Description
Description
The Records of the Council on Foreign Relations document the history of this research organization from its founding in 1921 through the present, detailing its role in underpinning the development of an internationalist tradition in the twentieth century United States. The collection includes valuable source documents and papers from meetings, group discussions and studies, and conferences led by American and international experts and visiting statesmen in both New York and Washington, D.C. It also includes operational records, such as files from the board of directors, administration, publication, and communication departments, the Corporate and National Program, and the independent Committees on Foreign Relations.
The records provide a source of information not only for the Council’s history, but for aspects of foreign relations since 1921. The collection illuminates world affairs and the development of foreign policy from World War I through the present, examining a broad range of military, economic, political and social developments. It includes material on American and international political figures and statesmen who participated in study and discussion groups, meetings, and conferences, and who published through the Council. The records also reveal the climate of public opinion at key points in twentieth century history. The individuals and topics selected for meetings and studies illustrate what world issues were deemed important during specific times.
The Council on Foreign Relations records at the Mudd Manuscript Library do not include historic photographs, membership records, personnel files, or legal and financial files, which are retained in the Council’s Archives at the Pratt House in New York.
A paper index is available for portions of the Study Group, Meeting, and Conference records in the Mudd Manuscript Library reference room; these indices have been integrated into the contents lists for Series 3: Studies Department, Series 4: Meetings, and Series 5: Conferences.
Please see series descriptions in contents list for additional information about individual series.
Collection Creator
History
The Council on Foreign Relations is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research and national membership organization dedicated to improving understanding of international affairs by promoting a range of ideas and opinions on United States foreign policy. The Council has had a significant impact in the development of twentieth century United States foreign policy. Its membership has historically been drawn from those in business, government and academia recognized as the nation’s opinion leaders in international relations; membership is by invitation only. The Council’s basic constituency is its members, but it also reaches out to a wider audience through its publications, Committees on Foreign Relations, Corporate Program, and media efforts, contributing to the national dialogue on foreign policy.
The Council has no affiliation with the United States government. Its budget is funded through members’ dues, voluntary gifts, income from publications, endowment income, foundation grants, and subscriptions by corporate subscribers to the Corporate Program. The Council does not perform contract research and receives no budgetary support from the United States or any other government.
The Council on Foreign Relations was founded in 1921 to provide a continuous conference on international questions affecting the United States and to create and stimulate foreign policy debates within the United States. From an original 200 members, the Council had grown to over 3000 by 2005. To fulfill its mission, the Council established and developed a "think tank," as well as programs for corporations and affiliated Committees around the country. It has also expanded publications and media efforts beyond Foreign Affairs, its flagship journal.
The origins of the Council date to the end of World War I, when some of the American participants at the Paris Peace Conference wanted the United States to be better prepared to deal with international policy situations, such as the Treaty of Versailles. Believing that the United States would need to play a larger role in world affairs, they sought to create an organization that would provide for the continuous study of international problems facing the United States. These men, along with some British counterparts, founded the "Institute of International Affairs" in Paris in 1919. In 1921, the American branch of this Institute (no longer directly affiliated with the British section) merged with a larger existing group of New York City business and professional men to form the Council on Foreign Relations as a privately funded, non-profit and non-partisan organization. This formation was also a reaction against what the founders considered the shortsighted rejection of the League of Nations by the United States and the effort of the country to withdraw from involvement in international affairs.
To fulfill its original mission, the Council developed three principal activities: meetings, a program of studies, and publications. The Council leadership organized general meetings (dinner followed by a formal address) and evening discussions (which were more technical in nature and focused on a special subject with limited participation). Speakers included Herbert Hoover, Charles Evans Hughes, Cordell Hull, Nelson Rockefeller, George Kennan, Anthony Eden, Jawaharlal Nehru, Georges Clemenceau, and many other American and foreign diplomats, journalists, scholars, and military leaders. Study groups were organized for detailed examination of a particular problem or issue, the research of which sometimes lead to high quality publications. The Council provided a focal point, bringing together different backgrounds and expertise to examine pertinent issues. Topics such as disarmament, dictatorship, the Depression, international trade, finance, and investment are examples of the varied research the study groups have undertaken.
