Foreign Policy Association - History

History

The Foreign Policy Association was founded in 1918 as the League of Free Nations Association. Under the chairmanship of journalist Paul Kellogg, it was formed by 141 distinguished Americans to support President Woodrow Wilson's efforts to achieve a just peace, including John Foster Dulles and Eleanor Roosevelt. The Association was reconstituted in 1923 as the Foreign Policy Association with a commitment to the careful study of all sides of international questions affecting the U.S.

In the 1920s FPA initiated Saturday luncheon discussions on foreign policy in New York City. The luncheon discussions quickly grew very popular and in 1938, 19 women formed FPA's "Off-the-Record" lecture series in order to learn even more about international affairs.

In the 1940s, the FPA pioneered international affairs radio discussions by broadcasting New York meetings and weekly talks on "The World Today" over the NBC network. Later, as the discussions among citizens spread, the FPA branches across the U.S. became forerunners of the independent World Affairs Councils founded in the 1950s. Meanwhile, the FPA's publications, Foreign Policy Reports (1925–51), Foreign Policy Bulletin (1920–61) and Headline Series(1935–present) became known and respected at the time for their clear and impartial analysis of foreign policy issues.

“In a democracy the Government functions with the consent of the whole people. The latter must be guided by the facts. The Foreign Policy Association is performing a high duty in facilitating the lucid presentation of the facts of world problems and their impact upon the United States.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1943

The heart of the FPA's outreach effort, the Great Decisions program, was launched in 1954. The program has become the largest nonpartisan public education program on international affairs in the world. The FPA continued to undertake new educational challenges to improve the teaching of world affairs in the nation's schools in the 1960s when the forerunner of FPA's Citizen's Guide to U.S. Foreign Policy was published.

“The complexity and multiplicity of the foreign policy questions facing the U.S. today places a premium on intelligent understanding of the issues by the widest possible cross-section of citizens…I am particularly impressed with the approach which the Foreign Policy Association has taken.” - John F. Kennedy, 1960

In the 1970s, Great Decisions opinion ballots were tabulated nationally for the first time. Every year results of ballot tabulations are presented to the White House, the departments of State and Defense, Members of Congress and the nation's media. Today the preparation of innovative study materials and teachers' guides, as well as workshops for teachers, are among FPA top priorities.

An updated version of the history of the Foreign Policy Association is presented in this video narrated by Tom Brokaw. It builds on the well-documented history of the Foreign Policy Association's service to the U.S. Public and the U.S. policymakers including updates on currents FPA programs and meetings.