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 earliest origin of the Council stemmed from a working fellowship of about 150 scholars, called "The Inquiry", tasked to brief President Woodrow Wilson about options for the postwar world following Germany's defeat. Through 1917–1918, this group, including Wilson's closest adviser and long-time friend "Colonel" Edward M. House, as well as Walter Lippmann, gathered at 155th Street and Broadway at the Harold Pratt House in New York City, to assemble a strategy for the postwar world. 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 negotiations. Their reports formed the basis for the Fourteen Points, which outlined Wilson's strategy for peace after war's end.

Members of the group accompanied Wilson at the Paris Peace Conference, 1919. 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. Some of the fifty participants were Edward M. House, Harold Temperley, Lionel Curtis, Lord Eustace Percy, Herbert Hoover, Christian Herter, Paul Warburg, and 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 CFR is not a formal institution within U.S. policy making.

In 1944, Harold I. Pratt's widow donated the family's four-storey mansion on the corner of 68th Street and Park Avenue and this became the CFR's new headquarters, Harold Pratt House, where it has remained to the present.

Fostering elite consent for the invasion of Iraq

Laurence Shoup identified connections between the Council on Foreign relations and arguments supporting the invasion of Iraq:

"The "Next Stop Baghdad?" article by Kenneth M. Pollack appeared in the March/April 2002 issue of Foreign Affairs. At the time of writing the article Pollack was the Council on Foreign Relations' Olin Senior Fellow and Director of National Security Studies. An expanded version of the "Next Stop Baghdad?" article was published in October 2002 by Random House as a Council on Foreign Relations book entitled "The Threatening Storm". A review of the book in the November/December issue of Foreign Affairs called it "...exceptionally thoughtful. If any book can shape the current thinking on Iraq, this one will assuredly be it." Pollack's blunt conclusion in both the article and book is, "The United States should invade Iraq, eliminate the present regime, and pave the way for a successor...".

In a December 2002 interview, Council member Rachel Bronson, who is the CFR's Director of Middle East Studies and an Olin Senior Fellow, made the following pro-war comments:

"...in my mind, in a war of our choosing, we should choose the most advantageous period for fighting and the summer is not that. I am more optimistic now than I was earlier because the inspectors got in early. That completely changes the calculus.... The chances for a military action are probably about 75 percent. There's about a ten percent chance of a coup, and a fifteen percent chance that Washington still doesn't get the diplomacy right and an attack gets pushed off to the fall".

"Q. That's been your view all along? Not only that war is inevitable, but that we should launch it?"

"A. Yes. It is strategically sound and morally just. The Middle East is a strategic region for us. It is where oil does play into all this.... It is about stability in the region. Saddam has been very destabilizing.... Strategically trying to get rid of one of the most destabilizing forces in the Middle East is a good idea. But the moral aspect doesn't get as much play as it should.... When Secretary Albright said it was not us causing the suffering of the Iraqi people, but Saddam, technically she was right. And everyone in the region agreed; but what they couldn't understand was why we pursued a policy knowing that Saddam would use it to his advantage to torture his people. We were complicit. We have to get rid of this monster. He is our Frankenstein.".

Another prominent CFR member who spoke out in favour of the war was Lawrence J. Korb. Korb made the following comments in an interview.

"Q. Everyone remembers the allied land invasion in 1991 to liberate Kuwait that lasted three days. What kind of military action will we have this time? Will it also be a quick one?

"A. I think if there is a military action and it occurs during the winter and you get support from countries in the region it will be over in less than a month. What you will have this time is simultaneous air and ground operations....

"Q. Can the United States afford this? How much will this cost?

"A. If you talk about cost, you have the incremental cost of the operation. We have a $400 billion annual defense budget. You won't have to buy much new equipment. For a one month war, counting the buildup underway, you are talking about an incremental cost of about $50 billion.... The Persian Gulf campaign in today's dollars cost $80 billion.

"Q. That was essentially paid by the Saudis, right?

