Annual Report

2023

Annual Report

2023

Annual Report

July , –June , 

Note: This list of Ofﬁcers and Directors is current as of July , .

Council on Foreign Relations

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New York, NY 10065

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Washington, DC 20006

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communications@cfr.org

Ofﬁcers

David M. Rubenstein, Chairman

Blair W. Eron, Vice Chairman

Jami Miscik, Vice Chairman

Michael Froman, President

Keith Olson, Executive Vice President,

Chief Financial Ocer, and Treasurer

James M. Lindsay, Senior Vice

President, Director of Studies, and

Maurice R. Greenberg Chair

Nancy D. Bodurtha, Vice President,

Meetings and Membership

Irina A. Faskianos, Vice President,

National Program and Outreach

Suzanne Helm, Vice President,

Philanthropy and Corporate Relations

Jan Mowder Hughes, Vice President

and Chief Human Resources Ocer

Caroline Netchvolodo,

Vice President, Education

Shannon K. O’Neil, Vice President,

Deputy Director of Studies, and Nelson

and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow

for Latin America Studies

Stephanie Solomon, Vice President;

Chief Revenue Ocer, Foreign Aairs

Iva Zoric, Vice President, Global

Communications and Media Relations

Jerey A. Reinke, Chief of Sta to the

President, Secretary of the Corporation

Directors

Term Expiring 

Thad W. Allen

Afsaneh Mashayekhi Beschloss

Blair W. Eron (Vice Chairman)

Jeh Charles Johnson

Meghan L. O’Sullivan

L. Rafael Reif

Daniel H. Yergin

Term Expiring 

Nicholas F. Beim

Stephen J. Hadley

James Manyika

Jami Miscik (Vice Chairman)

Richard L. Plepler

Ruth Porat

Mariko Silver

Term Expiring 

Tony Coles

Cesar Conde

William H. McRaven

Janet Napolitano

Deven J. Parekh

Tracey T. Travis

Amy Zegart

Term Expiring 

Margaret Brennan

Sylvia Mathews Burwell

James P. Gorman

Laurene Powell Jobs

David M. Rubenstein (Chairman)

James D. Taiclet

Fareed Zakaria

Term Expiring 

Kenneth I. Chenault

Jane Fraser

Stephen Freidheim

Margaret (Peggy) Hamburg

Justin Muzinich

Charles Phillips

Frances Fragos Townsend

Michael Froman, ex ocio

Ofﬁcers and Directors, Emeritus & Honorary

Maurice R. Greenberg,

Honorary Vice Chairman

Carla A. Hills

Chairman Emeritus

Richard Haass

President Emeritus

Robert E. Rubin

Chairman Emeritus

4 Mission Statement

6 Letter From the Chair

9 Outgoing President’s Message

12 Incoming President’s Message

15 2023 Highlights

31 Membership

36 Corporate Program

40 Financial Highlights

Contents

Mission

Statement

The Council on Foreign Relations

(CFR) is an independent, nonpartisan

membership organization, think tank, and

publisher dedicated to being a resource

for its members, government ocials,

business executives, journalists, educators

and students, civic and religious leaders,

and other interested citizens in order to

help them better understand the world

and the foreign policy choices facing the

United States and other countries.

Founded in , CFR takes no institutional

positions on matters of policy. CFR carries out

its mission by

• maintaining a diverse membership, includ-

ing special programs to promote interest

and develop expertise in the next genera-

tion of foreign policy leaders;

• convening meetings at its headquarters in

New York and in Washington, DC, and

other cities where senior government o-

cials, members of Congress, global lead-

ers, and prominent thinkers come together

with CFR members to discuss and debate

major international issues;

• supporting a Studies Program that fos-

ters independent research, enabling CFR

scholars to produce articles, reports, and

books and hold roundtables that analyze

foreign policy issues and make concrete

policy recommendations;

• publishing Foreign Aairs, the preeminent

journal of international aairs and U.S.

foreign policy;

• sponsoring Independent Task Forces that

produce reports with both ﬁndings and

policy prescriptions on the most impor-

tant foreign policy topics; and

• providing up-to-date information and

analysis about world events and American

foreign policy on its website, CFR.org.

Letter From

the Chair

This is the twentieth and final annual report

under the leadership of Council President

Richard Haass. Although the report includes

highlights of the past year, I would like to use

this space to emphasize some of the many

ways the Council changed over the past two

decades under Richard’s leadership. He

has walked that fine line of preserving what

makes this century-old organization special

while introducing changes and innovations

that keep the Council relevant. He ensured

that the institution remained trusted and true

to its independent, nonpartisan tradition—

no mean feat in an increasingly polarized

society—and at the same time transformed

the organization in a way that has made us

proud to be a part of it.

A Broader Research Agenda

When Richard arrived in , the Council’s

think tank covered most of the topics one would

expect of a traditional foreign policy organiza-

tion: great power competition, arms control,

international economics, and many regions of

the world. But over the twenty years since then,

the Council has responded to the changing

dynamics of the world by focusing on a broad-

ened range of topics, including global health,

energy and the environment, cyber policy,

terrorism, and the nation’s ﬁrst program on

women and foreign policy. CFR scholars pro-

duced more than  books—about  every

year—on issues from globalization and trade

to international order and climate change.

Expanded Reach

Another area that Richard focused on dur-

ing his time as CFR president was expanding

the organization’s reach. One major change

was transforming the Council’s presence in

Washington, DC, from a small rental space to

a building of our own where we can host events

of the same size and scale as the headquar-

ters in New York. That expansion has greatly

enhanced the experience for the one-third of

the Council’s membership that resides in and

around Washington.

At the same time, Richard was known to

point out that reaching the ﬁve thousand or so

people who make up the Council’s member-

ship left out  million other Americans, not

to mention millions more individuals around

David M. Rubenstein

Chairman

the world. And so he developed programs to

reach broader communities, including state

and local ocials; congregational and religious

leaders; local journalists; and middle school,

high school, and college and university stu-

dents and educators. Those initiatives have a

multiplier eect in disseminating the Coun-

cil’s work.

In addition, Foreign Aairs continued to

extend its reach, under the capable leadership

of three editors, increasing its output to include

rich digital content in addition to the bimonthly

print edition. The number of print subscrip-

tions doubled to a record of more than two

hundred thousand. Most important, the qual-

ity and inﬂuence of the magazine was not only

sustained but also reached new heights.

Increasing the Council’s reach has meant

more than using the same techniques as in the

past and applying them to new groups; the

Council has also evolved in the ways it con-

nects, which include more robust and com-

prehensive websites; new podcasts, blogs, and

newsletters; and the surprise success of a shift

to virtual and hybrid meetings during and after

the pandemic.

Financial Strength

Sound ﬁscal management is essential to the

running of any business, and we are fortunate to

have had that during Richard’s tenure. Thanks

to his leadership, a strong professional sta, a

committed board of directors, and dedicated

members, the Council’s endowment grew from

$ million in  to more than $ million

today. Richard achieved his goal of growing the

endowment so that the draw would fund about

one-third of the Council’s activities, which

allows it more independence and a greater abil-

ity to innovate. The Annual Fund has grown

as well, nearly tripling in the past twenty years

from $. million per year to more than $ mil-

lion today. Since , the Council has ended

each ﬁscal year in the black while nearly tripling

its annual budget, even when faced with serious

turbulence such as the  ﬁnancial crisis and

the pandemic.

