WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) and the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) are hosting the Inaugural North America Summit in Washington, D.C. this week (May 7, 2026). Built on years of sustained policy work along both the southern and northern borders and across the Western Hemisphere, the summit convenes government officials, national security experts, and policy leaders from the United States, Canada, Mexico, and beyond to shape the regional strategy the current moment demands.

The threats facing the United States are hemispheric in nature. Drugs, trafficking, and instability do not originate in one country or move through a single corridor. They span borders, north and south, and require a coordinated regional response that American policy has not yet fully built. The Trump administration and a generation of state-level leadership have laid the groundwork. This summit is the next step.

Canada is as central to this conversation as Mexico. The northern border, Canadian domestic politics, and the future of continental defense and economic coordination all bear directly on American security and prosperity. A serious hemispheric strategy requires engaging both neighbors, along with the Caribbean, European, and international partners whose equities in the region are growing.

“Years of work along our borders and across the hemisphere have brought us to this moment. What the Trump administration and Governor Abbott have built is a foundation. This summit is about what we build on top of it: a regional strategy, under American leadership, that secures the United States and the hemisphere for the next generation.”

— Joshua Trevino, Chief Transformation Officer, Texas Public Policy Foundation

TPPF’s previous policy summits in Austin, Mexico City, and Washington, D.C. built the relationships and credibility that make a gathering of this scope possible. AFPI brings the national policy architecture and Washington presence to translate that work into action. The officials and experts convening this week represent the full breadth of the Western Hemisphere, from North America and the Caribbean to Europe and beyond.

The summit will feature panels including:

  • Representing the Nation: Western Hemisphere Ambassadors in Washington, D.C.
  • Shared Seams: Southern Border Networks and First Nations Security
  • Mexico & the USMCA
  • Old World in the New World: Europe in the Americas
  • The Future of Caribbean Security
  • Canadian Civics and the Canadian Future

“AFPI exists to turn serious thinking into real policy. Working alongside TPPF, we have spent years cultivating the relationships and credibility across the hemisphere that a summit like this requires. Bringing together officials, partners, and experts from across the Americas to build a strategy that lasts is exactly what that work was building toward.”

— Melissa Ford Maldonado, Director of the Western Hemisphere Initiative, America First Policy Institute

The United States has every element needed to lead a new era of regional thinking: energy resources, geographic advantages, allied relationships, and the economic weight to set the agenda. What has been missing is the sustained, coordinated policy framework to use those advantages with intention. TPPF and AFPI are convening this summit because they believe that framework can be built, and that American leadership is the only force capable of building it.

###