The early Council also developed an integrated publication program, including a quarterly review devoted to consideration of American foreign issues. This independently edited journal, Foreign Affairs, was established in the summer of 1922. It was initially edited by Archibald Cary Coolidge with assistance from Hamilton Fish Armstrong who succeeded Coolidge upon his death in 1928. Contributions to Foreign Affairs have come from leading statesmen, economists, publicists, and scholars of all nationalities and representing a wide range of viewpoints. Other publication initiatives included an annual Survey of American Foreign Relations, an annual Political Handbook of the World, and occasional volumes on current international problems, including the reports of Council study groups and reference works. The Council was concerned about the privacy of its members, and from the beginning determined not to publish its proceedings.
The Council began a reference and information service in 1931, gathering information bearing on American foreign relations, maintaining a clipping file, and answering reference questions. The Council’s Library collected indispensable volumes and documents on political, economic, and legal aspects of international affairs beginning in 1918, as well as historical and background materials.
In the late 1920s, the Council began collaboration with other institutions in study and research at meetings such as the International Studies Conference. The Council maintained close ties with the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London and began relationships with French and Canadian foreign affairs groups. Along with the collaborative international conference, the Council sponsored many other activities that could fall under the broad heading of "conferences," including Conferences for University Men, on the topics of neutrality and American foreign economic policy, Seminars for Junior Executives (a forerunner of the Corporate Program), and conferences on teaching and research in international relations. As early as the 1920s, members of the Council who were directors of large corporations had their firms signed up for a program of corporate financial support. From 1939-1941 the Council held "Seminars for Business Executives," which were suspended due to World War II. Restarted in 1953, this program was dubbed the Corporate Program and continues to the present time, providing seminars and trips for corporate members.
Assisted by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation, the Council began to organize a number of discussion groups in cities throughout the country in 1938, for the purpose of stimulating greater interest in foreign affairs on the part of community leaders in widely separated areas. These "Committees on Foreign Relations" were established and guided by the Council as small groups of community leaders with diverse opinions, and remained relatively autonomous from the Council. An annual conference allowed members of the different Committees to meet and exchange experiences. The Committees on Foreign Relations were indicators of public opinion throughout the country.
In the interwar years, the Council’s studies and meetings focused on a variety of topics including labor, Latin America, and Africa. In the summer of 1939, the Council suggested to the United States Department of State that it might undertake research work into certain topics related to the war in Europe. The Council proposed that it form groups of experts to proceed with research under four general heads – Security and Armament Problems, Economic and Financial Problems, Political Problems, Territorial Problems, and later, Peace Aims. These groups, situated under the Council’s Studies Department, formed what have come to be known as the War and Peace Studies and were funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. This was a major effort to help prepare the United States to deal with the problems of the post war world better than it had coped with the issues after the First World War. These confidential studies led to Council members’ participation in other work related to the organization of peace and the settlement of postwar problems after World War II. This was the first of many "projects," study groups of a longer duration and larger scope than usual.
After World War II, studies at the Council on Foreign Relations focused on U.S. and Soviet relations, economic aid to Europe, the Korean War, China, and Indochina, as well as nuclear weaponry and eventually Vietnam. In the 1960s, the Council began two fellowship programs: military fellows in 1962, and International Affairs Fellowship Program in 1967, financed by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, which encouraged young scholars to participate at the Council. Also in the 1960s, a discussion about the inclusion of women as members began to take substance. The membership remained uncomfortable with this issue for the duration of that decade, but by 1971 eighteen women had been invited to join the Council.
