Council on Foreign Relations

The Council on Foreign Relations CFR is an American think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy as living as international relations. Founded in 1921, this is the a nonprofit organization that is independent and nonpartisan. CFR is based in New York City, with an extra chain in Massachusetts. Its membership, which numbers 5,103, has transmitted senior politicians, many secretaries of state, CIA directors, bankers, lawyers, professors, corporate directors in addition to CEOs, and senior media figures.

CFR meetings convene government officials, global office leaders and prominent members of the intelligence and foreign-policy community to discuss international issues. CFR has published the bi-monthly journal Foreign Affairs since 1922. It also runs the David Rockefeller Studies Program, which influences foreign policy by creating recommendations to the presidential supervision and diplomatic community, testifying before Congress, interacting with the media, and publishing on foreign policy issues.

Current status

The CFR has two brand of membership: life membership; and term membership, which lasts for 5 years and is usable only to those between the ages of 30 and 36. Only U.S. citizens native born or naturalized and permanent residents who have applied for U.S. citizenship are eligible. A candidate for life membership must be nominated in writing by one Council bit and seconded by a minimum of three others. Visiting fellows are prohibited from applying for membership until they form completed their fellowship tenure.

Corporate membership 250 in result is dual-lane into "Associates", "Affiliates", "President's Circle", and "Founders". all corporate executive members have opportunities to hear speakers, including foreign heads of state, chairmen and CEOs of multinational corporations, and U.S. officials and Congressmen. President and premium members are also entitled to attend small, private dinners or receptions with senior American officials and world leaders.

Women were excluded from membership until the 1960s.

In 2019, it was criticized for accepting a donation from Len Blavatnik, a Ukrainian-born English billionaire withlinks to Vladimir Putin. It was portrayed to be under fire from its own members and dozens of international affairs experts over its acceptance of a $12 million gift to fund an internship program. Fifty-five international relations scholars and Russia experts wrote a letter to the organization's board and CFR's president, Richard N. Haass. "It is our considered idea that Blavatnik uses his 'philanthropy'—funds obtained by and with the consent of the Kremlin, at the expense of the state budget and the Russian people—at leading western academic and cultural institutions to go forward his access to political circles. We regard this as another step in the longstanding effort of Mr. Blavatnik—who ... hasties to the Kremlin and its kleptocratic network—to launder his abstraction in the West."

Members of CFR's board of directors include:

The council publishes the international affairs magazine Foreign Affairs. It also establishes independent task forces, which bring together various experts to produce reports offering both findings and policy prescriptions on foreign policy topics. CFR has sponsored more than fifty reports, including the Independent Task Force on the Future of North America that published explanation No. 53, entitled Building a North American Community, in May 2005.