Foreign Affairs
This article needs to be updated.(August 2023) |
ISSN 0015-7120 | |
Foreign Affairs is an American magazine of international relations and U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs.[1] Founded on 15 September 1922, the print magazine is currently published every two months, while the website publishes articles daily and anthologies every other month.
Foreign Affairs is considered one of the United States' most influential foreign policy magazines. Over its long history, it has published a number of seminal articles including
Leading academics, public officials, and members of the policy community regularly contribute to the magazine. Recent Foreign Affairs authors include
History
The Council on Foreign Relations, founded in the summer of 1921, primarily counted diplomats, financiers, scholars, and lawyers among its members. Its founding charter declared its purpose should be to "afford a continuous conference on international questions affecting the United States, by bringing together experts on statecraft, finance, industry, education, and science."[5][6] In its first year, the Council engaged primarily in discourse via meetings and small discussion groups, however, eventually it decided to seek a wider audience and it began publishing Foreign Affairs on 15 September 1922 on a quarterly basis.[5][7]
The Council named Professor
Foreign Affairs is a successor publication of the Journal of International Relations (which ran from 1910 to 1922), which in turn was a successor to the Journal of Race Development (which ran from 1911 to 1919, the title reflecting concerns about race tensions and race "mixing" in a period when empires were beginning to be in question).[9]
1922–1945
The lead article in the first issue of Foreign Affairs was written by the former
In 1925, Foreign Affairs published a series of articles, entitled "Worlds of Color",
1945–1991
The journal rose to its greatest prominence after
Eleven U.S.
1991–present
Since the end of the Cold War, and especially after the 9/11 attacks, the journal's readership has grown significantly. As of April 2021[update], Foreign Affairs's total readership is 303,000 for the print magazine and it has 1.2 million unique visitors per month for the website.[12]
In the Summer 1993 issue, Foreign Affairs published Samuel P. Huntington's influential "Clash of Civilizations?" article.[3] In the article, Huntington argued that "the fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural."[3]
In the November/December 2003 issue of Foreign Affairs,
Then-opposition leader and former
In 2009, Foreign Affairs launched its new website, ForeignAffairs.com, which offers both print content and online-only features.[14]
Beginning with the January/February 2013 issue, Foreign Affairs was redesigned including that the cover would have an image. Per Politico's story on the redesign: "As part of an effort to expand its appeal beyond the foreign policy establishment, every issue of Foreign Affairs will now feature a photograph on the cover and an extensive interview with a leading newsmaker."[15]
Book reviews
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. A month before the reviews were due, the Foreign Affairs office in New York would ship approximately one hundred books to Langer for review and within two weeks he would return his completed reviews for the next issue.[citation needed]
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.[16]
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 the following subject categories.
- Political and Legal, reviewed by G. John Ikenberry
- Economic, Social, and Environmental, reviewed by Barry Eichengreen
- Military, Scientific, and Technological, reviewed by Lawrence D. Freedman
- The United States, reviewed by Jessica T. Mathews
- Western Europe, reviewed by Andrew Moravcsik
- Western Hemisphere, reviewed by Richard Feinberg
- Eastern Europe and Former Soviet Republics, reviewed by Maria Lipman
- Middle East, reviewed by Lisa Anderson
- Asia and Pacific, reviewed by Andrew J. Nathan
- Africa, reviewed by Nicolas van de Walle
The majority of the book reviews featured in the "Recent Books" section are reviewed by the same person; however, other reviewers contribute to the "Recent Books" section on occasion.
Influence
Foreign Affairs is considered an important forum for debate among academics and policy makers. In 1996, Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott noted: "Virtually everyone I know in the foreign policy-national security area of the Government is attentive to Foreign Affairs."[17]
According to the Journal Citation Reports, the journal has a 2014 impact factor of 2.009, ranking it 6th out of 85 journals in the category "International Relations".[18][needs update]
Editors
- Daniel Kurtz-Phelan: 2021–present
- Gideon Rose: 2010–2021[19][20]
- James F. Hoge, Jr.: 1992–2010
- William G. Hyland: 1984–1992
- William P. Bundy: 1972–1984
- Hamilton Fish Armstrong: 1928–1972
- Archibald Cary Coolidge: 1922–1928
References
- britannica.com. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
- ^ Kennan, George F. (July 1947). "The Sources of Soviet Conduct". Foreign Affairs. 25 (July 1947). Retrieved September 27, 2016.
- ^ JSTOR 20045621. Retrieved September 27, 2016.
- ^ "Authors". Foreign Affairs. Retrieved September 27, 2016.
- ^ a b "CFR History". Council on Foreign Relations. Archived from the original on August 21, 2012. Retrieved September 27, 2016.
- ^ Continuing the Inquiry: The Council on Foreign Relations from 1921 to 1996 Archived 2016-09-16 at the Wayback Machine, pg 9.
- ^ Continuing the Inquiry: The Council on Foreign Relations from 1921 to 1996 Archived 2016-09-16 at the Wayback Machine, pg 12.
- ^ a b c Bundy, William P. (1994). "History". Foreign Affairs.
- Notes on an exhibit of materials related to the Council on Foreign Relations and Foreign Affairs at the Firestone Library of Princeton University, Fall 1993.
- ISBN 978-0143123941.
- JSTOR 20028386. Retrieved September 27, 2016.
- ISBN 0-674-92275-1.
- ^ "Circulation". Foreign Affairs. Archived from the original on April 11, 2021.
- Washington Post. Retrieved September 27, 2016.
- ISSN 0015-7120. Retrieved October 25, 2023.
- ^ Byars, Dulan (December 19, 2012). "First Look: The Foreign Affairs Redesign". Politico. Archived from the original.
- ^ Barnes, Harry Elmer (June 1924). "The World Struggle for Oil". Foreign Affairs. Capsule Reviews. 2 (4). Council on Foreign Relations.
Reviewed By Harry Elmer Barnes Bibliographical Editor
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved September 5, 2017.
- ^ "Journals Ranked by Impact: International Relations". 2014 Journal Citation Reports. Web of Science (Social Sciences ed.). Thomson Reuters. 2015.
- ^ Continuing the Inquiry: The Council on Foreign Relations from 1921 to 1996 Archived 2016-09-16 at the Wayback Machine, pg 73.
- ^ "Staff". Foreign Affairs. Retrieved September 27, 2016.
External links
- Official website
- Foreign Affairs archive (1922–) at JSTOR
- The Journal of International Relations archive (1919–1922) at JSTOR
- The Journal of Race Development archive (1910–1919) at JSTOR