Preparing the Next Generation

One of the many ways the Council contributes

to a better understanding of foreign policy and

its importance is through identifying and train-

ing the next generation of foreign policy leaders.

Jami Miscik

Vice Chairman

Blair W. Eron

Vice Chairman

During Richard’s tenure, the Council greatly

expanded the size and scale of those programs.

The International Aairs Fellowships evolved

from the traditional program, which allows

young and mid-career professionals to work

in government and government employees

to spend a year away from the day-to-day, to

programs in Canada, India, and Japan. Addi-

tional programs were introduced for econo-

mists, tenured professors, and more specialists

in nuclear security. Nearly three hundred fel-

lows have taken part in those programs since

, and more than four hundred when includ-

ing the long-standing military, press, and intel-

ligence fellowships.

The Stephen M. Kellen Term Member Pro-

gram has grown—term members now make

up nearly  percent of the total size of the

Council—and beneﬁted from robust and

innovative programming. The Council under

Richard also spent considerable energy in the

professional development of sta—many of

whom have gone on to prominent positions in

the U.S. government and elsewhere. Further, a

signiﬁcant endowment gift that enables CFR

to pay its interns has led to a broader, more

diverse, and more nationally representative

set of interns than ever before—with interest

in those positions so high we can accept only

. percent of applicants.

Finally, one of the most important innova-

tions Richard led during his time here, in the way

of training the next generation of leaders, was

the fourth pillar of the Council. We are no longer

just a think tank, membership organization, and

publisher. The Council can now be viewed as

a major educational institution, one that pro-

vides high-quality programs reaching millions

of people in this country and around the world,

both in and out of classrooms. We aim for those

programs to be an enduring legacy of Richard’s,

and as such, I am proud to announce that the

Council has established the Richard Haass Cen-

ter for Education. With more than $ million

in commitments so far, thanks to the generous

support of many members and friends, the cen-

ter will build on and grow the Council’s work in

educating students, teachers, and the broader

public about international relations, economics,

and national security and explain how foreign

policy directly aects their lives.

Richard has always said it is best to leave an

organization in better shape than you found it.

He has left this organization in excellent shape

for the Council’s new president, Michael Fro-

man, to expand upon as we face the unprec-

edented challenges of the twenty-ﬁrst century.

My fellow members of the Board and I are

excited to work with Mike in the years to come

to position the Council as a leader across the

broad range of its activities, building on the val-

ues that have made the organization as impor-

tant and inﬂuential as it is. I want to thank all of

those involved with the Council—be it as mem-

bers, sta, program participants, or Foreign

Aairs subscribers—for making the Council

the extraordinary organization it is today.

Outgoing

President’s

Message

David Rubenstein was typically thorough and

generous in his chair’s essay, recounting how

CFR evolved over the twenty years I was for-

tunate to be its president. And in the essay fol-

lowing this one, my successor Mike Froman

presents his initial thinking as to how the Coun-

cil will continue to evolve in the years ahead.

Change is both necessary and good, but I

want to write about why it is also important that

the Council resist evolving in selected areas.

But ﬁrst some historical context for this asser-

tion. CFR and a handful of other organizations

emerged roughly a century ago in an attempt

to improve public policy and increase the odds

that government at all levels would perform

professionally and limit corruption, partisan-

ship, and the reach of the spoils system, where

connections rather than merit dominated hir-

ing and promotion.

In the decades since, and in particular in the

wake of the Second World War, think tanks of all

varieties shot up as the United States assumed a

large and lasting role on the world stage and as

government came to assume a larger role in the

American economy.

What explains the emergence of so many

research organizations was the desire to improve

policy, be it by sharing expertise and ideas with

Congress, the executive branch, the media, the

business community, or citizens writ large.

These new organizations diered from one

another not just in their substantive focus but in

their DNA. Many saw their purpose in ideologi-

cal terms, to advance a certain agenda.

CFR was something fundamentally dier-

ent. Its purpose was deﬁned by values, not pol-

icy outcomes. More speciﬁcally, it committed

itself to intellectual work that was independent,

nonpartisan, serious, and policy relevant.

Each of these four terms warrants discus-

sion. Independence requires maintaining dis-

tance from anyone—governments, corporations,

Richard Haass

President Emeritus

individuals, political parties—who can inﬂuence

the content of intellectual work, be it what is

selected for study or what is concluded and

recommended. Maintaining independence often

requires refusal to accept funding or, where

funding is accepted, embracing full transpar-

ency along with maintaining complete freedom

of action. At stake is the ability to speak truth to

power rather than to promote the ends of those

with power.

Much the same holds for nonpartisanship.

The analysis should determine the conclusion

and recommendations. Obviously, individuals will

have political and personal views, but that should

not get in the way of their analysis. And inviting,

as CFR does, a range of individuals with diverse

perspectives to write and speak can further pro-

tect the institution and enhance its reputation.

Seriousness of purpose is essential. Research

organizations and think tanks have the opportu-

nity and obligation to produce work that exam-

ines the most important issues. Op-eds, blog

posts, and tweets (or whatever they are now

called) all have their place, but they are no substi-

tute for in-depth research and writing.

Last but not least, work should be policy-

relevant. More than anything else this is what

distinguishes the output of think tanks from

most universities, whose work often tends

toward the abstract and theoretical and what

can be measured and quantiﬁed.

What distinguishes CFR is that it is the only

institution that meets all those criteria. Anyone

can pick up Foreign Aairs, attend a meeting, or

read a book authored by a fellow and not know in

advance what the bottom line will be. But at the

same time anyone can also expect that the qual-

ity of the work will be high. It will include analy-

sis (not just description or assertion) and, where

it makes sense, put forward prescriptions.

There will be no shortage of subjects to

which to apply those attributes in the years to

come. Think about it. We are seeing the revival

of geopolitical competition in the two regions

of the world where wealth and capacity are

most concentrated. Hopes that such rivalry

would become a relic have been dashed with

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the rise of an

increasingly assertive China. How to manage

great power rivalries (as well as tensions with

middle powers such as North Korea and Iran)

promises to be a principal topic of study.

None of this will mean we will have the

luxury of turning away from the Middle East,

the region that has absorbed a disproportion-

ate share of U.S. attention since the end of

the Cold War. Nor will it allow ignoring Latin

America or Africa. What makes those regions

so deserving of study (in addition to their inher-

ent importance) is that challenges to order stem

as much or more from state and governmental

weakness as they do from strength.

Then there is the overlay of pressing global

issues. The world recently emerged (in large

part if not entirely) from a pandemic that began

in China and came to claim as many as twenty

million lives worldwide. No one, however, can

assume that COVID- was an exception; to

the contrary, it would be foolish not to expect

and prepare for future outbreaks of infectious

disease, in part by learning lessons from the

experience of the past few years.

And, of course, there is climate change,

which as we are seeing is not just a future

threat to how we live (and, at times, to whether

we live) but an already existing one. What this

and other global challenges have in common is

that the threat is far outpacing the response.

