Contents and Arrangement Expanded View
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Collection Overview

Creator:
Council on foreign relations
Title:
Council on Foreign Relations Meetings Records
Repository:
Public Policy Papers
Permanent URL:
http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/h415p9557
Dates:
1920-1995
Size:
135 boxes
Storage Note:
  • Mudd Manuscript Library (scamudd): Boxes 425, 51, 558
Language:
English

Abstract

The Council on Foreign Relations is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research and national membership organization dedicated to promoting improved understanding of international affairs and to contributing ideas to United States foreign policy. The Meetings Series documents the work of the Council's Meetings Department, including administrative issues, such as correspondence with speakers, attendance records, and the non-attribution rule, as well as the records of the actual meetings themselves.

Collection Description & Creator Information

Scope and Contents

The Meetings Series documents the work of the Council's Meetings Department, including administrative issues such as correspondence with speakers, attendance records, and the non-attribution rule, as well as the records of the actual meetings themselves. Early meeting records often include a transcript of the speaker's remarks at the meeting; this process was discontinued after 1964 as a cost saving measure. Beginning in 1978, the Council began to tape record selected meetings to serve as a substitute for the transcript, allowing Council members who could not attend certain meetings to listen to the tape recordings at the Pratt House. Beginning in 1991, all meetings were taped. At the end of each fiscal year, the president, director of meetings and director of programs would choose a sampling of the tapes to retain in the Council's archive. See Series 13: Sound Recordings, for the extant taped meetings.

Arrangement

Organized into the following subseries:

Collection Creator Biography:

Council on foreign relations

The Council on Foreign Relations (the Council) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research and national membership organization dedicated to promoting improved understanding of international affairs and to contributing ideas to United States foreign policy. The Council has had a large 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, so as to contribute to the national dialogue on foreign policy.

The Studies Department spearheads the Council on Foreign Relation's efforts to promote informed discussion on issues shaping the international agenda and defines the Council's function as a foreign policy research organization. This "think tank" has played a vital role in the Council since its incorporation in the 1920s. The department includes a large number of scholars and research associates who engage each other, Council members, and non-affiliated individuals in research on topics and regions related to United States foreign policy, which historically have included topics such as international trade, arms control, and economic development, and regions such as the former Soviet Union, the Middle East, and Latin America, to name a few. The Studies program produces articles, books, policy reports and papers to disseminate the research undertaken by staff and members.

For a fuller history on the Council on Foreign Relations, see the finding aid for the Council on Foreign Relations Records located at http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/gb19f5814 , 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.

Accruals

Accruals are expected from the Council on Foreign Relations on an annual basis.

Appraisal

Appraisal information was not recorded at time of accessioning.

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.

Access & Use

Conditions Governing Access

All Council on Foreign Relations records are closed for 25 years after the date of their creation.

Conditions Governing Use

Single copies may be made for research purposes. To cite or publish quotations that fall within Fair Use, as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission is required. For instances beyond Fair Use, it is the responsibility of the researcher to determine whether any permissions related to copyright, privacy, publicity, or any other rights are necessary for their intended use of the Library's materials, and to obtain all required permissions from any existing rights holders, if they have not already done so. Princeton University Library's Special Collections does not charge any permission or use fees for the publication of images of materials from our collections, nor does it require researchers to obtain its permission for said use. The department does request that its collections be properly cited and images credited. More detailed information can be found on the Copyright, Credit and Citations Guidelines page on our website. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us through the Ask Us! form.

Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

For preservation reasons, original analog and digital media may not be read or played back in the reading room. Users may visually inspect physical media but may not remove it from its enclosure. All analog audiovisual media must be digitized to preservation-quality standards prior to use. Audiovisual digitization requests are processed by an approved third-party vendor. Please note, the transfer time required can be as little as several weeks to as long as several months and there may be financial costs associated with the process. Requests should be directed through the Ask Us Form.

The Mudd Manuscript Library is currently undertaking a project to digitize portions of the reel-to-reel recordings of Council Meetings. As digital versions become available, they will be linked to the meetings in the list below.

Credit this material:

Council on Foreign Relations Meetings Records; Public Policy Papers, Department of Special Collections, Princeton University Library

Permanent URL:
http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/h415p9557
Location:
Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library
65 Olden Street
Princeton, NJ 08540, USA
(609) 258-6345
Storage Note:
  • Mudd Manuscript Library (scamudd): Boxes 425, 51, 558

Find More

Existence and Location of Copies

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.

A paper version of the "Records of Meetings Index," covering the years 1921-1973, is available at the Mudd Manuscript Library.

Related Materials

The Council on Foreign Relations Records Series 13: Sound Recordings contains audio versions of select meetings. In addition, please see the Council on Foreign Relations's website located at http://www.cfr.org for online audio recordings of more recent on-the-record meetings.

Researchers interested in the Council on Foreign Relations may also wish to consult the interview transcripts from Columbia University's Council on Foreign Relations Visual Oral History Project.

Other Finding Aids

The Council on Foreign Relations Meetings Records form part of the The Council on Foreign Relations Records (collection MC104). A Finding Aid for the entire collection is available online: Council on Foreign Relations Records Finding Aid .

The Studies Department Records of the Council on Foreign Relations are described in a separate finding aid: Council on Foreign Relations Studies Department 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.

Bibliography

Information in the Organizational History section 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, www.cfr.org. Of special interest are the annual reports, located at http://www.cfr.org/about/annual_report/ and Peter Grouse's Continuing the Inquiry: The Council on Foreign Relations from 1921-1996, located at http://www.cfr.org/about/history/cfr/.

Subject Terms:
Economic history -- 20th century.
International relations -- 20th century.
Nonprofit organizations -- United States -- 20th century -- Records and correspondence.
Research institutes -- United States -- History -- 20th century.
World politics -- 20th century.
Genre Terms:
Correspondence
Minutes.
Proceedings.
Sound recordings.
Names:
Council on foreign relations
Places:
United States -- Foreign economic relations.
United States -- Foreign relations -- 20th century.