In 1972, the Council took a controversial step when it opened an office in Washington to supplement the established membership and research facilities in New York. This "modest outpost" evolved into a full program of meetings and fellows for the growing number of Washington-based members, including representatives from both the executive and legislative branches of government. By the mid-1990s, more than two-thirds of Council members lived and worked beyond a 50-mile radius of New York. Washington and Boston retained the largest share, but a significant increase in membership had taken place on the West Coast, in the Midwest, and in such southern cities as Dallas and Atlanta. The late 1970s saw a major effort at long-term national outreach through regional membership meetings and ever more frequent travel by Council officers and fellows. The Council continued these experiments during the 1980s, promoting the occasional opening of Council meetings to public television coverage, and in the 1990s by establishing regular programs for members throughout the country and staging hearings and debates for television.
In the mid-1970s, the Council began work on a comprehensive study focusing on major international problems that would confront the world in the next decade. The 1980s Project looked at the control of nuclear weapons, human rights, international monetary relations, energy and the environment, armed conflict, terrorism and subversion, industrial policy, and relations between developed and less-developed states. The results were published in a series of reports.
In the 1990s, the Council focused its efforts on nurturing the next generation of foreign policy leaders, expanding its outreach through national programs and the regular use of television for hearings and debates on major policy issues, and enlarging the Studies Program division with two stated purposes: figuring out the rules and rhythms of foreign policy and developing new ideas for America and the international community.
In terms of physical location, the Council initially occupied two rooms on West 43rd Street in New York City until 1930, when the organization moved into the "Council House" at 45 East 46th Street. By the early 1940s, the Council had again outgrown its location; Mrs. Harold I. Pratt donated her home at the corner of 68th Street and Park Avenue, and the Council was officially located at the Pratt House in April 1945. A new wing was constructed in 1954, and two adjacent buildings were purchased in 1979-1980. The buildings were renovated in 1983-1984. The Council purchased another neighboring building on 68th Street in 1997, creating a state of the art meeting room and study offices known as the Peterson Center for International Studies.
For a fuller history on the Council on Foreign Relations, see Peter Grose’s Continuing the Inquiry: The Council on Foreign Relations from 1921-1996, located at http://www.cfr.org/about/history/cfr/ and Michael Wala’s The Council on Foreign Relations and American Foreign Policy in the Early Cold War (Providence: Berghahn Books, 1994).
Collection History
Acquisition
The collection was deposited at the Library in 1998. Title and custody of the collection were formally transferred to Princeton in 2002. Small transfers of more recent records occur annually.
Archival Appraisal Information
Since 1921, the Council has archived materials relating to its organization, study groups, meetings, and special events. The Council Library and Archives staff reviews records to discard records not conforming to its general retention policy. Items deemed private or inappropriate for transfer are retained by the Council. Further appraisal has been conducted in accordance with Mudd Manuscript Library guidelines.
Processing Information
This collection was processed by Mudd Library Staff including Jennifer Cole, Dan Santamaria, Kristine Marconi, Joanna Peery Polyn, Jennifer Walele, Stasia Karel, Helene Van Rossum, and Princeton University student workers from 2003-2006. Finding aid written by Jennifer Cole in 2006.
Sponsorship
These papers were processed with the generous support of Francis J. Carey, Frank Carlucci, C.W. Carson, Jr., Mr. and Mrs. Edward Cox, William J. Crowe, Russell DaSilva, Charles Ganoe, R. Scott Greathead, Dr. Roger Kanet, Melanie Kirkpatrick, Linda and Morton Janklow, Michael S. Mathews, Bradford Mills, Edward Morse, Joseph Nye, Dr. Gerald Pollack, Harold Saunders, Anne-Marie Slaughter, John Treat, and Ezra Zilkha, as well as the John Foster and Janet Avery Dulles Fund.
Accruals
Accruals are expected from the Council on Foreign Relations on an annual basis.