The question to be answered is what is needed

from the United States and others in the way

of measures to reduce the emerging climate

threat and adapt to it.

This is true too in the economic realm,

where much of the global ﬁnancial architecture

has failed to adapt to new realities—and where

resource commitments have failed to meet press-

ing needs. We often refer to the international

community when the reality is that little such

community exists when it comes to the willing-

ness and ability of the world to come together.

As if all this were not enough, we will need

to contend with new technologies, from arti-

ﬁcial or augmented intelligence to projected

cyber-related breakthroughs to biotechnology.

The questions will be how best to develop and

apply them where they can be helpful, how

they could be restricted where they promise

to threaten life or order—and how to respond

to them if those technologies upend industries

and displace workers.

And last, but far from least, are the domestic

challenges here in the United States, challenges

that contribute to and result from our deepen-

ing divisions. What is at stake is not just the

ability of the United States to set an example

others will want to emulate and to deal with its

many internal economic and social problems,

but also its ability to be suciently predictable,

consistent, and reliable so that friends and allies

will be reassured and foes deterred.

I am proud of how the Council balanced

innovation and preservation over the past

twenty years, and I am conﬁdent that CFR will

continue to do so moving forward. The Council

has more than ﬁve thousand involved members

who bring their own substantial expertise and

experience to meetings. A talented and dedi-

cated sta. A distinguished board of directors.

And an experienced, capable new president.

Like many of you I look forward to participat-

ing in and beneﬁting from what is produced

here as this unique, invaluable institution pro-

ceeds through its second century.

Richard Haass

President Emeritus

Incoming

President’s

Message

Michael Froman

President

At any moment of leadership transition, it is

easy to throw around terms such as “inﬂection

point” and “critical juncture,” but it does feel as

if the world is at a historic moment, not unlike

that at the end of World War II.

Internationally, we see the return of great

power politics, war in Europe, and increas-

ing tension between a rising and an existing

power. There is a long list of transnational

issues, from climate change to terrorism to

global pandemics, as well as an array of emerg-

ing technologies such as artificial intelligence,

which raises a number of other issues, such as

global governance, that demand international

cooperation. Yet, there appears to be a gap

between the need for international coopera-

tion and the capacity of existing institutions

and processes to effectively take on those chal-

lenges. And fundamental questions are being

raised about the world’s economic models,

income inequality, and the prospects for inclu-

sive and sustainable growth.

At home, the situation is no less complex.

The United States has witnessed a polariza-

tion of politics, a questioning of expertise, and

a decline of trust in institutions of government

and society. The fundamental debate going

on across the country is about the role of the

United States in the world and whether and

how U.S. leadership should be exercised.

In that context, the work of the Council

on Foreign Relations has never been more

important. As Richard Haass lays out in his

essay, the Council’s commitment to nonpar-

tisanship at a time of hyperpartisanship, to

serious fact-based analysis when facts them-

selves are being questioned, and to forging

consensus about the role of U.S. leadership in

the world positions it uniquely well to take on

those challenges.

Thankfully, we at the Council go into this

moment with a strong foundation:

• an unmatched bench of scholars engaged

in independent research and analysis, pro-

ducing groundbreaking books, reports,

and articles

• a second-to-none program of convenings

in New York, Washington, DC, and across

the country, bringing together a diverse set

of thinkers and practitioners to debate the

issues of the day

• a world-class set of publications and digital

oerings, starting, of course, with Foreign

Aairs—far and away the leading foreign

policy magazine in the world—and includ-

ing the Council’s website, an array of pod-

casts, videos, newsletters, and blogs, which

serve collectively as a resource for foreign

policy experts, those interested in foreign

policy, and the public

• a robust outreach program that engages

Congress, journalists, local and state o-

cials, religious leaders, and educators

around the country—opinion leaders in

their communities

• an education program that seeks to equip

teachers with tools to bring current events

to life with their students, from middle

schools to colleges and universities

And, of course, our members—more

than ﬁve thousand individual leaders across

business, ﬁnance, government, journalism,

academia, nonproﬁts, and the arts, plus our cor-

porate members—are, in fact, what makes the

Council distinct from every other organization

in this space. Our capacity to bring together,

connect, and leverage the expertise of our

membership—including as participants in task

forces, roundtables, and study groups; speakers

at events; and mentors to younger members and

sta—is one of our most important strengths

and is a unique and valuable asset. So many of

the challenges the world faces, such as climate

change and emerging technologies, cannot be

addressed by governments alone; the answer

lies in part with engaging and mobilizing the

private and public sectors.

That strong foundation is the product of

much hard work and support by many indi-

viduals, including CFR’s sta, members, and

generous donors. But it is ﬁrst and foremost

a reﬂection of the extraordinary service and

leadership of Richard Haass. For twenty years,

Richard steered this ship, including through a

ﬁnancial crisis and a pandemic. He expanded

the remit of Council to focus on a broader set

of audiences and launched many critical ini-

tiatives, including one to educate the United

States’ youth about foreign policy and civics. I

am personally deeply grateful, as is the entire

Council community, for Richard’s leadership,

dedication, and friendship.

Where do we go from here? The Council is

perhaps most commonly thought of as a think

tank, but we are so much more: a publisher,

a convenor, a source of analysis of current

events, an educator, a membership organiza-

tion, and an organization committed to iden-

tifying, developing, and promoting the next

generation of diverse foreign policy talent. The

landscape in each of those areas is changing.

The Council twenty years from now is likely to

look substantially dierent from the Council

of twenty years ago, yet retain its core strengths

and values.

Our goal is to have an impact—on policy-

makers, members, community leaders, jour-

nalists, students, and the public—with the goal

of furthering understanding, reﬁning debates

over trade-os, and ultimately forging a con-

sensus around the role of the United States in

the world.

Some of the most interesting questions are

at the hinge of various disciplines—issues at

the nexus of economics and national security,

technology and intelligence, science and for-

eign policy. They are issues where the most

cogent analysis is likely to come from gather-

ing regional and country experts, foreign policy

and national security strategists, and those with

deep domain knowledge in economics, science,

and technology.

There is a need to look comprehensively, for

example, at issues such as the future of interna-

tional economic policy. A return to the era of

hyperglobalization might be unlikely, but much

work needs to be done to forge a new Washing-

ton consensus on international economic policy.

A broad consensus appears to have devel-

oped around the nature of the China challenge,

but agreement is far less settled about what the

new equilibrium should be in the U.S.-China

relationship, how best to forge a strategy for

managing the multidimensional relationship

between China and the rest of the world, and

how to ensure the continued competitiveness

of the United States.

Emerging technologies—from artiﬁcial

intelligence to quantum computing to synthetic

biology—promise real opportunities across a

broad range of sectors, but they also pose risks.

We are just beginning to understand those risks

and beneﬁts and integrate them into U.S. for-

eign policy and national security strategies.

The nexus of climate change and conﬂict,

migration, health, food security, trade, and

ﬁnance raises another set of questions that

demand increasing attention.

