Council on Foreign Relations Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Origins, 1918 to 1945=== [[File:Elihu Root, bw photo portrait, 1902.jpg|thumb|right|[[Elihu Root]] (1845–1937) served as the first honorary president (1921–1937) of the Council on Foreign Relations.<ref name=CFR/> (Pictured 1902, age 57).]] In September 1917, near the end of [[World War I]], President [[Woodrow Wilson]] established a working fellowship of about 150 [[scholar]]s 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.<ref name=Shoup>{{cite book|author1=Shoup, Lawrence H. |author2=Minter, William |title=Imperial Brain Trust: The Council on Foreign Relations and United States Foreign Policy|url=https://archive.org/details/imperialbraintru0000shou|url-access=registration|publisher=Monthly Review Press|year=1977|isbn=0-85345-393-4}}</ref>{{rp|13–14}} 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.<ref name=Grose>{{cite book|author=Grose, Peter|title=Continuing the Inquiry: The Council on Foreign Relations from 1921 to 1996|publisher=Council on Foreign Relations Press|year=2006|isbn=0876091923|url=https://archive.org/details/continuinginquir0000gros|url-access=registration}}</ref>{{rp|1–5}} [[File:DAVIS, JOHN W. HONORABLE LCCN2016857882.jpg|thumb|left|[[John W. Davis]] was the first elected CFR president<ref name=CFR/>]] 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 (Paris)|Hotel Majestic]] in Paris. They decided to create an Anglo-American organization called "The Institute of International Affairs", which would have offices in London and New York.<ref name=Shoup/>{{rp|12}}<ref name=Grose/>{{rp|5}} Ultimately, the British and American delegates formed separate institutes, with the British developing the Royal Institute of International Affairs (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 [[United States Secretary of State|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". [[File:Paul Drennan Cravath.png|thumb|First CFR vice-president, attorney [[Paul Drennan Cravath]]]] The members were proponents of Wilson's [[Internationalism (politics)|internationalism]], but they were particularly concerned about "the effect that the war and the treaty of peace might have on postwar business".<ref name=Grose/>{{rp|6–7}} The scholars from the inquiry saw an opportunity to create an organization that brought diplomats, high-level government officials, and [[Academy|academics]] together with lawyers, bankers, and [[Business magnate|industrialists]] to influence government policy. On July 29, 1921, they filed a certification of [[incorporation (association)|incorporation]], officially forming the Council on Foreign Relations.<ref name=Grose/>{{rp|8–9}} Founding members included its first honorary president, [[Elihu Root]], and first elected president, [[John W. Davis]], vice-president [[Paul D. Cravath]], and secretary–treasurer [[Edwin F. Gay]].<ref>[https://www.cfr.org/sites/default/files/pdf/cfrcentennialbook.pdf "The Council on Foreign Relations A Short History"] by George Gavrilis, Council on Foreign Relations, 2021, page 10. Retrieved November 29, 2021. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211130221730/https://www.cfr.org/sites/default/files/pdf/cfrcentennialbook.pdf |date=November 30, 2021 }}.</ref><ref name=CFR>[https://www.cfr.org/historical-roster-directors-and-officers "Directors and Officers"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211209051526/https://www.cfr.org/historical-roster-directors-and-officers |date=December 9, 2021 }} cfr.org. Retrieved November 29, 2021.</ref> [[File: Edwin Francis Gay in 1908.jpg|thumb|left|[[Harvard Business School]] economist [[Edwin Francis Gay|Edwin F. Gay]], 1908.]] In 1922, Gay, who was a former dean of the [[Harvard Business School]] and director of the [[Shipping Board]] during the war, headed the Council's efforts to begin publication of a magazine that would be the "authoritative" source on foreign policy. He gathered US$125,000 ({{Inflation|US|125000|1922|fmt=eq}}) from the wealthy members on the council, as well as by sending letters soliciting funds to "the thousand richest Americans". Using these funds, the first issue of ''[[Foreign Affairs]]'' was published in September 1922. Within a few years, it had gained a reputation as the "most authoritative American review dealing with international relations".<ref name=Shoup/>{{rp|17–18}} In the late 1930s, the [[Ford Foundation]] and [[Rockefeller Foundation]] began financially supporting the Council.<ref>{{Cite book|author=O'Brien, Thomas F.|title=The Century of U.S. Capitalism in Latin America|publisher=UNM Press|year=1999|isbn=9780826319968|pages=105–106|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EMVF8jtZy0oC&pg=PA105}}</ref> In 1938, they created various Committees on Foreign Relations, which later became governed by the American Committees on Foreign Relations in [[Washington, D.C.]], throughout the country, funded by a grant from the [[Carnegie Corporation]]. Influential men were to be chosen in a number of cities, and would then be brought together for discussions in their own communities as well as participating in an annual conference in New York. These local committees served to influence local leaders and shape public opinion to build support for the Council's policies, while also acting as "useful listening posts" through which the Council and U.S. government could "sense the mood of the country".<ref name=Shoup/>{{rp|30–31}} During the [[Second World War]], the Council achieved much greater prominence within the government and the [[State Department]], when it established the strictly confidential ''[[War and Peace Studies]]'', funded entirely by the [[Rockefeller Foundation]].<ref name=Grose/>{{rp|23}} The secrecy surrounding this group was such that the Council members who were not involved in its deliberations were completely unaware of the study group's existence.<ref name=Grose/>{{rp|26}} It was divided into four functional topic groups: economic and financial; security and [[armament]]s; territorial; and political. The security and armaments group was headed by [[Allen Welsh Dulles]], who later became a pivotal figure in the [[CIA]]'s predecessor, the [[Office of Strategic Services]] (OSS). CFR ultimately produced 682 memoranda for the State Department, which were marked [[classified information|classified]] and circulated among the appropriate government departments.<ref name=Grose/>{{rp|23–26}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page