Council on Foreign Relations

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The Council on Foreign Relations

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American foreign policy think tank based in New York City. It describes itself as being "dedicated to increasing America's understanding of the world and contributing ideas to U.S. foreign policy," and accomplishes this mainly by promoting constructive, closed debates and discussions, clarifying world issues through research and analysis, and publishing the noted journal Foreign Affairs and related content online.

History

The Council on Foreign Relations, as well as the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London, came about as a result of a meeting on May 30, 1919 at the Hotel Majestic in Paris, France. Some of the fifty participants were Edward M. House, Harold Temperley, Lionel Curtis, Lord Eustace Percy, Herbert Hoover, Christian Herter, plus American academic historians James Thomson Shotwell of Columbia University, Archibald Coolidge of Harvard and Charles Seymour of Yale.

Formally established in 1921, it is one of the most powerful private organizations with influence on U.S. foreign policy. It has about 4,000 members, including former national security officers, professors, former CIA members, elected politicians, and media figures. The council is not a formal institution within U.S. policy making.

Board of Directors and Membership

OFFICE	NAME
Chairman	Peter G. Peterson
Vice Chairman	Carla A. Hills
Vice Chairman	Robert E. Rubin
President	Richard N. Haass
Board Member	Peter Ackerman
Board Member	Fouad Ajami
Board Member	Madeleine K. Albright
Board Member	Charlene Barshefsky
Board Member	Jeffrey Bewkes
Board Member	Henry S. Bienen
Board Member	Stephen W. Bosworth
Board Member	Tom Brokaw
Board Member	Lee Cullum
Board Member	Kenneth M. Duberstein
Board Member	Martin S. Feldstein
Board Member	Richard N. Foster
Board Member	Helene D. Gayle
Board Member	Maurice R. Greenberg
Board Member	Richard C. Holbrooke
Board Member	Karen Elliott House
Board Member	Joseph S. Nye, Jr.
Board Member	Ronald L. Olson
Board Member	Thomas R. Pickering
Board Member	David M. Rubenstein
Board Member	Richard E. Salomon
Board Member	Anne-Marie Slaughter
Board Member	Joan E. Spero
Board Member	Laura D'Andrea Tyson
Board Member	Vin Weber
Board Member	Fareed Zakaria

The Board of Directors of the Council on Foreign Relations is composed of thirty-one members.

There are two types of membership - term membership (which lasts for 5 years and is available to those between 30 and 36) and regular membership. Only US citizens (native born or naturalised) and permanent residents who have applied for U.S. citizenship are eligible for membership. Proposed members must be nominated by current members.

See also

• Bilderberg Group
• Brookings Institution
• Rand Corporation
• Trilateral Commission
• PNAC

Further reading

• Pierre de Villemarest, Facts & Chronicles Denied to the Public, Vol. 1, Aquilion, 2004, ISBN 1904997007
• Peter Grose, Continuing the Inquiry: The Council on Foreign Relations from 1921 to 1996 (New York, N.Y.: Council on Foreign Relations: 1996) ISBN 0876091923
• Michael Wala, The Council on Foreign Relations and American Foreign Policy in the Early Cold War (Providence, R.I.: Berghann Books: 1994). ISBN 157181003X
• Robert D. Schulzinger, The Wise Men of Foreign Affairs (New York: Columbia University Press, 1984). ISBN 0231055285
• James Perloff, The Shadows of Power: The Council on Foreign Relations and the American Decline, Western Islands, 1988, ISBN 0882791346

External links

• [Council on Foreign Relations] - Official website
• [Council on Foreign Relations does the Middle East]
• [Focus on the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)]
• [Building a North American Community] - CFR document promoting a North American Union

Criticism

• [Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)] (from the John Birch Society)
• [CFR's Plan to Integrate the U.S., Mexico and Canada]
• [Cuba and the Council on Foreign Relations]

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