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Council on Foreign Relations Meetings Records
Notifications
Held at: Princeton University Library: Public Policy Papers [Contact Us]
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Princeton University Library: Public Policy Papers. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
The Council on Foreign Relations (the Council) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research and national membership organization dedicated to promoting improved understanding of international affairs and to contributing ideas to United States foreign policy. The Council has had a large impact in the development of twentieth century United States foreign policy. Its membership has historically been drawn from those in business, government and academia recognized as the nation's opinion leaders in international relations; membership is by invitation only. The Council's basic constituency is its members, but it also reaches out to a wider audience through its publications, Committees on Foreign Relations, Corporate Program, and media efforts, so as to contribute to the national dialogue on foreign policy.
The Studies Department spearheads the Council on Foreign Relation's efforts to promote informed discussion on issues shaping the international agenda and defines the Council's function as a foreign policy research organization. This "think tank" has played a vital role in the Council since its incorporation in the 1920s. The department includes a large number of scholars and research associates who engage each other, Council members, and non-affiliated individuals in research on topics and regions related to United States foreign policy, which historically have included topics such as international trade, arms control, and economic development, and regions such as the former Soviet Union, the Middle East, and Latin America, to name a few. The Studies program produces articles, books, policy reports and papers to disseminate the research undertaken by staff and members.
For a fuller history on the Council on Foreign Relations, see the finding aid for the Council on Foreign Relations Records located at http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/gb19f5814 , Peter Grose's Continuing the Inquiry: The Council on Foreign Relations from 1921-1996 , located at http://www.cfr.org/about/history/cfr/ and Michael Wala's The Council on Foreign Relations and American Foreign Policy in the Early Cold War (Providence: Berghahn Books, 1994).
The Meetings Series documents the work of the Council's Meetings Department, including administrative issues such as correspondence with speakers, attendance records, and the non-attribution rule, as well as the records of the actual meetings themselves. Early meeting records often include a transcript of the speaker's remarks at the meeting; this process was discontinued after 1964 as a cost saving measure. Beginning in 1978, the Council began to tape record selected meetings to serve as a substitute for the transcript, allowing Council members who could not attend certain meetings to listen to the tape recordings at the Pratt House. Beginning in 1991, all meetings were taped. At the end of each fiscal year, the president, director of meetings and director of programs would choose a sampling of the tapes to retain in the Council's archive. See Series 13: Sound Recordings, for the extant taped meetings.
Organized into the following subseries:
Information in the Organizational History section was gathered from material within the Council's records (notably historical information from the Administration Series and Annual Reports from the Publications Series), as well as the Council on Foreign Relations' website, www.cfr.org. Of special interest are the annual reports, located at http://www.cfr.org/about/annual_report/ and Peter Grouse's Continuing the Inquiry: The Council on Foreign Relations from 1921-1996, located at http://www.cfr.org/about/history/cfr/.
Accruals are expected from the Council on Foreign Relations on an annual basis.
Portions of the Council's records from 1921-1951, include Conferences, Study Groups, Meetings, and the War and Peace Project, are also available on microfiche at Princeton's Firestone Library [MICROFICHE 1637]. The creation of this microfiche was conducted between the University Publications of America and the Council on Foreign Relations and did not involve Princeton University. A guide is available, see Film B Uncataloged box for microfiche 1637 at Firestone Microforms Services (Film). Additionally, many of the Council's reports are available in published form. Please consult the Princeton University Library online catalog for available published reports.
Portions of the Council's audio records described in the Sound Recordings Series have been digitized as part on an ongoing project. Contact the library for additional details.
A paper version of the "Records of Meetings Index," covering the years 1921-1973, is available at the Mudd Manuscript Library.
The collection was deposited at the Library in 1998. Title and custody of the collection were formally transferred to Princeton in 2002. Small transfers of more recent records occur annually.
The Council on Foreign Relations Meetings Records form part of the The Council on Foreign Relations Records (collection MC104). A Finding Aid for the entire collection is available online: Council on Foreign Relations Records Finding Aid .
The Studies Department Records of the Council on Foreign Relations are described in a separate finding aid: Council on Foreign Relations Studies Department Finding Aid.
Digital sound recordings of some Council meetings are available online. The digital recordings of meeting are described in a separate finding aid: Council on Foreign Relations Digital Sound Recordings Finding Aid.
The Mudd Manuscript Library is currently undertaking a project to digitize portions of the reel-to-reel recordings of Council Meetings. As digital versions become available, they will be linked to the meetings in the list below.
This collection was processed by Mudd Library Staff including Jennifer Cole, Dan Santamaria, Kristine Marconi, Joanna Peery Polyn, Jennifer Walele, Stasia Karel, Helene Van Rossum, and Princeton University student workers from 2003-2006. Finding aid written by Jennifer Cole in 2006.
Appraisal information was not recorded at time of accessioning.
People
- French and Italian Labor Leaders
- Phot Sārasin, 1906-2000
- (Presider Unknown)
- (Unknown)
- French Civil Servants
- French Senatorial Delegation Composed of Members of the Senate's Commission on Cultural Affairs
- Salisbury, Harrison E. (Harrison Evans), 1908-1993
- Cohen, Jerome Alan
- Said, Edward W.
- Frye, A. vs. MacDonald, G.
- Savimbi, Jonas Malheiro
- Sawhill, John C., 1936-
- Salim, Salim Ahmed
- Siddhi Savetsila
- Saud al-Faisal, Prince of Saudi Arabia
Organization
Subject
- Economic history -- 20th century
- International relations -- 20th century
- Nonprofit organizations -- United States -- 20th century -- Records and correspondence
- Research institutes -- United States -- History -- 20th century
- World politics -- 20th century
Place
- Publisher
- Public Policy Papers
- Finding Aid Author
- Jennifer Cole
- Finding Aid Date
- 2007
- Access Restrictions
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All Council on Foreign Relations records are closed for 25 years after the date of their creation.
- Use Restrictions
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Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. For quotations that are fair use as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission to cite or publish is required. For those few instances beyond fair use, researchers are responsible for determining who may hold the copyright and obtaining approval from them. Researchers do not need anything further from the Mudd Library to move forward with their use.
As a condition of use of the historical records of the Council on Foreign Relations, researchers must agree that they will not directly or indirectly attribute to any living person any assertion of fact or opinion based upon any Council record, or upon any unpublished record held by the Council, without first obtaining from such person his or her written consent thereto.
Collection Inventory
The Administration Subseries includes the subject files on the administration of the Council's Meetings. Records include Annual Reports, attendance records, information on lecture series and correspondence with members. This subseries also includes the records of Margaret Osmer-McQuade, the director of Meetings from 1979-1993.
Arranged alphabetically by subject; Osmer-McQuade files are located at the end of the subseries and are also arranged alphabetically.
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The Records of Meetings Subseries is divided into two sections: volumes which are indexed from 1920 through 1973 and unindexed meeting records. This subseries also includes records of cancelled meetings. The actual records of the Council's meetings include invitations to the meetings, attendance lists, correspondence, (including letters between the Executive Director of the Council on Foreign Relations and potential speakers), background material on the speakers and the topics, a digest of the meeting (in early meeting records, transcripts are available; some later meeting records include evaluations), and miscellaneous materials relating to the meeting. Recordings of a portion of the meetings from the early 1950s through the late 1980s are present in the Sound Recordings Series.
A paper index is available for portions of the meeting records.
Arranged chronologically by fiscal year; within years, meetings are arranged alphabetically by the speaker's last name, with "special" meetings for that fiscal year coming after the alphabetical arrangements; cancelled meetings are located at the end of the subseries.
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