Anglo-American Elites in the Interwar Years: Idealism and Power in the Intellectual Roots of Chatham House and the Council on Foreign Relations

Some of the most important thinking on international politics in the interwar period was not done by academics, but `think tanks' like Chatham House in London and the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, whose members were often drawn from the ranks of the policy-making community. When the intellectual roots of the leaders of the two bodies are examined, it is clear that they where far from being the detached observers with no understanding of the `real world' as sometimes portrayed by critics. Indeed, this trans-Atlantic elite were acutely aware of the importance of power and the need - as they saw it - of preserving a world organized around basic Anglo-Saxon cultural values. As forces for consensus-building in their respective countries, and between them, Chatham House and the Council on Foreign Relations provided critical forums for the more respectable `liberal' elements within the US and the UK to map out a new world order.