"A. The last war was actually paid for by the Saudis, the Germans, and the Japanese. We actually made a profit on that war.... What we did after the war was over was make the books come out even... we actually collected more than we actually spent".

2002 Planning for Iraq's Oil

According to Laurence H. Shoup:

"In mid-2002 the CFR, together with the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy of Rice University, established a 23 member planning group to formulate the U.S. war aims and the political and economic rules for a post-war Iraq. One of the project directors was Rachel Bronson and members included Kenneth Pollack, as well as corporate leaders (Boeing, PFC Energy), university professors (Princeton, Yale, Vermont) a Naval War College professor, a Senate on Foreign Relations staffer, and representatives from the Cambridge Energy Research Associates, the Brookings Institution, the James Baker III Institute for Public Policy, and nine staffers from the CFR. A report, Guiding Principles for U.S. Post -Conflict Policy in Iraq, was produced by the Council in late 2002".

"The body of the report has a section called "The Lure of Oil: Realities and Constraints," as well as an addendum called "Oil and Iraq: Opportunities and Challenges," which is almost as long as all of the rest of the report text. In the sections focusing on oil, lip service is given to Iraq's control of its own oil, while, in fact, the report argues that national control of Iraqi oil must be scrapped and an "economy based on free market principles" and a "level playing field for all international players to participate" be created. The report goes on to point out: "Paragraph 30 of UNSCR 1284 already authorizes the UN secretary-general to investigate ways that oil companies could be allowed to invest in Iraq. Thus, the legal basis for the UN to authorize and oversee foreign investment...already exists."

"The report also makes clear that the Iraqi oil contracts that French and Russian companies now have will be challenged: "Finally, the legality of post- sanctions contracts awarded in recent years will have to be evaluated. Prolonged legal conflicts over contracts could delay the development of important fields in Iraq.... It may be advisable to pre-establish a legitimate (preferably UN mandated) legal framework for vetting pre-hostility exploration agreements."

CFR and US Neoconservatives

The CFR is closely connected to the US neoconservative movement. According to Laurence Bloom "One of the key neo-con groups, Project for the New American Century, established in 1997 and identified by many as being the central organization behind the Bush administration, is heavily connected to the CFR. Fully 17 of the 25 founders of the Project for the New American Century are Council members".

War of Neccesity or War of Choice?

According to IPS:

"In August 2009 Council on Foreign Relations president Richard Haass, who served in the administrations of both George H.W. and George W. Bush, suggested in the New York Times that Afghanistan is a "war of choice" rather than a war of necessity. Haass suggested that the Obama administration consider alternate policies up to and including full withdrawal from Afghanistan, although he stopped short of endorsing them outright".

Haas introduced the concept of a distinction between the two types of war in a book published in May 2009. His book entitled War of Necessity, War of choice argues that:

"The first Iraq war, following Saddam Hussein’s invasion of neighboring Kuwait, was a war of necessity. It was limited in ambition, well executed, and carried out with unprecedented international support".

"By contrast, the second Iraq war was one of choice, the most significant discretionary war undertaken by the United States since Vietnam. Haass argues that it was unwarranted, as the United States had other viable policy options. Making matters worse was the fact that this ambitious undertaking was poorly implemented and fought with considerably more international opposition than backing".

People

Board of Directors and Membership

The table below right, showing the Board of Directors, is taken from the Council on Foreign Relations website, accessed September 10 2009.

The table below left, showing the Board of Directors, is taken from the Council on Foreign Relations website, version current as of September 2006.