These are just a few of the issues I am ini-

tially focused on bringing before the full array

of Council assets at the table. A few months

into this job, though, they are just that: initial

ideas. I look forward to continuing the conver-

sations I have begun with Board members, life

members, term members, sta, counterparts at

other institutions, partners, and stakeholders,

including in Congress, the executive branch,

and international organizations, to lay out a

strategic plan to maintain the Council’s stand-

ing as the leading foreign policy organization

in the country—if not the world—ﬁve, ten,

twenty years from now.

Our Council community has made tre-

mendous progress under Richard, and the

opportunity to build on that strong founda-

tion to have even greater impact going forward

is considerable.

I am honored that the Board has entrusted

me to lead this remarkable institution, and I am

grateful to them, the members, the sta, and all

of our partners and other stakeholders for their

commitment to work on that important eort.

Michael Froman

President

2023

Highlights

This past year marked the ﬁrst full year of a return to in-person activities for the Council on Foreign

Relations since the start of the COVID- pandemic. These highlights reﬂect a year that included

in-person and hybrid events for members and sta. In addition, CFR celebrated the centennial of

Foreign Aairs magazine at an event in New York in September.

Meetings

The Council on Foreign Relations provides

a nonpartisan forum for thoughtful and

informed foreign policy debate, drawing lead-

ers and experts in government, business, the

media, and academia for discussions with

members on critical issues in foreign policy and

international relations.

CFR was thrilled to host a more traditional

UN General Assembly week—typically the

busiest time of year for the Council in New

York. It also hosted several heads of state and

foreign ministers in person, including King

Abdullah II of Jordan, President Andrzej Duda

of Poland, Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi

of Iraq, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis

of Greece, and the foreign ministers of Cuba,

Lebanon, Pakistan, Singapore, South Africa,

Turkey, and Ukraine.

Other foreign ocials who spoke with

members virtually or in person over the course

of the year in New York or Washington, DC,

include Prime Minister of Canada Justin

Trudeau, President of Zambia Hakainde Hich-

ilema, South Korean Defense Minister Lee

Jong-sup, former Ukrainian President Petro

Poroshenko, Meta’s Global Aairs President

Nick Clegg, former Taoiseach of Ireland Bertie

Ahern, and Executive Director of UN Women

Sima Sami Bahous. Current and former U.S.

ocials who spoke at CFR included Secretary

of State Antony Blinken, Dr. Anthony Fauci,

U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Cyberspace and

Digital Policy Nathanial Fick, U.S. Special Pres-

idential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, Henry

Kissinger, World Bank President David Mal-

pass, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Ale-

jandro Mayorkas, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs

of Sta General Mark Milley, Deputy Attor-

ney General Lisa Monaco, former National

Security Advisor Robert O’Brien, Represen-

tative Adam Smith, U.S. Special Envoy to

Advance the Human Rights of LGBTQI+ per-

sons Jessica Stern, National Security Advisor

Jake Sullivan, and U.S. Trade Representative

Katherine Tai.

CFR hosted a variety of other event series,

including Renewing America, which looks at

the domestic underpinnings of U.S. foreign pol-

icy. Panels in that series included discussions on

the midterm elections, the lame-duck Congress,

infrastructure investment, and immigration

reform. Additional sessions included events on

the ongoing debt ceiling ﬁght with former U.S.

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and former U.S.

Senator Rob Portman, as well as a discussion

on nuclear energy. In May, all six service chiefs

joined CFR at its building in Washington for the

Robert B. McKeon Endowed Series on Military

Strategy and Leadership. Other series included

the Lessons From History series, which held

events focused on lessons from Superstorm

Sandy, the twentieth anniversary of the U.S.

invasion of Iraq, the twenty-ﬁfth anniversary

of the Good Friday Agreement, and the foreign

policy legacy of the George W. Bush adminis-

tration. In the C. Peter McColough Series on

International Economics, members heard from

President of the Federal Reserve Bank of San

Francisco Mary Daly, President of European

Central Bank Christine Lagarde, and chief eco-

nomics commentator for the Financial Times

Martin Wolf.

The Stephen M. Kellen Term Member Pro-

gram, which provides ﬁve-year memberships for

people age thirty to thirty-six, had its twenty-

seventh annual conference in November .

The conference featured former Florida senator

and current NASA Administrator Bill Nelson in

conversation with CFR member Ché Bolden on

advancements in space. Term members visited

the United Nations, which included a private

meeting with U.S. Permanent Representative

Linda Thomas-Greenﬁeld; toured and met with

executives of In-Q-Tel, a venture capital ﬁrm that

focuses on the development of technologies for

the U.S. intelligence community; and spent three

days in Miami and Key West visiting U.S. South-

ern Command and Joint Interagency Task Force

South to better understand the challenges related

to increased migrant ﬂows in the Caribbean and

Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and host of NPR’s Morning Edition and Up First Leila Fadel discuss the importance of

diversity in U.S. foreign policy, U.S. policy toward China and Taiwan, and Duckworth’s personal experience serving in the

military and the Senate at the 2023 Conference on Diversity in International Aairs.

the growing inﬂuence of Russia and China in

Latin America. Other trips included visits to the

FBI’s New York oce; digital identity company

Okta, Inc., in San Francisco; and U.S. Army

Joint Center of Excellence Picatinny Arsenal in

New Jersey.

In February, CFR hosted the International

Affairs Fellowship (IAF) conference keynote

session with Undersecretary of Defense for

Policy Colin Kahl. Established in , the

IAF program aims to create more scholar-

practitioners by allowing those in academia

or the private sector to spend a year in govern-

ment, and those in government to spend a year

in a scholarly setting; some  fellows have

participated since the program’s inception.

In May, the Council convened the eleventh

annual Conference on Diversity in Interna-

tional Affairs. The hybrid event, a collabora-

tive effort by CFR, the Global Access Pipeline,

and the International Career Advancement

Program, featured Senator Tammy Duck-

worth (D-IL) as well as CFR member Juan

Zarate and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez. The

conference, held in Washington, DC, brought

together more than three hundred college and

graduate students and early-career and sea-

soned professionals from diverse backgrounds

that are historically underrepresented in the

field of foreign policy to discuss international

issues and increase preparedness for careers in

the field.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau discusses President Joe Biden’s recent visit to Ottawa, prospects for the future of the

U.S.-Canada relationship, economic cooperation between the two countries, and Canada’s role in global politics.

The National Program connects the plurality of

CFR members who live outside New York and

Washington, DC, with CFR and its resources.

CFR continued to provide virtual and in-person

programming this year, with events in Atlanta,

Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles,

Miami, San Francisco, and Seattle as well as

in London.

In December , CFR convened the eighth

annual National Symposium in Menlo Park,

California, bringing together almost two hun-

dred participants from around the country and

the United Kingdom. The symposium included

discussions on national security threats and

economic turbulence, U.S. cyberspace policy,

and Russia and Ukraine.

In June , CFR hosted the twenty-eighth

annual National Conference, which kicked

o with a conversation on the domestic and

global economic outlook. Additional plenaries

covered artiﬁcial intelligence, the geopolitical

implications of Russia’s war in Ukraine, global

nuclear security, U.S. industrial policy, and cli-

mate change. CFR President Richard Haass

also reﬂected on the future of U.S. democracy

and his time at the Council. Nearly three hun-

dred participants from more than thirty states,

Washington, DC, and three countries gathered

in New York for the event, with hundreds more

tuning in virtually.

