Council on Foreign Relations

History

Origins, 1918 to 1945

In September 1917, near the end of World War I, President Woodrow Wilson established a working fellowship of about 150 scholars called "The Inquiry", tasked with briefing him about options for the postwar world after Germany was defeated. This academic group, directed by Wilson's closest adviser and long-time friend "Colonel" Edward M. House, and with Walter Lippmann as Head of Research, met to assemble the strategy for the postwar world. The team produced more than 2,000 documents detailing and analyzing the political, economic, and social facts globally that would be helpful for Wilson in the peace talks. Their reports formed the basis for the Fourteen Points, which outlined Wilson's strategy for peace after the war's end. These scholars then traveled to the Paris Peace Conference 1919 and participated in the discussions there.

As a result of discussions at the Peace Conference, a small group of British and American diplomats and scholars met on May 30, 1919, at the Hotel Majestic in Paris. They decided to create an organization called "The Institute of International Affairs", which would have offices in London and New York. Ultimately, the British and American delegates formed separate institutes, with the British developing the Royal Institute of International Affairs (also known as Chatham House) in London. Due to the isolationist views prevalent in American society at that time, the scholars had difficulty gaining traction with their plan and turned their focus instead to a set of discreet meetings which had been taking place since June 1918 in New York City under the name "Council on Foreign Relations". The meetings were headed by corporate lawyer Elihu Root, who had served as Secretary of State under President Theodore Roosevelt, and attended by 108 "high-ranking officers of banking, manufacturing, trading and finance companies, together with many lawyers".

The members supported Wilson's internationalist vision but were especially concerned about "the effect that the war and the treaty of peace might have on postwar business". Scholars from the Inquiry saw an opportunity to establish an organization that would bring together diplomats, senior government officials, and academics with lawyers, bankers, and industrialists to influence public policy. On July 29, 1921, they filed a certification of incorporation, officially forming the Council on Foreign Relations. Founding members included its first honorary president Elihu Root, its first elected president John W. Davis, vice-president Paul D. Cravath, and secretary–treasurer Edwin F. Gay.

Cold War era, 1945 to 1979

A critical study found that of 502 government officials surveyed from 1945 to 1972, more than half were members of the Council. During the Eisenhower administration 40% of the top U.S. foreign policy officials were CFR members (Eisenhower himself had been a council member); under Truman, 42% of the top posts were filled by council members. During the Kennedy administration, this number rose to 51%, and peaked at 57% under the Johnson administration.

In 1947, CFR study group member George Kennan anonymously published an article in Foreign Affairs titled "The Sources of Soviet Conduct", in which he introduced the concept of "containment". The essay became highly influential in shaping U.S. foreign policy over the course of the next seven presidential administrations. Forty years later, Kennan remarked that he had never believed the Soviet Union intended to attack the United States, assuming that point was so self-evident it required no explanation in the original essay. William Bundy credited CFR's study groups with helping to lay the framework of thinking that led to the Marshall Plan and NATO. Due to new interest in the group, membership grew to nearly 1,000.

Dwight D. Eisenhower chaired a CFR study group while he served as President of Columbia University. One member later said, "whatever General Eisenhower knows about economics, he has learned at the study group meetings." The CFR study group devised an expanded study group called "Americans for Eisenhower" to increase his chances for the presidency. Eisenhower would later draw many Cabinet members from CFR ranks and become a CFR member himself. His primary CFR appointment was Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. Dulles gave a public address at the Harold Pratt House in New York City in which he announced a new direction for Eisenhower's foreign policy: "There is no local defense which alone will contain the mighty land power of the communist world. Local defenses must be reinforced by the further deterrent of massive retaliatory power." After this speech, the council convened a session on "Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy" and chose Henry Kissinger to head it. Kissinger spent the following academic year working on the project at Council headquarters. The book of the same name that he published from his research in 1957 gave him national recognition, topping the national bestseller lists.

CFR played an important role in the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community. CFR promoted a blueprint of the ECSC and helped Jean Monnet promote the ESCS.

Membership

The CFR has two types of membership: life membership; and term membership, which lasts for 5 years and is available only to those between the ages of 30 and 36. Only U.S. citizens (native born or naturalized) and permanent residents who have applied for U.S. citizenship are eligible. A candidate for life membership must be nominated in writing by one Council member and seconded by a minimum of three others. Visiting fellows are prohibited from applying for membership until they have completed their fellowship tenure.

Corporate membership is divided into "Associates", "Affiliates", "President's Circle", and "Founders". All corporate executive members have opportunities to hear speakers, including foreign heads of state, chairmen and CEOs of multinational corporations, and U.S. officials and Congressmen. President and premium members are also entitled to attend small, private dinners or receptions with senior American officials and world leaders.

The CFR has a Young Professionals Briefing Series designed for young leaders interested in international relations to be eligible for term membership.

Women were excluded from membership until the 1960s.

