Foreign Affairs
Encyclopedia
Foreign Affairs is an American magazine
and website
on international relations
and U.S. foreign policy published since 1922 by the Council on Foreign Relations
(CFR) six times annually. The CFR is a private-sector group established in New York City in 1921, with the mission of promoting understanding of foreign policy and America’s role in the world.
The Council named Professor Archibald Cary Coolidge
of Harvard University
as the journal's first editor
. As Coolidge was unwilling to move from Boston
to New York, Hamilton Fish Armstrong
a Princeton
alumnus and a European correspondent of the New York Evening Post (now known as the New York Post) was appointed as a co-editor and was sent to work in New York to handle the mechanical work of publishing the journal. Armstrong chose the light blue color to be the cover of the journal and had his two sisters, Margeret and Helen, design the logo (the man on the horse on the upper left hand side of each cover - now in the middle) and the lettering respectively.
The journal Foreign Affairs continued the Journal of International Relations (which ran from 1910 to 1922), which in turn continued the Journal of Race Development
(which ran from 1911 to 1919) (Weber).
under Theodore Roosevelt
's Administration Elihu Root
. In the initial article Root wrote that the United States had become a World power
and as such that the general population needed to be better informed about international matters. John Foster Dulles
, then a lawyer from New York who would later become Secretary of State
under Dwight D. Eisenhower
, also wrote an article in the initial issue of Foreign Affairs regarding the difficulties surrounding war reparations placed on Germany after the First World War.
Foreign Affairs published a series of articles in 1925 by prominent African American
intellectual W. E. B. Du Bois. DuBois, a personal friend of Armstrong, wrote mainly about race issues and imperialism. Although in the early days of publication the journal did not have many female authors, in the late 1930s American journalist for Time Magazine Dorothy Thompson
would contribute articles.
The journal rose to its greatest prominence after World War II
when foreign relations
became central to United States politics, and the United States became a powerful actor on the global scene. Several extremely important articles were published in Foreign Affairs, including the reworking of George F. Kennan
's "Long Telegram", which first publicized the doctrine of containment
that would form the basis of American Cold War
policy.
Louis Halle, a member of the U.S. Policy Planning Staff, also wrote an influential article in “Foreign Affairs” in 1950. His article, “On a Certain Impatience with Latin America”, created the anticommunist intellectual framework that justified U.S. policy towards Latin America in the Cold War
era. Halle’s article described that the encouragement of democracy in postwar Latin America had ended. He demonstrated disgust over Latin America’s inability to assume autonomy and to become democratic. His rationalization towards Latin America was later used to justify U.S. efforts to overthrow the left-leaning Guatemalan government.
Eleven U.S. Secretaries of State have written essays in Foreign Affairs.
, the journal's readership has grown significantly.
It was in Foreign Affairs that Samuel P. Huntington
published his influential "Clash of Civilizations
" article.
In the November/December 2003 issue of Foreign Affairs, Kenneth Maxwell
wrote a review of Peter Kornbluh
's book The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability, which gave rise to a controversy about Henry Kissinger
's relationship to the regime of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet
and to Operation Condor
. Maxwell claims that key Council on Foreign Relations
members, acting at Kissinger's behest, put pressure on Foreign Affairs editor, James Hoge, to give the last word in a subsequent exchange about the review to William D. Rogers
, a close associate of Kissinger, rather than to Maxwell; this went against established Foreign Affairs policy.
Then-opposition leader and former Ukrainian
Prime Minister
Yulia Tymoshenko
caused a stir by publishing an article entitled "Containing Russia" in the May–June 2007 issue of Foreign Affairs accusing Russia under Vladimir Putin
of expansionism and urging the rest of Europe to stand against him. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov wrote an article in response, but he withdrew it, citing "censorship" from the Foreign Affairs editorial board. Tymoshenko's party went on to win the 2007 elections and she became Prime Minister once again.
The immediate past managing editor of Foreign Affairs was Fareed Zakaria
, now the editor of Newsweek International. The current managing editor is Gideon Rose
, an expert on international conflict and the Middle East.
In 2009, Foreign Affairs launched its new Web site, ForeignAffairs.com, which offers the content of the magazine plus numerous online-only features.
, a historian and World War I
veteran, to run the section. Langer initially had full control over the section and did the reviews entirely by himself. A month before the reviews were due the office in New York would ship approximately one hundred books to Langer to be reviewed and within approximately two weeks he would return the reviews for the section.
By the late 1930s, the review section had been broken down into several subsections. In the magazine's current incarnation (as of April 2006), a few longer reviews, usually written by well-known figures in the field of foreign policy, begin the section, followed by a subsection titled "Recent Books on International Relations" with shorter half-page-long reviews written by eminent academics. The section's final page shows the top fifteen best selling books on U.S. foreign policy and international affairs according to Barnes and Noble's online book sales.
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
and website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
on international relations
International relations
International relations is the study of relationships between countries, including the roles of states, inter-governmental organizations , international nongovernmental organizations , non-governmental organizations and multinational corporations...
and U.S. foreign policy published since 1922 by the Council on Foreign Relations
Council on Foreign Relations
The Council on Foreign Relations is an American nonprofit nonpartisan membership organization, publisher, and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs...