National Program

Top: Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Ocer of Alphabet and Google and member of the Council on Foreign Relations

(CFR) Board of Directors Ruth Porat gives the opening remarks at the National Symposium.

Bottom: CFR President Richard Haass, Founder and Chief Executive Ocer of RockCreek and member of the CFR Board

of Directors Afsaneh Mashayekhi Beschloss, and CFR Distinguished Fellow and former U.S. Treasury Department Deputy

Secretary Justin Muzinich discuss the economic outlook for both the public and private sector at the National Conference.

CFR’s Corporate Program provides member

companies from across the globe access to CFR

experts, research, and meetings to help them

better understand the international issues that

aect their businesses. This year, the program

held roundtables on regulating the crypto space,

global infrastructure and investment, the state

of the U.S. labor market, and the clean energy

transition. Other meetings covered criticism of

environmental, social, and governance invest-

ing, U.S.-China tech relations, inﬂation, and

economic sanctions on Russia.

The Corporate Program hosted its eigh-

teenth annual Corporate Conference in

March  with more than two hundred ﬁfty

Corporate contacts, members, and donors in

attendance. The keynote session featured a

conversation between James P. Gorman and

Richard Haass. CFR also hosted its ﬁfth annual

CEO Summit in June, bringing together twenty

leading executives for a candid discussion on

many of the economic, geopolitical, and soci-

etal factors aecting the private sector.

Corporate Program

Chairman and Chief Executive Ocer of Morgan Stanley James P. Gorman speaks with CFR President Richard Haass during the

opening session of the eighteenth annual Corporate Conference.

The Studies Program, CFR’s think tank, ana-

lyzes pressing global challenges and offers rec-

ommendations for policymakers in the United

States and elsewhere. CFR’s research aims to

be more policy relevant than that of universi-

ties and more rigorous than what advocacy

groups produce.

CFR experts published six books this year.

Ebenezer Obadare’s Pastoral Power, Clerical

State: Pentecostalism, Gender, and Sexuality in

Nigeria examines how Nigeria’s Pentecostal

pastors use religious doctrines, beckon spiri-

tual forces, and manipulate their alliances with

national power-brokers to enjoy unprecedented

authority in Nigeria. In North Korea’s Foreign

Policy: The Kim Jong-un Regime in a Hostile World,

Scott A. Snyder and Kyung-Ae Park explore

North Korean foreign policy under Kim Jong Un,

including its domestic drivers, summitry diplo-

macy, and nuclear program. In The Globalization

Myth: Why Regions Matter, Shannon K. O’Neil

examines how regionalization, not globalization,

has been the most signiﬁcant economic trend of

the last forty years. She argues that regionaliza-

tion has enhanced economic competitiveness

and prosperity in Europe and Asia, and urges the

United States to embrace its neighbors to lead the

North American regional hub.

Joshua Kurlantzick’s book Beijing’s Global

Media Oensive: China’s Uneven Campaign to

Inﬂuence Asia and the World chronicles China’s

attempts to wield extensive power inside other

countries’ politics and societies. Kurlantzick

argues that this campaign has largely failed so

far, but that the situation could change, and

thus he recommends steps the United States

and other democracies should take to counter

Beijing’s eorts. In The Bill of Obligations: Ten

Habits of Good Citizens, Richard Haass argues

that the greatest threat to U.S. security comes

Wall Street Journal Associate Editor John C. Bussey, Brookings Institution Senior Fellow David Dollar, CFR Fellow

for International Political Economy Zongyuan Zoe Liu, and NPR Correspondent Emily Feng discuss the costs of China’s

zero-COVID policy.

The David Rockefeller

Studies Program

from within the country, and suggests that plac-

ing the obligations of citizens to one another

and the country on the same footing as rights

is essential if American democracy is to deliver

and endure. In Sovereign Funds: How the Com-

munist Party of China Finances Its Global Ambi-

tions, Zongyuan Zoe Liu analyzes how China’s

deployment of sovereign funds has enabled it

to project power across global markets and has

driven the rise of companies such as Alibaba

and Didi. Liu traces how Chinese President Xi

Jinping has leveraged China’s foreign exchange

reserves to create global spheres of inﬂuence—

such as through its Belt and Road Initiative—

and to expand domestic production of vital

assets—such as semiconductors.

Fellows continue to assess pressing policy chal-

lenges and provide recommendations through

CFR reports. In Council Special Reports, CFR

experts provide timely responses to developing

crises and contribute to policy dilemmas. CFR

published one this year. In A New U.S. Foreign

Policy for Global Health, Senior Fellow David P.

Fidler takes a close look at lessons learned from

the COVID- pandemic, demonstrates how cli-

mate change exacerbates the scale of the public

health challenge, and oers a detailed agenda for

health security going forward.

The Center for Preventive Action, under the

direction of Senior Fellow Paul B. Stares, pub-

lished the ﬁfteenth annual Preventive Priorities

Survey in January. Five hundred foreign policy

experts evaluated which conﬂicts around the

world could escalate and harm U.S. interests in

. The survey ﬂagged potential ﬂashpoints

involving major powers, such as a crisis around

the Taiwan Strait, escalation of the war in Ukraine

or domestic instability in Russia, and nuclear

weapons development by Iran and North Korea.

The think tank welcomed several new fel-

lows this year. Tarah Wheeler joined as a senior

fellow for global cyber policy; José Miguel

Vivanco joined as an adjunct senior fellow

for human rights; Liana Fix joined as a fellow

for Europe; Jacob Ware was promoted from

research associate to research fellow; Linda

Robinson joined as senior fellow for women

and foreign policy; Esther Brimmer joined as

the James H. Binger senior fellow in global gov-

ernance; Will Freeman joined as a fellow for

Latin America Studies; and David Sacks was

promoted from research fellow to fellow.

CFR Distinguished Fellow Thomas Graham, CFR Adjunct Senior Fellow Heidi Crebo-Rediker, CFR George F. Kennan Senior

Fellow for Russian and Eurasian Studies Stephen Sestanovich, and CFR Senior Fellow Charles A. Kupchan discuss the war in

Ukraine and U.S. talks with NATO and European allies.

The Council of Councils is a consortium of

twenty-seven leading think tanks from around

the world that convenes semiannually to dis-

cuss the state of global governance and how to

improve it. This May marked its twelfth annual

conference. Representatives from two dozen

policy research organizations participated in

the meeting. The discussions spanned a wide

range of challenges for multilateral coopera-

tion, including the governance of artiﬁcial

intelligence, emerging global divisions, and

revitalizing the World Trade Organization.

The thirteenth regional conference of the

Council of Councils was cohosted with Indo-

nesia’s Centre for Strategic and Interna-

tional Studies in November. Participants from

twenty-two countries gathered to discuss the

future of international cooperation, manag-

ing geopolitics and emerging health threats,

and managing potential conﬂicts in the Indo-

Paciﬁc, among other global challenges.

Council of Councils

Executive Director of the Institute for Security Studies Fonteh Akum, Director of the Center for European Policy Studies Steven

Blockmans, CFR Senior Fellow David J. Scheer, and Deputy Head of the German Institute for International and Security

Aairs’ Americas Research Division Johannes Thimm discuss “Holding Those Responsible for War Crimes Accountable” at

the Council of Councils Twelfth Annual Conference.