OFFICE	NAME
Co-Chairman of the Board	Carla A. Hills
Co-Chairman of the Board	Robert E. Rubin
Vice Chairman	Richard E. Salomon
President	Richard N. Haass
Board of Directors
Director	Peter Ackerman
Director	Fouad Ajami
Director	Madeleine Albright
Director	Charlene Barshefsky
Director	Henry Bienen
Director	Alan Blinder
Director	Stephen W. Bosworth
Director	Tom Brokaw
Director	Sylvia Mathews Burwell
Director	Frank J. Caufield
Director	Kenneth Duberstein
Director	Richard N. Foster
Director	Stephen Friedman
Director	Ann M. Fudge
Director	Maurice R. Greenberg
Director	J. Tomilson Hill
Director	Richard Holbrooke
Director	Alberto Ibargüen
Director	Shirley Ann Jackson
Director	Henry Kravis
Director	Jami Miscik
Director	Joseph Nye
Director	Ronald L. Olson
Director	James W. Owens
Director	Colin Powell
Director	David Rubenstein
Director	George E. Rupp
Director	Anne-Marie Slaughter
Director	Joan E. Spero
Director	Vin Weber
Director	Christine Todd Whitman
Director	Fareed Zakaria

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	Henry S. Bienen
Board Member	Stephen W. Bosworth
Board Member	Tom Brokaw
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	Michael H. Moscow
Board Member	Joseph S. Nye, Jr.
Board Member	Ronald L. Olson
Board Member	Thomas R. Pickering
Board Member	Colin L. Powell
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	Christine Todd Whitman
Board Member	Fareed Zakaria

The Board of Directors of the Council on Foreign Relations is composed of thirty-six 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. A candidate for life membership must be nominated in writing by one Council member and seconded by a minimum of three others.

Corporate membership (250 in total) is divided into "Basic", "Premium" ($25,000+) and "President's Circle" ($50,000+). All corporate executive members have opportunities to hear distinguished speakers, such as overseas presidents and prime ministers, chairmen and CEOs of multinational corporations, and U.S. officials and Congressmen. President and premium members are also entitled to other benefits, including attendance at small, private dinners or receptions with senior American officials and world leaders.

Peter G. Peterson and David Rockefeller are Directors Emeriti (Chairman Emeritus and Honorary Chairman, respectively). It also has an International Advisory Board consisting of thirty-five distinguished individuals from across the world.

Board member biographies

• Coca Cola Board of Directors member James D Robinson III is reported to be a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Robinson's biography also describes him as a general partner and co-founder of RRE Ventures, president of J D Robinson Inc. (a strategic consulting firm) and non-executive chairman of the Board of Directors for Bristol-Myers Squibb (since 1976). He also serves on the Boards of Directors of Novell Inc., Visiprise and PrimeRevenue. Robinson is a member of the Business Council, an honorary trustee of the Brookings Institution and honorary chairman of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Robinson was previously Chairman and CEO of American Express Company (1977 to 1993), Co-Chairman of the Business Roundtable and Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiations (ACTPN).

• Martin S Feldstein, who sit on the Board of Directors, is also on the Board of Directors for Eli Lilly and Company. In his biography, it is reported that he is also the George F. Baker Professor of Economics at Harvard University, President and CEO of the National Bureau of Economic Research, a member of the American Philosophical Society, the Institute of Medicare of the National Academy of Sciences, and is a fellow of the British Academy, the Econometric Society and the National Association for Business Economics. Feldstein is a member of the executive committee of the Trilateral Commission and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Feldstein is also a director of American International Group and is reported to be an economic advisor to several businesses in the United States and abroad whilst also contributing regularly to The Wall Street Journal. His previous involvements include serving as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and as President Ronald Reagan's chief economic advisor. He also previously served as a fellow at Nuffield College (1964-67), was a lecturer in public finance for Oxford University and served as an assistant professor (in 1967), associate professor (in 1968) and full professor (in 1969) at Harvard University.

• Vin Weber - Chief Executive Officer of lobbying firm Clark & Weinstock is reported to serve on the Board of The Council on Foreign Relations. Vin is also Chairman of the National Endowment for Democracy, is a member of the U.S. Secretary of Defense’s Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee, serves on the U.S. Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee on Democracy Promotion, is a senior fellow at the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota (where he is co-director of the Policy Forum) and is on the Board of ITT Educational Services, The Lenox Group, and the Aspen Institute (where he serves on the Institute’s Middle East Strategy Group). He is also Policy Chairman of Romney for President Inc. (overseeing all policy development for Governor Mitt Romney).