(CFR) six times annually. The CFR is a private-sector group established in New York City in 1921, with the mission of promoting understanding of foreign policy and America’s role in the world.
History
The Council on Foreign Relations was originally composed of 75 members of mainly academic and professional backgrounds. In its first year, the Council sought discourse mainly in meetings at its headquarters in New York City. However, the members of the Council wished to seek a wider audience, and, as a result, began publishing Foreign Affairs in 1922.The Council named Professor Archibald Cary Coolidge
Archibald Cary Coolidge
Archibald Cary Coolidge was an American educator. He was a Professor of History at Harvard College from 1908 and the first Director of the Harvard University Library from 1910 until his death...
of Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
as the journal's first editor
Editing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
. As Coolidge was unwilling to move from Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
to New York, Hamilton Fish Armstrong
Hamilton Fish Armstrong
Hamilton Fish Armstrong was a United States diplomat and editor.-Biography:He attended Princeton University, and started his journalistic activity at the New Republic. During the First World War, he was a military attaché in Serbia...
a Princeton
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
alumnus and a European correspondent of the New York Evening Post (now known as the New York Post) was appointed as a co-editor and was sent to work in New York to handle the mechanical work of publishing the journal. Armstrong chose the light blue color to be the cover of the journal and had his two sisters, Margeret and Helen, design the logo (the man on the horse on the upper left hand side of each cover - now in the middle) and the lettering respectively.
The journal Foreign Affairs continued the Journal of International Relations (which ran from 1910 to 1922), which in turn continued the Journal of Race Development
Journal of Race Development
The Journal of Race Development was the first American academic journal of international relations. It was founded in 1910 by George Hubbard Blakeslee, a historian who taught at Clark University. Despite a name which now suggests a journal devoted to eugenics, the journal, in fact, dealt with a...
(which ran from 1911 to 1919) (Weber).
Pre–World War II
The lead article in the first issue of Foreign Affairs was written by former Secretary of StateUnited States Secretary of State
The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence...
under Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
's Administration Elihu Root
Elihu Root
Elihu Root was an American lawyer and statesman and the 1912 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He was the prototype of the 20th century "wise man", who shuttled between high-level government positions in Washington, D.C...
. In the initial article Root wrote that the United States had become a World power
World Power
World Power is the debut album of German Eurodance project Snap!, released in 1990 on Bookmark/Ariola Records. The album received generally positive reviews from music critics, as the project's musical style and its vocalists, Turbo B and Penny "Tiny" Ford, were well-received...
and as such that the general population needed to be better informed about international matters. John Foster Dulles
John Foster Dulles
John Foster Dulles served as U.S. Secretary of State under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1959. He was a significant figure in the early Cold War era, advocating an aggressive stance against communism throughout the world...
, then a lawyer from New York who would later become Secretary of State
United States Secretary of State
The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence...
under Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
, also wrote an article in the initial issue of Foreign Affairs regarding the difficulties surrounding war reparations placed on Germany after the First World War.
Foreign Affairs published a series of articles in 1925 by prominent African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
intellectual W. E. B. Du Bois. DuBois, a personal friend of Armstrong, wrote mainly about race issues and imperialism. Although in the early days of publication the journal did not have many female authors, in the late 1930s American journalist for Time Magazine Dorothy Thompson
Dorothy Thompson
Dorothy Thompson was an American journalist and radio broadcaster, who in 1939 was recognized by Time magazine as the second most influential women in America next to Eleanor Roosevelt...
would contribute articles.
Cold War Era
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
when foreign relations
Foreign policy
A country's foreign policy, also called the foreign relations policy, consists of self-interest strategies chosen by the state to safeguard its national interests and to achieve its goals within international relations milieu. The approaches are strategically employed to interact with other countries...
became central to United States politics, and the United States became a powerful actor on the global scene. Several extremely important articles were published in Foreign Affairs, including the reworking of George F. Kennan
George F. Kennan
George Frost Kennan was an American adviser, diplomat, political scientist and historian, best known as "the father of containment" and as a key figure in the emergence of the Cold War...
's "Long Telegram", which first publicized the doctrine of containment
Containment
Containment was a United States policy using military, economic, and diplomatic strategies to stall the spread of communism, enhance America’s security and influence abroad, and prevent a "domino effect". A component of the Cold War, this policy was a response to a series of moves by the Soviet...
that would form the basis of American Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
policy.
Louis Halle, a member of the U.S. Policy Planning Staff, also wrote an influential article in “Foreign Affairs” in 1950. His article, “On a Certain Impatience with Latin America”, created the anticommunist intellectual framework that justified U.S. policy towards Latin America in the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
era. Halle’s article described that the encouragement of democracy in postwar Latin America had ended. He demonstrated disgust over Latin America’s inability to assume autonomy and to become democratic. His rationalization towards Latin America was later used to justify U.S. efforts to overthrow the left-leaning Guatemalan government.