CFR’s Independent Task Force Program con-

venes diverse and distinguished groups of experts

who oer analysis of and policy prescriptions

for major foreign policy issues facing the United

States. The Task Force on Cybersecurity released

its report, Confronting Reality in Cyberspace: For-

eign Policy for a Fragmented Internet, in July .

The Task Force was chaired by CFR board Vice

Chair Jami Miscik and former board member

Nathaniel Fick. Adam Segal, CFR senior fellow

and director of the Digital and Cyberspace Policy

program (now on leave), was Task Force proj-

ect director, and Gordon M. Goldstein, adjunct

senior fellow, served as deputy director. Asserting

Task Force Program

that the era of the global internet is over, the report

proposes a new U.S. foreign policy for cyberspace

that is now more fragmented, less secure, and less

free. In June , the Independent Task Force on

Taiwan released its report U.S.-Taiwan Relations in

a New Era: Responding to a More Assertive China.

Susan M. Gordon, former principal deputy

director of intelligence, and Admiral Michael G.

Mullen, USN, Ret., former chairman of the Joint

Chiefs of Sta, co-chaired the Task Force, and

Research Fellow David Sacks served as project

director. The report analyzes political, military,

and economic dynamics in the Taiwan Strait and

oers policy recommendations for the United

States to support Taiwan and deter an increas-

ingly assertive and capable China.

Top: Former U.S. Representative Will Hurd (R-TX), Task Force Deputy Director Gordon M. Goldstein, Senior Operating

Partner at Energy Impact Partners Niloofar Razi Howe, Task Force Co-chair Jami Miscik, Task Force Project Director Adam

Segal, and New York Times reporter Cecilia Kang discuss the launch of the Independent Task Force Report Confronting

Reality in Cyberspace: Foreign Policy for a Fragmented Internet.

Bottom: CFR Research Fellow and Task Force Project Director David Sacks; Admiral of the U.S. Navy, Ret., and Task Force

member Harry B. Harris Jr.; Admiral of the U.S. Navy, Ret., and Task Force Co-chair Michael G. Mullen; and former Principal

Deputy Director of National Intelligence and Task Force Co-chair Susan M. Gordon discuss the Independent Task Force Report

on Taiwan with moderation from New York Times Editorial Board member Farah Stockman.

Education

CFR Education leverages the knowledge of CFR

experts to make complex global aairs and foreign

policy issues accessible for middle school, high

school, and higher education students. Content

across its three products, World, Model Diplo-

macy, and Convene the Council, provide educators

and students with the knowledge, skills, and per-

spective—the global literacy—needed to make

informed decisions about issues aecting their

lives, community, and country.

World is a free collection of some six hun-

dred multimedia learning resources on the fun-

damentals of global aairs and foreign policy.

World resources are largely evergreen but

also reﬂect the issues shaping today’s world,

which is why the platform is continually updated

for timeliness and accuracy. For instance, when

Americans felt the eects of global supply-chain

issues in early , CFR created a resource that

explained how the COVID- pandemic and

the war in Ukraine caused a shortage of micro-

chips that power their devices, demonstrat-

ing how global problems can become local and

describing the various solutions governments

can consider in addressing them. To encourage

high school teachers to use World resources

in their classrooms, forty new teaching resource

packages, including lesson plans, vocabulary

lists, presentations, and discussion guides, were

created as companions to support the vast library

of learning resources across the platform. Simi-

larly, over the course of the year CFR developed

updates for eight popular social studies courses

based on alignments to state standards and land-

ing pages.

Model Diplomacy is a free simulation pro-

gram that invites educators and their students

to step into the roles of decision-makers on the

U.S. National Security Council and UN Secu-

rity Council. Both the full-length and mini

simulations, which are based on hypothetical

or historical scenarios, help students develop

critical thinking, persuasive speaking and writ-

ing, and collaboration skills. During the past

year, CFR created new simulations to help stu-

dents understand pressing topics like the war

in Ukraine, prisoner swaps, a potential TikTok

ban, and the National Security Council.

Convene the Council is an online game devel-

oped in partnership with iCivics that prompts

students to make decisions about foreign policy

challenges faced by ﬁctional countries. Top-

ics range from national security to pandemic

response, deforestation, and more, and provide

students age twelve and up with an understand-

ing of how U.S. foreign policy is made and how

countries and international organizations can

inﬂuence foreign policy priorities.

Vice President of Education Caroline Netchvolodo explains the need for a global civics education and how CFR Education can

help close the global literacy gap in the United States.

Outreach

Academic Outreach

CFR’s Academic Outreach initiative connects

educators and students with CFR and Foreign

Aairs publications, digital educational prod-

ucts, and programming for teaching and learn-

ing about international aairs. The initiative

continued its long-standing Academic Webinar

series for students and professors and its Higher

Education Webinar series for college and uni-

versity leaders, administrators, and professors.

CFR Academic attended four external confer-

ences, hosted by the Historically Black Colleges

and Universities Faculty Development Network,

Community Colleges for International Develop-

ment, Harvard National Model United Nations,

and the International Studies Association. CFR

Academic also hosted fourteen brieﬁngs, giv-

ing more than  participants from across the

country and internationally the opportunity to

interact directly with CFR fellows and sta. In

April, CFR held the annual College and Uni-

versity Educators Workshop, with nearly one

hundred educators from roughly ninety col-

leges and universities across the United States

and Canada.

Religion and Foreign Policy Program

Since , CFR’s Religion and Foreign Policy

program has provided a unique nonpartisan

forum in which to examine issues at the nexus

of religion and U.S. foreign policy. In May, the

program convened the annual Religion and

Foreign Policy Workshop, which welcomed

nearly one hundred members of religious com-

munities from across the country. Participants

represented twenty-seven faith traditions. The

program also organized multiple webinars for

their two series, Religion and Foreign Policy

and Social Justice, covering topics from the

protests in Iran to gun violence at home and

abroad. Program sta also attended the 

Annual Meetings of the American Academy

of Religion in Denver, cohosted by the Society

of Biblical Literature, where they convened

a panel discussion on human rights around

the world and distributed CFR resources to

conference participants.

Washington Outreach

CFR’s Congress and U.S. Foreign Policy pro-

gram aims to connect the work of CFR with

members of Congress, their stas, and execu-

tive branch ocials. The program is an essential

source of independent, nonpartisan analysis

to inform the direction of U.S. foreign policy.

It also oers a unique forum in which policy-

makers from both sides of the aisle can come

together for all-too-rare reasoned discussions

on foreign policy issues. This year, the program

facilitated brieﬁngs and consultations for Con-

gress both virtually and in person, in addition

to holding general outreach and relationship-

building meetings with members of Congress

and their stas. Congress continues to turn to

CFR for thoughtful analysis of pressing foreign

policy issues—including those related to China

and the war in Ukraine. Throughout , CFR

fellows have briefed members and sta from

more than two hundred oces.

The House and Senate principals meet-

ing series, cohosted with former Senator Tom

Daschle and former Representative Vin Weber,

restarted in-person events in May, convening

members of the U.S. House and Senate for a

conversation on China.