Weber served in the United States House of Representatives from 1981 to 1993 and according to his biography,

'Vin is one of the most prominent and successful strategists in the Republican Party and enjoys strong bipartisan relationships across the Legislative and Executive branches of government. He serves as a trusted advisor to senior officials in the Administration and on Capitol Hill, and has counseled numerous Presidential campaigns'.

Weber previously co-chaired a major 'independent' task force on U.S. Policy Toward Reform in the Arab World with former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Prior to 1994, Vin was president and co-director of Empower America a public policy advocacy group alongside other co-directors Jack Kemp, Jeane Kirkpatrick and Bill Bennett. He was a member of the Appropriations Committee and an elected member of the House Republican Leadership and prior to this was campaign manager and chief Minnesota aide to Senator Rudy Boschwitz (1978-1980)

Weber is a contributing columnist to The Hill newspaper and was the publisher of The Murray County Herald from 1976-1978. He has featured in numerous national publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, the Associated Press, National Journal and The New Republic. He has also appeared on NBC’s Nightly News, The News Hour with Jim Lehrer on PBS, ABC’s This Week, the CBS Early Show, Fox News Channel, CNN and MSNBC.

Corporate Members

ABC News Alcoa American Express AIG Bank of America Bloomberg L.P. Boeing BP CA, Inc. Chevron Citigroup Coca-Cola De Beers Deutsche Bank Duke Energy ExxonMobil FedEx Ford Motor General Electric GlaxoSmithKline Google

Halliburton Heinz Hess IBM JPMorgan Chase Kohlberg Kravis Roberts Lockheed Martin MasterCard McGraw-Hill McKinsey Merck Merrill Lynch Morgan Stanley Motorola NASDAQ News Corp Nike PepsiCo Pfizer

Shell Oil Sony Corporation of America Tata Group Time Warner Total S.A. Toyota Motor North America UBS United Technologies United States Chamber of Commerce U.S. Trust Corporation Verizon Visa

Notable current council members

• Erin Burnett - CNBC News Anchor
• Timothy Shriver
• Ruth J. Simmons - President of Brown University
• Katrina vanden Heuvel - Editor of The Nation Magazine
• Ray Takeyh

Notable historical members

• Graham Allison
• Robert Orville Anderson
• Les Aspin
• Kenneth Bacon (1944-2009), Department of Defense spokesman who later served as president of Refugees International.
• J. Bowyer Bell
• W. Michael Blumenthal
• Amy Bondurant
• Harold Brown
• Zbigniew Brzezinski
• William P. Bundy
• George H. W. Bush
• Dick Cheney
• William S. Cohen
• Warren Christopher
• E. Gerald Corrigan
• William J. Crowe
• Kenneth W. Dam
• John W. Davis
• Norman Davis
• C. Douglas Dillon
• Thomas R. Donahue
• Lewis W. Douglas
• Elizabeth Drew
• Peggy Dulany
• Allen Welsh Dulles
• Dianne Feinstein
• Tom Foley
• Leslie H. Gelb
• David Gergen
• Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.
• Joachim Gfoeller
• Maurice R. Greenberg
• Alan Greenspan
• Chuck Hagel
• Najeeb E. Halaby
• W. Averell Harriman
• Theodore M. Hesburgh
• Carla A. Hills
• Stanley Hoffmann
• Richard Holbrooke
• James R. Houghton
• Charlayne Hunter-Gault
• Bobby Ray Inman
• Otto H. Kahn
• Nicholas Katzenbach
• Lane Kirkland
• Jeane Kirkpatrick
• Roger T. Moritz
• Walter Lippmann
• Winston Lord
• Charles Mathias, Jr.
• John McCain
• John J. McCloy
• William J. McDonough
• Donald F. McHenry
• George J. Mitchell
• Bill Moyers
• Peter George Peterson
• Frank Polk
• John S. Reed
• Elliot L. Richardson
• Alice M. Rivlin
• David Rockefeller
• Jay Rockefeller
• Robert Roosa
• Elihu Root
• William D. Ruckelshaus
• Brent Scowcroft
• Donna E. Shalala
• George P. Shultz
• Theodore Sorensen
• George Soros
• Adlai E. Stevenson
• Strobe Talbott
• Peter Tarnoff
• Fred Thompson
• Garrick Utley
• Cyrus Vance
• Paul Volcker
• Paul M. Warburg
• Paul Warnke
• Clifton R. Wharton, Jr.
• Owen D. Young
• Robert Zoellick

