Chatham House
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Chatham House, also known as the Royal Institute of International Affairs, is a non-profit, non-governmental organization based in London whose mission is to analyse and promote the understanding of major international issues and current affairs. It is regarded as one of the world's leading organizations in this area. It takes its name from its premises, an 18th century house in St. James's Square designed in part by Henry Flitcroft and once occupied by the British Prime Minister William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham.
The current chairman of the council of Chatham House is Dr. DeAnne Julius and the current Director is Victor Bulmer-Thomas, though he will step down at the end of 2006.
Role
Chatham House conducts original research into a variety of regional and global issues, and describes itself as follows.
- ... a melting pot that brings together people and organisations with an interest in international affairs. We provide an independent forum in which academia, business, diplomats, the media, NGOs, politicians, policy makers and researchers can interact in an open and impartial environment.
- The widespread recognition of the Chatham House Rule as a byword for free and frank debate is a reflection of our unique and non-aligned perspective.
Although it has been alleged that Chatham House reflects a pro-establishment view of the world (due to donations from large corporations, governments and other organisations), Chatham House is nevertheless membership-based and anyone may join. The relatively high annual membership fee (approx £200) tends to put access to Chatham House out of reach of many ordinary people.
Chatham House Rule
Chatham House is the origin of the confidentiality rule known as the Chatham House Rule, which provides that members attending a seminar may discuss the results of the seminar in the outside world, but may not discuss who attended or what they said. The Chatham House Rule evolved to facilitate frank and honest discussion on controversial or unpopular issues by speakers who may not have otherwise had the appropriate forum to speak freely. However, most Chatham House meetings are held 'on the record', and not under the Chatham House Rule.
History
The Royal Institute of International Affairs was founded in 1920 as the Institute of International Affairs following a meeting at the previous year's Paris Peace Conference. The first chairman was Robert Cecil, while Lionel Curtis served as honorary secretary. Arnold J. Toynbee later became director. The Council on Foreign Relations, its American sister institute, was established the following year. Chatham House, The RIIA's well-known headquarters at 10 St. James's Square, London, was gifted to the institute in 1923, having previously been the home of three British Prime Ministers: Pitt the Elder, Edward Stanley and William Gladstone.
The name of the building grew to be so synonymous with the Institute that it was officially rebranded as "Chatham House" in September 2004. However, "Royal Institute of International Affairs" continues to be used interchangeably with "Chatham House".
The Chatham House building is located just a few metres from the former Libyan embassy building, and many long term staff members witnessed the 1984 Libyan Embassy Siege.
On July 18, 2005, Chatham House released a paper on "Security, Terrorism and the UK" affirming that "[a] key problem for the UK in preventing terrorism in Britain is the government’s position as ‘pillion passenger’ to the United States' war on terror." [link]
See also
External links
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