State and Local Outreach

CFR’s State and Local Ocials initiative con-

nects governors, mayors, state legislators, and

city and county leaders with resources on press-

ing global issues that aect local agendas. The

initiative continued its webinar series, which

averaged more than two hundred participants

per session. Conversations focused on top-

ics including electric vehicle infrastructure,

protecting democratic institutions, and U.S.

Department of State programs for helping state,

county, and municipal ocials foster interna-

tional diplomatic relations. Participants in these

sessions hailed from all ﬁfty states. Additionally,

the initiative hosted an in-person event in

December at CFR’s New York headquarters

for the National Conference of State Legisla-

tures Leaders Symposium; thirty-ﬁve state leg-

islators and seventy private-sector partners and

guests attended.

Local Journalists Initiative

To elevate conversations on U.S. foreign policy

choices and increase civic participation, CFR’s

Local Journalists initiative helps print, broad-

cast, and digital native journalists working for

regional outlets throughout the United States to

draw connections between the local issues they

cover and national and international dynamics.

CFR continued the conference call and webi-

nar series for those journalists to connect them

with experts and provide a forum for sharing

best practices. Sessions included conversations

on misinformation and media literacy, report-

ing on border and immigration policies, and

the future of global trade and U.S. economic

competitiveness.

Home and Abroad Series

In , CFR launched the Home and Abroad

public forum series, whose quarterly events edu-

cate the general public on issues at the nexus of

U.S. domestic and foreign policy that aect the

United States’ role in the world. Roughly ,

participants attended the October conversation

moderated by Richard Haass with Cornell Uni-

versity’s Jessica Chen Weiss, Stanford Univer-

sity’s Oriana Skylar Mastro, and Georgetown

University’s Evan Medeiros on China and U.S.-

China relations. More than , participants

attended the May conversation on U.S. strategy

toward the war in Ukraine that Good Trouble’s

Reena Ninan moderated with CFR’s Charles

Kupchan, the German Marshall Fund’s Heather

Conley, and the Quincy Institute for Responsi-

ble Statecraft’s Andrew Bacevich.

President of the Global Justice Center Akila Radhakrishnan; Executive Director of the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace

and Security Melanne Verveer; Executive Religious Director of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society Center Mohamed Magid;

and Harvard Law School’s Director of the International Human Rights Clinic and Clinical Professor of Law Susan H. Farbstein

participate in the annual CFR Religion and Foreign Policy Workshop.

CFR.org continues to be a leading source of

timely analysis on critical foreign policy issues.

The website’s most popular pieces of content

continue to be Backgrounders, which provide

authoritative, accessible, and regularly updated

primers on hundreds of foreign policy top-

ics from around the globe. CFR also published

scores of In Briefs, which provide succinct run-

downs on important developments authored

by CFR fellows and the CFR.org editorial team

on topics including Russia’s war in Ukraine and

democratic upheavals in South America. Such

pieces helped the site continue to rank highly in

Google Search.

CFR continued to track an extraordinary

international news cycle, providing scores of

timely text, audio, and video explainers of

developments including the ongoing repercus-

sions of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine—NATO

expansion, Europe’s energy crisis, global food

insecurity—surging U.S.-China tensions over

Taiwan and climate-related threats. Notable

CFR.org content included new Explainers on

U.S. aid to Ukraine, the U.S. asylum process,

Russia’s inﬂuence in the Balkans, as well as

updated Backgrounders on China-Taiwan ten-

sions and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. The

Ukraine aid piece was one of dozens of

CFR.org Explainers republished by PBS News-

Hour’s website as part of a renewed partnership.

Senior Fellow Thomas J. Bollyky released a

new interactive, “How New Tobacco Control

Laws Could Help Close the Racial Gap on U.S.

Cancer.” Using data from the Centers for Dis-

ease Control and Prevention and the Institute

of Health Metrics and Evaluation, the interac-

tive shows how a ban on menthol cigarettes—

already enforced in Brazil, Canada, various

other countries, and the European Union—

could reduce racial disparities in lung cancer

deaths in the United States. The data suggests

that a menthol ban could close the gap in lung

cancer death rates between Black Americans

and other racial groups as soon as .

In January, CFR introduced its ﬁrst YouTube

Shorts, one-minute-or-less excerpts curated

from CFR Events. In addition to excerpts from

CFR Events, the video team also started pro-

ducing original shorts, with CFR fellows dis-

cussing topics like Israel’s protests and artiﬁcial

intelligence concerns. The series has become

popular in terms of viewership, attracting more

than , views, more than , per short.

Interest in CFR’s podcasts also continued

to grow, with just shy of one million down-

loads in the ﬁrst four months of the year. The

weekly podcasts—The President’s Inbox and

The World Next Week—are averaging one hun-

dred thousand downloads per month so far

in . The biweekly Why It Matters podcast

attracted strong industry recognition, winning

a Webby for best technology podcast for its

episode “The Three Internets.” This was the

sixth Webby award for the website.

CFR’s public newsletters continue to attract

new audience members, now reaching more

than , subscribers. CFR’s daily news

wrap-up, The Daily News Brief, reaches nearly

, and CFR’s weekly ﬂagship newsletter,

The World This Week, more than ,.

In addition, CFR maintains a signiﬁcant

presence on social media. Despite turmoil at

X (formerly known as Twitter), CFR fellows

have close to . million followers on the plat-

form. Institutional social media accounts have

more than , followers on X, more than

, likes on Facebook, more than ,

followers on LinkedIn, more than , fol-

lowers on Instagram, and more than ,

subscribers on YouTube—reﬂecting steady

growth on most channels.

CFR Digital

Top: CFR’s new YouTube Shorts channel has attracted expanded audiences seeking the lowdown on international news and

newsmakers at CFR.

Bottom: Why It Matters, CFR’s seasonal Explainer series, garnered a Webby award as best technology podcast for its episode

“The Three Internets.”

After marking its centennial in , Foreign

Aairs magazine entered its second century as

the most thoughtful, read, and inﬂuential pub-

lication in its ﬁeld—and is ﬁnishing ﬁscal year

 with record circulation, readership, and

revenue. The magazine complements all else

CFR does by providing a space for long-form

analysis and argument from a broad pool of

expert voices, in both the bimonthly print issue

and daily web essays.

The centennial issue, released in September

, unveiled a redesign of the magazine that

reﬂects the history, substance, and ambition of

what is inside each copy. That issue featured a

set of essays on “the age of uncertainty,” as well

as a special section, “Books for the Century,”

in which reviewers selected the most impor-

tant books for understanding the century past

and the century ahead. Subsequent issues have

highlighted topics including China under Xi

Jinping (an essay by Kevin Rudd), the global

consequences of the war in Ukraine (essays by

Olaf Scholz, Liana Fix and Michael Kimmage,

Amy Zegart, and more), the geopolitics of tech

and innovation (essays by Eric Schmidt and Dan

Wang), and “the nonaligned world” (essays by

policymakers and scholars from Africa, Latin

America, and South and Southeast Asia).