Source: The Council on Foreign Relations from 1921 to 1996:Historical Roster of Directors and Officers

List of chairmen and chairwomen

Russell Cornell Leffingwell 1946-1953 John J. McCloy 1953-1970

David Rockefeller 1970-1985 Peter George Peterson 1985-2007

Carla A. Hills (co-chairwoman) 2007- Robert E. Rubin (co-chairman) 2007-

List of presidents

John W. Davis 1921-1933 George W. Wickersham 1933-1936 Norman Davis 1936-1944 Russell Cornell Leffingwell 1944-1946 Allen Welsh Dulles 1946-1950

Henry Merritt Wriston 1951-1964 Grayson L. Kirk 1964-1971 Bayless Manning 1971-1977 Winston Lord 1977-1985 John Temple Swing 1985-1986 (Pro tempore)

Peter Tarnoff 1986-1993 Alton Frye 1993 Leslie Gelb 1993-2003 Richard N. Haass 2003-

Source: The Council on Foreign Relations from 1921 to 1996: Historical Roster of Directors and Officers

Resources, Further Reading, Links, Criticism, Notes

Powerbase Resources

• G. William Domhoff, (1967) Who rules America?, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. p.71., Council on Foreign Relations.
• G. William Domhoff, (1971) The Higher Circles: the governing class in America, Council on Foreign Relations, New York: vintage, p112-23.
• G. William Domhoff, (1979) The Powers That Be, Council on Foreign Relations, Vintage. pp. 67-9.

Further reading

• de Villemarest, Pierre, Facts & Chronicles Denied to the Public, Vol. 1, Aquilion, 2004, ISBN 1-904997-00-7
• Grose, Peter, Continuing the Inquiry: The Council on Foreign Relations from 1921 to 1996, New York, N.Y.: Council on Foreign Relations: 1996. ISBN 0-87609-192-3
• Perloff, James, The Shadows of Power: The Council on Foreign Relations and the American Decline, Western Islands, 1988. ISBN 0-88279-134-6
• Schulzinger, Robert D., The Wise Men of Foreign Affairs, New York: Columbia University Press, 1984. ISBN 0-231-05528-5
• Shoup, Laurence H., and William Minter, Imperial Brain Trust: The Council on Foreign Relations and United States Foreign Policy, New York: Authors Choice Press, Reprint, 2004.
• Laurence H. Shoup Bush, Kerry, and The Council on Foreign Relations Z Magazine, October 2004
• Laurence H. Shoup Behind the Bipartisan Drive Toward War: The Council on Foreign Relations and the U.S. Invasion of Iraq Z Magazine, March 2003
• Wala, Michael, The Council on Foreign Relations and American Foreign Policy in the Early Cold War, Providence, R.I.: Berghann Books: 1994. ISBN 1-57181-003-X

External links

• Council on Foreign Relations - Official website
• CFR Website - Continuing the Inquiry: The Council on Foreign Relations from 1921 to 1996 Council history by Peter Grose, a Council member.
• Council on Foreign Relations does the Middle East
• Focus on the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)
• Iran's Leader Relishes 2nd Chance to Make Waves- Article in The New York Times(registration required)

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
• Building a North American Community - CFR document promoting a North American union

Research

Finding Aid: Council on Foreign Relations Meetings Records, 1920-1995.