Bibliography
Information in the Organizational History section, as well as descriptions of the Council’s departments and functions, was gathered from material within the Council’s records (notably historical information from the Administration Series and Annual Reports from the Publications Series), as well as the Council on Foreign Relations’ website, http://www.cfr.org/. Of special interest are the annual reports, located at http://www.cfr.org/about/annual_report/ and Peter Grose’s Continuing the Inquiry: The Council on Foreign Relations from 1921-1996, located at http://www.cfr.org/about/history/cfr/.
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Topics
Subject Terms
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Campbell, John
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Council on Foreign Relations
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Diebold, William
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Economic history
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Foreign economic relations
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Foreign relations
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Frye, Alton
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Gelb, Leslie H.
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History
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International relations
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Keller, Kenneth H.
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Lord, Winston
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Manning, Bayless
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Maxwell, Kenneth, 1941-
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Murphy, Richard W. (Richard William), 1929-
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Nonprofit organizations
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Osmer-McQuade, Margaret
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Peterson, Peter G.
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Records and correspondence
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Research institutes
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Siegman, Henry
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Swing, John Temple
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Tarnoff, Peter
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United States
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Whittaker, Jennifer
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World politics
Genre Terms
Other Finding Aids
A finding aid for Series 3, the Council on Foreign Relations Studies Department, 1918-2004, is available online: Council on Foreign Relations Studies Department Finding Aid.
A finding aid for Series 4, the Council on Foreign Relations Meetings Records, 1920-1995, is available online: Council on Foreign Relations Meetings Records Finding Aid .
Digital sound recordings of some Council meetings are available online. The digital recordings of meeting are described in a separate finding aid: Council on Foreign Relations Digital Sound Recordings Finding Aid .
Indices to Study Group records, Meeting records, and Conference records, spanning circa 1920 through 1973 are available in hardcopy. The Conference index has been integrated into the contents list for Series 5: Conferences, and the Study Group Index (Records of Groups) and Meetings index have been integrated into the aforementioned Studies Department and Meetings Records finding aids.
A list of Council publications held by the Mudd Manuscript Library but not included in this collection (such as Foreign Affairs,
Documents on American Foreign Relations,
The Political Handbook, and The United States in World Affairs, as well as the Council's Newsletter, Special Reports, Task Force Reports, and other individual publications) is also available. Please contact Mudd Manuscript Library for further information.
Related Material
Other material at the Mudd Manuscript Library related to the Council on Foreign Relations includes the records of the first three editors of Foreign Affairs: Archibald Cary Coolidge, (within the Hamilton Fish Armstrong Papers), Hamilton Fish Armstrong, and William P. Bundy. The Library also holds the papers of members of the Council such as John Foster Dulles, Allen W. Dulles, Arthur Bullard, George F. Kennan, George W. Ball, Adlai E. Stevenson, David A. Morse, and Frank W. Notestein.
Additionally, Mudd Manuscript Library has an incomplete set of the journal Foreign Affairs and other Council serial publications such as Documents on American Foreign Relations,
The Political Handbook, and The United States in World Affairs, as well as the Council's Newsletter, Special Reports, Task Force Reports, and other individual publications. Please contact Mudd Manuscript Library for further information and availability.
Alternative Form Available
Portions of the Council’s records from 1921-1951, include Conferences, Study Groups, Meetings, and the War and Peace Project, are also available on microfiche at Princeton’s Firestone Library [MICROFICHE 1637]. The creation of this microfiche was conducted between the University Publications of America and the Council on Foreign Relations and did not involve Princeton University. A guide is available, see Film B Uncataloged box for microfiche 1637 at Firestone Microforms Services (Film). Additionally, many of the Council’s reports are available in published form. Please consult the Princeton University Library online catalog for available published reports.
Portions of the Council’s audio records described in the Sound Recordings Series have been digitized as part on an ongoing project. Contact the library for additional details.
Princeton University Library Finding Aids 
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