year?

Congressional Democrats have a large number of domestic policy measures on tap for the first part the year. They plan to enact budget reforms, raise the minimum wage, change the rules concerning the determination of Medicare's drug price and repair the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). Budget reforms and fixes for the AMT have received broad bipartisan support in the past, but efforts to allow the government to negotiate drug prices and minimum-wage increases have been more contentious. Are the political forces aligned with the economic merits of these different policies? Should Congress consider other policies, such as President Bush’s call to reform entitlements?

Please join AEI scholars as they assess the State of the Union and the president's opening salvo in what promises to be a year of battles both at home and abroad.