The Contribution of the Council on Foreign Relations to Shaping U.S. Foreign Policy Strategy During World War II

Abstract

The article explores the role of the Council on Foreign Relations in shaping the foreign policy strategy of the United States during World War II. It is demonstrated that the cooperation between the organization and governmental structures laid the foundations for the subsequent institutionalization of the influence of intellectual circles in the process of strategic decision-making in the war years.

The author argues that the American intellectual elite, as a socio-political phenomenon, played a significant role in conceptualizing American foreign policy and national interest. Analyzing the activities of unofficial and semi-official actors, as well as the intellectual networks they created, allows for the reconstruction of a comprehensive picture of intellectual efforts aimed at revising the key directions of U.S. foreign policy during World War II. A prominent role in this process was played by the Council on Foreign Relations, which helped introduce the idea of American global leadership into the official agenda and provided the government with recommendations on how to implement this concept.

An analysis of the documents and official records prepared by the Council on Foreign Relations provides grounds to assert the organization’s ideological influence on the Atlantic Charter of 1941, its subsequent political instrumentalization, and the creation of a new peace platform based on the United Nations format. Equally important is that the Council’s call for the U.S. to lead international processes during the war and in the post-war era was based not only on past historical experience but also on forecasting a confrontation with the Soviet Union. It makes the organization’s research findings especially valuable both for defining foreign policy objectives and for postulating a new vision of the socio-political reality and conditions for national life development as a whole.