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The Royal Institute of International Affairs | |
 | |
.jpg) Entrance to Chatham House in 2012 | |
| Established | 1920; 105 years ago (1920) |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | 10St James's Square London, England |
| Membership | 6,000 (approx.) |
| Website | chathamhouse |
Formerly called | The British Institute of International Affairs |
The Royal Institute of International Affairs, also known asChatham House, is a Britishthink tank based inLondon, England. Its stated mission is "to help governments and societies build a sustainably secure, prosperous, and just world." Conversely, it has been praised for providing a safe space for speakers and encouraging openness.[1]
The Royal Institute of International Affairs has its headquarters in central London at 10St James's Square, which is known as Chatham House. It is aGrade I listed 18th-century building that was designed in part byHenry Flitcroft and was occupied by three British prime ministers, includingWilliam Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, whose name became associated with the house.[2] Canadianphilanthropists Lieutenant-ColonelReuben Wells Leonard and Kate Rowlands Leonard purchased the property in 1923 and then donated the building to the fledgling institute as its headquarters.[3] As a result, the Chatham House name is used as ametonym for the institute as a whole.
Chatham House accepts individual members, as well as members fromcorporations,academic institutions, embassies, andNGOs.[4] The institute has also faced scrutiny over perceivedelitism, limited funding transparency, alignment withinterventionist foreign policy positions, and its early links toBritish imperialism.[5] It is the originator of theChatham House Rule.
Chatham House is the origin of the non-attribution rule known as the Chatham House Rule, which provides that a participant in a meeting may discuss the content of this meeting in the outside world, but may not discuss who attended nor identify what a specific individual said. The Chatham House Rule evolved to facilitate frank and honest discussion on controversial or unpopular issues by speakers who may not have otherwise had the appropriate forum to speak freely. Most meetings at Chatham House are heldon the record rather than under the Chatham House Rule.[6]
Chatham House is structured around thirteen research programmes, comprising six thematic programmes and seven regional programmes.
Thematic programmes:
The latter four programmes are grouped together under the umbrella of the Global Governance and Security Centre, which looks at evolving challenges to the international norms, values and institutions of the current global order.
The Environment and Society Centre also houses the Sustainability Accelerator, an initiative that aims to combine the best of evidence-based policymaking with the experimental approach of the entrepreneurship community to reach sustainability solutions.
Regional programmes:
Chatham House regularly hosts speakers from the UK and international policy and business communities.[7]
Chatham House has produced the policy journalInternational Affairs since 1922, and theJournal of Cyber Policy[8] since 2016. It has also published a quarterly global affairs magazine,The World Today, since 1945.[9]
The Royal Institute of International Affairs originated in a meeting, convened byLionel Curtis, of the American and British delegates to theParis Peace Conference on 30 May 1919. Curtis had long been an advocate for the scientific study of international affairs and, following the beneficial exchange of information after the peace conference, argued that the method of expert analysis and debate should be continued when the delegates returned home in the form of international institute.[10]The British and American delegates formed separate institutes, with the Americans developing theCouncil on Foreign Relations in New York City.[11]
The British Institute of International Affairs, as it was then known, held its inaugural meeting, chaired byRobert Cecil, on 5 July 1920. In this, former Foreign SecretaryEdward Grey moved the resolution calling the institute into existence: "That an Institute be constituted for the study of International Questions, to be called the British Institute of International Affairs."[12] These two, along withArthur J. Balfour andJohn R. Clynes, became the first Presidents of the institute, with Lionel Curtis andG. M. Gathorne–Hardy appointed joint Honorary Secretaries.[12]
By 1922, as the institute's membership grew, there was a need for a larger and more practical space and the Institute acquired, through the gift of CanadianColonel R. W. Leonard, Chatham House, Number 10St. James's Square, where the institute is still housed.[13]
Following its inception, the Institute quickly focused upon Edward Grey's resolution, with the 1920s proving an active decade at Chatham House. The journalInternational Affairs was launched in January 1922, allowing for the international circulation of the various reports and discussions which took place within the institute.[13]
After being appointed as Director of Studies, ProfessorArnold Toynbee produced the institute's annual Survey of International Affairs until his retirement in 1955. While providing a detailed annual overview of international relations, the survey's primary role was 'to record current international history'.[14] The survey continued until 1963 and was well received throughout the Institution, coming to be known as 'the characteristic external expression of Chatham House research: a pioneer in method and a model for scholarship.'[15]
In 1926, 14 members of Chatham House represented theUnited Kingdom at the first conference of theInstitute of Pacific Relations, a forum dedicated to the discussion of problems and relations between Pacific nations.[16] The IPR served as a platform for the institute to develop a political and commercial awareness of the region, with special focus being placed upon China's economic development and international relations.[17]
In the same year the Institute received itsroyal charter, thereupon being known as the Royal Institute of International Affairs. The Charter set out the aims and objectives of the institute, which were to "advance the sciences of international politics... promote the study and investigation of international questions by means of lectures and discussion... promote the exchange of information, knowledge and thought on international affairs."[18]
The year 1929 marked the next stage in the institute's development, with the appointment of a full-time chief executive or director.Ivison Macadam was appointed to the position (Secretary and then Director-General),[19] in which he oversaw the institute's rapid expansion with its growing research, organisational and financial needs,[20] a role he occupied until 1955.
