Foreign Affairs

Lore & Background

The Council on Foreign Relations, a group founded in the summer of 1921, was made up mostly of diplomats, financiers, scholars, and lawyers. Its original mission was to create an ongoing conversation about international issues affecting the United States by gathering experts in government, finance, industry, education, and science. During its first year, the Council focused on meetings and small discussion groups, but it later decided to reach a larger audience. On September 15, 1922, it began publishing a quarterly journal called Foreign Affairs.

Harvard professor Archibald Cary Coolidge was named the first editor, but because he did not want to leave Boston for New York, Hamilton Fish Armstrong—a Princeton graduate and European correspondent for the New York Evening Post—became managing editor and handled the daily work of publishing from New York. Armstrong chose the magazine’s signature light blue cover, and his sisters, Margaret and Helen, designed the logo and lettering. Foreign Affairs took over from the Journal of International Relations, which had been published from 1910 to 1922, and that journal had itself succeeded the Journal of Race Development, which ran from 1911 to 1919. That earlier title reflected concerns about racial tensions and racial mixing during a time when empires were starting to face challenges.

Reader's Guide

Foreign Affairs is considered one of the United States' most influential and prestigious foreign-policy magazines. It has published many highly influential articles, including George Kennan's 'X Article' (1947) and Samuel P. Huntington's 'The Clash of Civilizations' (1993). Leading academics, public officials, and members of the policy community regularly contribute to the magazine. Since its inception, Foreign Affairs has included a long book review section, typically reviewing 50 or more books per issue.

The magazine's first editor, Archibald Cary Coolidge, asked his Harvard colleague, William L. Langer, a historian and World War I veteran, to run the section. Langer initially had full control over the magazine's book reviews and wrote all the reviews himself. Beginning with the first issue in 1922, Harry Elmer Barnes authored a reoccurring section titled 'Some Recent Books on International Relations'.

By 1924, the Foreign Affairs website lists Barnes as Bibliographical Editor. In the late 1930s, the review section was broken down into several categories. Currently, the Foreign Affairs reviews are broken down into long review essays, which are placed at the front of the books section, and the 'Recent Books' section, where shorter reviews are featured. The 'Recent Books' section is further broken down into subject categories reviewed by various experts.

Did You Know?

• The lead article in the first issue of Foreign Affairs was written by former secretary of state Elihu Root.
• John Foster Dulles contributed an article to the inaugural issue on Allied debt following World War I.
• In 1925, Foreign Affairs published a series of articles titled 'Worlds of Color' by W. E. B. Du Bois.
• Eleven U.S. secretaries of state have written essays in Foreign Affairs.
• As of the source, Foreign Affairs total readership is 303,000 for the print magazine and it has 1.2 million unique visitors per month for the website.