Board members

As of 2025, members of CFR's board of directors include:

David M. Rubenstein (chairman) – cofounder and co-chief executive officer, The Carlyle Group, regent of the Smithsonian Institution, chairman of the board of Duke University, co-chair of the board at the Brookings Institution, president of the Economic Club of Washington, owner of the Baltimore Orioles

Blair Effron (vice chairman) – cofounder, Centerview Partners

Jami Miscik (vice chairman) – senior advisor at Lazard Geopolitical Advisory and chief executive officer of Global Strategic Insights; former chief executive officer and vice chairman, Kissinger Associates, Inc.; former global head of sovereign risk at Lehman Brothers; senior advisor to Barclays Capital

Michael Froman (president) – former vice chairman and president of strategic growth at Mastercard; former U.S. trade representative (2013–2017) under President Barack Obama

Nicholas F. Beim − partner at Venrock

Afsaneh Mashayekhi Beschloss − founder and chief executive officer, RockCreek

Margaret Brennan − moderator, Face the Nation; chief foreign affairs correspondent, CBS News

Sylvia Mathews Burwell – president, American University; former United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (2014–2017) under President Barack Obama

Kenneth I. Chenault − chairman and managing director, General Catalyst

Tony Coles − executive chairman, Cerevel Therapeutics; co-founder and co-chair of the Black Economic Alliance

As a charity

The Council on Foreign Relations received a three-star rating (out of four stars) from Charity Navigator in fiscal year 2016, as measured by an analysis of the council's financial data and "accountability and transparency". In fiscal year 2023, the council received a four-star rating (98 percent) from Charity Navigator.

Reception

In an article for The Washington Post, Richard Harwood described the membership of the CFR as "the nearest thing we have to a ruling establishment in the United States".

The CFR has been criticized for its perceived elitism and influence over U.S. foreign policy, with detractors arguing that it serves as a networking hub for government officials, corporate executives, and media figures, reinforcing an establishment consensus that prioritizes globalist policies over national interests.

In 2019, CFR was criticized for accepting a donation from Len Blavatnik, a Ukrainian-born billionaire with close links to Vladimir Putin. The council was reported to be under fire from its own members and dozens of international affairs experts over its acceptance of a $12 million gift to fund an internship program. Fifty-five international relations scholars and Russia experts wrote a letter to the organization's board and CFR president Richard N. Haass: "It is our considered view that Blavatnik uses his 'philanthropy'—funds obtained by and with the consent of the Kremlin, at the expense of the state budget and the Russian people—at leading western academic and cultural institutions to advance his access to political circles. We regard this as another step in the longstanding effort of Mr. Blavatnik—who ... has close ties to the Kremlin and its kleptocratic network—to launder his image in the West."

Critics have accused the CFR of promoting interventionist foreign policies, stating that its reports and recommendations have often supported U.S. military interventions and regime-change efforts. Some opponents say that its influence contributes to a bipartisan consensus that favors global military engagement, neoliberalism, and the interests of multinational corporations.

Publications

Periodicals

The council publishes the international affairs magazine Foreign Affairs. It also establishes independent task forces, which bring together various experts to produce reports offering both findings and policy prescriptions on foreign policy topics. CFR has sponsored more than fifty reports, including the Independent Task Force on the Future of North America that published report No. 53, entitled Building a North American Community, in May 2005.

The United States in World Affairs (annual)

Political Handbook of the World (annual)

Books

Tobin, Harold J. & Bidwell, Percy W. Mobilizing Civilian America. New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 1940.

Savord, Ruth. American Agencies Interested in International Affairs. Council on Foreign Relations, 1942.

Barnett, A. Doak. Communist China and Asia: Challenge To American Policy. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1960. LCCN 60-5956

Bundy, William P. (ed.). Two Hundred Years of American Foreign Policy. New York University Press, 1977. ISBN 978-0814709900

Clough, Michael. Free at Last? U.S. Policy Toward Africa and the End of the Cold War. New York: Council on Foreign Relations Press, 1991. ISBN 0876091001

Mandelbaum, Michael. The Rise of Nations in the Soviet Union: American Foreign Policy and the Disintegration of the USSR. New York: Council on Foreign Relations Press, 1991. ISBN 978-0876091005

Gottlieb, Gidon. Nation Against State: A New Approach to Ethnic Conflicts and the Decline of Sovereignty. New York: Council on Foreign Relations Press, 1993. ISBN 0876091591

Bruce Hoffman & Jacob Ware God, Guns, Sedition: Far Right Terrorism in America

A Council on Foreign Relations book, Columbia University Press, New York, 2024, 448 pages

ISBN 9780231211222

Reports

"Confronting Reality in Cyberspace: Foreign Policy for a Fragmented Internet" recommends reconsideration of U.S. cyber, digital trade and online freedom policies which champion a free and open internet, as having failed.

US-Taiwan Relations in a New Era - Responding to a More Assertive China, Independent Task Force Report No. 81, co-chaired by Susan M. Gordon and Michael G. Mullen, directed by David Sacks.