ForeignAairs.com, meanwhile, has fea-

tured ongoing coverage of the central issues in

U.S. foreign policy and international aairs

today. Further, in its ﬁrst year, the magazine’s

new biweekly podcast, The Foreign Aairs Inter-

view, has drawn several hundred thousand lis-

teners for some episodes, with guests including

Fiona Hill, Kevin Rudd, Timothy Snyder, Chair-

man of the Joint Chiefs of Sta Mark Milley, and

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda

Thomas-Greenﬁeld.

Foreign Affairs

Oxford University Professor Emerita Margaret MacMillan and Yale University’s Robert A. Lovett Professor of Military and Naval

History John Lewis Gaddis join Foreign Aairs Editor Daniel Kurtz-Phelan for a conversation oering a historical perspective on

the Foreign Aairs centennial.

Membership

Since its founding in , the Council on For-

eign Relations has grown a membership of

more than ﬁve thousand prominent leaders in

the foreign policy arena, including top govern-

ment ocials, scholars, business executives,

journalists, lawyers, and nonproﬁt profession-

als. The membership is composed of those

residing in the greater New York and Washing-

ton, DC, areas, and a plurality based around the

United States and abroad.

CFR members enjoy unparalleled access to a

nonpartisan forum through which they engage

with and gain insight from experts in interna-

tional aairs. Members have in-person access

to world leaders, senior government ocials,

members of Congress, and prominent thinkers

and practitioners in academia, policy, and busi-

ness, many of whom are members themselves.

Convening nearly one thousand events annu-

ally, CFR is dedicated to facilitating an intel-

lectual exchange of ideas through expert panel

discussions, symposia, town halls, livestreams,

and CEO forums exclusively for members.

Through exposure to CFR’s think tank, publi-

cations, brieﬁng materials, and special content

on CFR.org and ForeignAairs.com, mem-

bers beneﬁt from an expansive collection of

unmatched intellectual capital and resources.

The Council seeks quality, diversity, and

balance in its membership. Criteria for mem-

bership include intellectual achievement and

expertise; degree of experience, interest, and

current involvement in international aairs;

promise of future achievement and service in

foreign relations; potential contributions to

CFR’s work; desire and ability to participate in

CFR activities; and standing among peers. New

members are elected twice a year by the Board

of Directors.

Applying for Membership

Eligibility Requirements

• Membership is restricted to U.S. citi-

zens (native born or naturalized) and

permanent residents who have applied to

become citizens.

• CFR visiting fellows are prohibited from

applying for membership until they have

completed their fellowship tenure.

• CFR members are required to fulﬁll annual

dues requirements.

Candidates must submit an online application,

complete with a nominating letter from a cur-

rent CFR member and seconding letters from

three to four other individuals.

To apply for membership, visit

cfr.org/membership/individual-membership.

Membership Deadlines

and Candidate Notiﬁcation

The two annual membership application dead-

lines are March  and November . All mem-

bership candidates and their letter writers will

receive notiﬁcation of the election decisions in

late June for the March  deadline, and in early

March for the November  deadline.

For More Information

To learn more about the membership appli-

cation process or for information on nomi-

nating a candidate, visit cfr.org/membership

or contact Membership at .. or

applications@cfr.org.

Membership

Applying for Term Membership

Eligibility Requirements

• Term membership is restricted to U.S.

citizens (native born or naturalized) and

permanent residents who have applied to

become citizens.

• Candidates for term membership must be

between the ages of thirty and thirty-six on

January  of the year in which they apply.

• CFR visiting fellows are prohibited from

applying for term membership until they

have completed their fellowship tenure.

• Graduate students should generally wait

until after the completion of their degree to

apply for term membership.

• CFR term members are required to fulﬁll

annual dues requirements.

Term membership candidates must submit an

online application, complete with a nominating

letter from a current CFR member and second-

ing letters from two to three other individuals.

To apply for term membership, visit

cfr.org/membership/individual-membership.

Term Membership Deadline

and Candidate Notiﬁcation

The annual application deadline for term mem-

bership is January . All term membership

candidates and their letter writers will receive

notiﬁcation of the election decisions in late June.

The Stephen M. Kellen Term Member Pro-

gram, established in  to cultivate the next

generation of foreign policy leaders, encour-

ages professionals from diverse backgrounds

to engage in a sustained conversation on inter-

national aairs and U.S. foreign policy. Each

year, a new class of term members between the

ages of thirty and thirty-six is elected to serve

a ﬁxed ﬁve-year term. Term members enjoy a

full range of activities, including events with

high-proﬁle speakers; an annual Term Mem-

ber Conference; roundtables; trips to various

sites, including military bases, international

organizations, and U.S. governmental agen-

cies; and one weeklong study trip abroad every

two years.

For more information on the Term Member

Program, please visit

cfr.org/membership/term-member-program.

Stephen M. Kellen

Term Member Program

Between July  and June , CFR membership increased by  percent, from

, to , members. Member records are maintained by CFR at  East th

Street, New York, NY .

Location

National

New York Area

Washington, DC, Area

Total

Industry

Education

Nonproﬁt

Financial Institutions

Law and Consulting

Government

Media and News Services

Commerce

Information Technology

Military

Medicine and Health Care

Energy and Power

Other

Total

Number

of Members

2,257

1,421

1,556

5,234

1,031

1,001

797

657

456

336

174

159

111

416

5,234

Percentage

of Membership

100

Proﬁle of the Membership

20%

19%

15%

13%

Education

Nonproﬁt

Financial

Institutions

Law and

Consulting

Other

Government

Media and News Services

Commerce

Information Technology

Military

Medicine and Health Care

Energy and Power

New York Area Washington, DC, Area National

individual members

5,234

1,421 1,556 2,257

Corporate

Program

Founded in  with twenty-ﬁve corporate

members, the Corporate Program has since

expanded to include more than one hundred

companies from various industries and regions

across the world. Through CFR’s unmatched

convening power, the program connects

private-sector leaders and decision-makers

from government, media, nongovernmental

organizations, and academia to discuss issues at

the intersection of business and foreign policy.

Corporate membership is available at three

levels: Founders ($,), President’s Circle

($,), and Aliates ($,). Member

companies have access to the Council’s intel-

lectual capital through brieﬁngs with in-house

experts, CFR resources tailored to the private

sector, Foreign Aairs magazine, and hundreds

of meetings each year, including roundtables

designed speciﬁcally for corporate executives.

The highlight of the program year is the annual

Corporate Conference, which addresses such

topics as competitiveness, geopolitical risk, and

the global economic outlook. Additionally, the

program provides professional development

opportunities for individuals on a senior man-

agement track through its Corporate Leaders

Program, and, for those at the start of their

careers, through its Young Professionals Brief-

ing series.

Proﬁle of the

Corporate Membership

Note: Percentages do not necessarily total  because of rounding.

Founders ($100,000+)

All President’s Circle and Aliates beneﬁts plus:

• Four CFR fellow brieﬁngs tailored to the

company’s interests

• Professional development opportunity for

four rising executives to participate in the

Corporate Leaders Program, which oper-

ates in conjunction with the competitive

Stephen M. Kellen Term Member Program

• Fifteen Foreign Aairs print subscriptions

• One-time complimentary cover or pre-

mium position advertisement in Foreign

Aairs and exclusive discounts on digital,