Eleven U.S. Secretaries of State have written essays in Foreign Affairs.
Post–Cold War Era
Since the end of the Cold War, and especially after the September 11, 2001 attacksSeptember 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
, the journal's readership has grown significantly.
It was in Foreign Affairs that Samuel P. Huntington
Samuel P. Huntington
Samuel Phillips Huntington was an influential American political scientist who wrote highly-regarded books in a half-dozen sub-fields of political science, starting in 1957...
published his influential "Clash of Civilizations
Clash of Civilizations
The Clash of Civilizations is a theory, proposed by political scientist Samuel P. Huntington, that people's cultural and religious identities will be the primary source of conflict in the post-Cold War world....
" article.
In the November/December 2003 issue of Foreign Affairs, Kenneth Maxwell
Kenneth Maxwell
Kenneth Robert Maxwell is a British historian who specializes in Iberia and Latin America. A longtime member of the Council on Foreign Relations, for fifteen years he headed its Latin America Studies Program...
wrote a review of Peter Kornbluh
Peter Kornbluh
Peter Kornbluh is director of the National Security Archive's Chile Documentation Project and of the Cuba Documentation Project.He played a large role in the campaign to declassify government documents, via the FOIA, relating to the history of the U.S. Government's support for the Pinochet...
's book The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability, which gave rise to a controversy about Henry Kissinger
Henry Kissinger
Heinz Alfred "Henry" Kissinger is a German-born American academic, political scientist, diplomat, and businessman. He is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and...
's relationship to the regime of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet
Augusto Pinochet
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, more commonly known as Augusto Pinochet , was a Chilean army general and dictator who assumed power in a coup d'état on 11 September 1973...
and to Operation Condor
Operation Condor
Operation Condor , was a campaign of political repression involving assassination and intelligence operations officially implemented in 1975 by the right-wing dictatorships of the Southern Cone of South America...
. Maxwell claims that key Council on Foreign Relations
Council on Foreign Relations
The Council on Foreign Relations is an American nonprofit nonpartisan membership organization, publisher, and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs...
members, acting at Kissinger's behest, put pressure on Foreign Affairs editor, James Hoge, to give the last word in a subsequent exchange about the review to William D. Rogers
William D. Rogers
William Dill Rogers was an American lawyer. He served as U.S...
, a close associate of Kissinger, rather than to Maxwell; this went against established Foreign Affairs policy.
Then-opposition leader and former Ukrainian
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Ukraine
The Prime Minister of Ukraine is Ukraine's head of government presiding over the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, which is the highest body of the executive branch of the Ukrainian government....
Yulia Tymoshenko
Yulia Tymoshenko
Yulia Volodymyrivna Tymoshenko , née Grigyan , born 27 November 1960, is a Ukrainian politician. She was the Prime Minister of Ukraine from 24 January to 8 September 2005, and again from 18 December 2007 to 4 March 2010. She placed third in Forbes Magazine's List of The World's 100 Most Powerful...
caused a stir by publishing an article entitled "Containing Russia" in the May–June 2007 issue of Foreign Affairs accusing Russia under Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
of expansionism and urging the rest of Europe to stand against him. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov wrote an article in response, but he withdrew it, citing "censorship" from the Foreign Affairs editorial board. Tymoshenko's party went on to win the 2007 elections and she became Prime Minister once again.
The immediate past managing editor of Foreign Affairs was Fareed Zakaria
Fareed Zakaria
Fareed Rafiq Zakaria is an Indian-American journalist and author. From 2000 to 2010, he was a columnist for Newsweek and editor of Newsweek International. In 2010 he became Editor-At-Large of Time magazine...
, now the editor of Newsweek International. The current managing editor is Gideon Rose
Gideon Rose
Gideon Rose is the Editor of Foreign Affairs, and served on the National Security Council during the Clinton Administration. He has been educated at the Horace Mann School, Yale University, where he was a member of Scroll and Key Society, and Harvard University.In 1985, Rose was appointed assistant...
, an expert on international conflict and the Middle East.
In 2009, Foreign Affairs launched its new Web site, ForeignAffairs.com, which offers the content of the magazine plus numerous online-only features.
Book reviews
Since its inception, Foreign Affairs has had a fairly long book review section. The section originated after Coolidge asked his colleague at Harvard, William L. LangerWilliam L. Langer
William Leonard Langer was the chair of the history department at Harvard University and the World War II volunteer head of the Research and Analysis branch of the Office of Strategic Services...
, a historian and World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
veteran, to run the section. Langer initially had full control over the section and did the reviews entirely by himself. A month before the reviews were due the office in New York would ship approximately one hundred books to Langer to be reviewed and within approximately two weeks he would return the reviews for the section.
By the late 1930s, the review section had been broken down into several subsections. In the magazine's current incarnation (as of April 2006), a few longer reviews, usually written by well-known figures in the field of foreign policy, begin the section, followed by a subsection titled "Recent Books on International Relations" with shorter half-page-long reviews written by eminent academics. The section's final page shows the top fifteen best selling books on U.S. foreign policy and international affairs according to Barnes and Noble's online book sales.