Reply #11: Best source to understand the CFR is Larry Shoup [View All]

Lawrence Shoup is co-author of Imperial Brain Trust: the Council on Foreign Relations and U.S. Foreign Policy (with William Minter) published in 1977 by Monthly Review Press. Imperial Brain Trust has recently been reprinted and is available at Amazon and is still very powerful reading. I talked to him on the phone and he's a down to earth guy. Shoup currently is the active in the California Green Party.

In the For Further Reading section of the CFR website, Peter Grosse, managing editor and then executive editor of Foreign Affairs from 1984 to 1993, writes:

The most important critical analysis of the Council is: Laurence H. Shoup and William Minter, Imperial Brain Trust: The Council on Foreign Relations and United States Foreign Policy (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1977)


Fortunately Laurence H. Shoup has written two recent articles on the CFR for Z magazine. They are:

1) POLICY PLANNING: Behind the Bipartisan Drive Toward War by Laurence H. Shoup (March 2003)
http://zmagsite.zmag.org/Mar2003/shoup0303.html

2)FOREIGN POLICY: Bush, Kerry, and the CFR by Laurence H. Shoup (October 2004)
http://zmagsite.zmag.org/Oct2004/shoup1004.html
(You may need to subscribe to access this second article)

I based the outline of the CFR I've made below on these two articles but they deal with much more than I've outlined. Please read them.


*All information below either given by Laurence H Shoup. Mr. Shoup gave the names of Harris and Blackwell in a phone conversation and the rest are from his two recent articles in Z magazine. Mr. Shoup agreed with me that Vote Fraud would be in the CFR bailiwick as they “have a lot of experience with that in other countries”.)

Council of Foreign Relations


A. CFR Members involved with Florida and Ohio elections elections

1.Katherine Harris

2.J. Kenneth Blackwell


B.Members of CFR involved candidates or members of current administration

1.John Kerry

2.Dick Chaney

3.Colin Powell

4.Condolezza Rice

5.Paul Wolfowitz

6.John Negroponte


C.Other significant political figures that are CFR members

Presidents: George H.W. Bush (former member), James Earl Carter, Bill Clinton, Gerald R. Ford

Vice Presidents: Richard B. Cheney, Walter F. Mondale

Secretaries of State: Madeleine Albright, James A. Baker III, Warren Christopher, Alexander M. Haig Jr., Henry A. Kissinger, Colin L. Powell, William D. Rogers, George P. Shultz

National Security Advisors: Richard V. Allen, Samuel Berger, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Henry A. Kissinger, W. Anthony Lake, Robert C. McFarlane, Condoleezza Rice, W.W. Rostow, Brent Scowcroft

Secretaries of Defense: Harold Brown, Frank C. Carlucci, Richard B. Cheney, William S. Cohen, Robert S. McNamara, Casper W. Weinberger

CIA Directors: Richard Helms, George Tenet, Stansfield Turner, William Webster, Frank G. Wisner II, R. James Woolsey

U.S. Senators and Congresspersons: Howard H. Baker Jr., Alfonse M. D’Amato, William H. Danforth, Christopher J. Dodd, Richard A. Gephardt, Newton L. Gingrich, Barney Frank, Peter H.B. Frelinghuysen, Geraldine A. Ferraro, Bob Graham, Chuck Hagel, Jane Harman, Gary Hart, Bob Kerrey, John F. Kerry, Joseph I. Lieberman, George S. McGovern, Daniel P. Moynihan, Claiborne Pell, Charles H. Percy, Warren B. Rudman, Charles E. Schumer, Steven J. Solarz, Adlai E. Stevenson, Robert G. Torricelli, John William Warner


D. Corporate Directors on CFR

American Insurance Group and Citigroup: Eight directors

J.P. Morgan Chase, Boeing: Six directors

The Blackstone Group, Conoco, Disney/ABC: Five directors

Kissinger-McLarty Associates, IBM, Exxon Mobil, Dow Jones/Wall Street Journal, Viacom/CBS, Time Warner: Four directors

The Carlyle Group, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse First Boston. Washington Post/Newsweek, Chevron Texaco, Lockheed Martin, Halliburton, Alliance Capital: Three directors

E. The CFR and the Ruling Class

1.Prime characteristic of the U.S. upper class is its high level of organization.

2.Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is a central organization

3.CFR is the most influential of all private policy planning groups.

4.Greatest strength is mainly exercised behind the scenes

5.Unique position among policy groups: both a think tank for foreign and economic policy and also has a large membership comprising some of the most important individuals in U.S. economic, intellectual, and political life.

6.The Council has a yearly budget of about $30 million and a staff of over 200.

7.CFR's goals are to continuously work out the general framework for American foreign policy and to keep public debate within “respectable” bounds acceptable to the corporate power structure and the wealthy upper class it serves.


F. CFR Overlapping Think Tank Activities

1.Influential Forums

a) mainly held in New York and Washington, DC

b) senior government, corporate leaders, prominent intellectuals, and foreign dignitaries meet with Council members to discuss and debate the U.S. role in the world and the strategy and tactics required to accomplish U.S. Goals.


2.Organizing and implementing a wide-ranging studies program
a) CFR fellows draw on members and others to collectively study a foreign policy issue.

b) result of this work is then reported and often presented to government officials as policy recommendations.


3. Occupy positions in government

a) Council employees and members are often tapped to serve in the federal government in appointed positions,

b) number also serve as elected officials, especially at the higher levels.


4. CFR publishes Foreign Affairs magazine

a) prints study group recommendations written by a prominent CFR fellow or member and in this way shapes policy debates as they emerge.

b) published recommendation are widely and correctly understood to result largely from the efforts and thinking of the entire group


G. Council’s second key source of power

1)Membership function

a) more informal, involving a network of almost 4,200 members from many backgrounds and professions

b) membership in the Council is by invitation only and is bipartisan

c)member must be a U.S. citizen who has been nominated and seconded by other CFR members and elected by the Board of Directors.

ci)two-thirds live in the New York and Washington, DC areas.

d)31% (1,299 individuals) are from the corporate (“business”) sector

di)25% (1,071 individuals) coming from varied academic settings
(professors, university administrators, researchers, fellows).

dii)15% nonprofits (640)

diii)13% government (541)

div)8% law (319)

dv) 6% media (248),

dvi)2% “other” (74).

dvii) Members pay a yearly fee on a sliding scale, depending on age, occupation, and residence

e) sample of membership includes:

David Rockefeller

Henry Kissinger

Peter G. Peterson

George Soros

Maurice Greenberg

Robert Rubin

George P. Shultz

Alan Greenspan

Zbigniew Brzezinski

Richard Cheney

George Tenet

John Sweeney

Jessie Jackson

Jimmy Carter

Bill Clinton

Katrina vanden Heuvel

Richard J. Barnet

Daniel Schorr.


2)Corporate membership:

a) executives from 200 “leading international companies representing a range of sectors” participate in special CFR programs.

b) corporations representing capital in its most abstract forms—the financial sector, the largest commercial and investment banks, insurance companies, and strategic planning corporations—are most heavily represented in the Council.

c) Petroleum, military, and media companies also have fairly close connections