Council on Foreign Relations

The Council on Foreign Relations is a nonpartisan membership organisation and think tank founded in 1921, with more than five thousand individual members. Membership is by nomination and election rather than application alone: a candidate must be nominated in writing by a current member and supported by three to four seconding letters, and the Board of Directors elects new members twice a year, in response to March and November deadlines. Eligibility is restricted to US citizens and to permanent residents who have formally applied for citizenship. Alongside life membership, the Stephen M. Kellen Term Member Program elects an annual class of members aged thirty to thirty-six for a fixed five-year term, with an annual conference, roundtables and study trips of its own. Dues are published and vary by two axes: whether the member is classed as business or nonbusiness under CFR's by-laws, and whether they live or work within fifty miles of New York City Hall, within fifty miles of the US Capitol, or elsewhere. A separate corporate programme, founded in 1953, has more than 120 member companies at three published price levels.

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CFR convenes nearly a thousand events a year: panel discussions, symposia, town halls, livestreams and CEO forums open only to members, alongside its research output and Foreign Affairs. Term members have their own programme, including an annual Term Member Conference, roundtables, domestic trips and a week-long study trip abroad. Corporate members receive briefings with CFR fellows and an annual Corporate Conference, with a CEO Summit at the top membership levels.

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Members include top government officials, scholars, business executives, journalists, lawyers and nonprofit professionals. Life members are elected on intellectual attainment, involvement in international affairs and standing among peers; term members are elected each year from candidates aged thirty to thirty-six and serve a fixed five-year term.

CFR is a think tank with a membership attached, which shapes what the membership is worth: the currency is the room and the roster rather than commercial peer advice. Three specifics are worth knowing. The citizenship restriction is real and unusual, and rules out non-citizen executives however senior. The dues structure is published in full and is one of the more transparent among selective bodies, but it is banded by geography and by a business/nonbusiness distinction defined in the by-laws, so quoted figures vary by a factor of four; dues are explicitly not tax-deductible as a charitable contribution. And the nomination rules are unusually prescriptive: nominators and seconders must know the candidate personally, relatives may not write, officers and board and membership-committee members are barred from writing, and each member may support no more than two candidates a round. The Council publishes no acceptance rate.

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