Macadam was able to secure funding to expand the physical plant of the Institute by acquiring the freeholds of 6 Duke of York Street, then called York Street (largely through the generosity ofWaldorf Astor,John Power, and others) and later 9 St James's Square, thenthe Portland Club, in 1943 (through a donation to cover its purchase byHenry Price), and connect these adjoining properties to the original freehold property of Chatham House at 10 St James Square (with the cost of these connections covered by Astor's sons, William, David, and John). Power also donated his leasehold property in Chesham Place to the Institute in 1938. These additional properties provided much needed additional space for the institute's activities.[21]
1929 also saw the inception of the institute's special study group on the international gold problem. The group, which included leading economists such asJohn Maynard Keynes, conducted a three-year study into the developing economic issues which the post-war international monetary settlement created.[22] The group's research anticipated Britain's decision to abandon thegold standard two years later.[23]
Around this time Chatham House became known as the place for leading statesmen and actors in world affairs to visit when in London; notably,Mahatma Gandhi visited the institute on 20 October 1931, in which he delivered a talk on "The Future of India". The talk was attended by 750 members, making it the institute's largest meeting up to that point.[24]
In 1933Norman Angell, whilst working within the institute's Council, was awarded theNobel Peace Prize for his bookThe Great Illusion, making him the first and only Laureate to be awarded the prize for publishing a book.[24]
Chatham House held the first Commonwealth Relations Conference inToronto, Ontario,Canada in 1933. Held roughly every five years, the conference provided a forum for leading politicians, lawyers, academics and others to discuss the implications of recent Imperial Conferences.[25] With various dominion nations seeking to follow individual foreign policy aims, Major-General SirNeill Malcolm, the chairman of the Council of the institute,[26] emphasised the need for "essential agreement in matters of foreign policy between the various Governments," with the Commonwealth Relations Conference being the vehicle upon which this cooperation would be achieved and maintained.[27]
At the outbreak of theSecond World War the institute was decentralised for security reasons, with many of the staff moving toBalliol College, Oxford from Chatham House's main buildings inSt James's Square. There, the Foreign Press and Research Service of the Institute worked closely with theForeign Office to provide intelligence for and to work closely with theForeign Office dedicating their research to the war effort under the Chairmanship ofWaldorf Astor,[26]
The formal remit of Chatham House for the FPRS at Balliol was:
1. To review the press overseas.
2. To “produce at the request of the Foreign Office, and the Service and other Departments, memoranda giving the historical and political background on any given situation on which information is desired”.
3. “To provide information on special points desired" (in regards to each country).[28] It provided various reports on foreign press, historical and political background of the enemy and various other topics.
Many eminent historians served on the FPRS underArnold J. Toynbee as its director and withLionel Curtis (represented the Chairman) at Oxford until 1941 whenIvison Macadam took over from him. There were four deputy directors,Alfred Zimmern,George N. Clark,Herbert J. Patton andCharles K. Webster, and a number of experts in nineteen national divisions.[29]
It was moved to the Foreign Office 1943–46.[30]
The institute also provided many additional services to scholars and the armed forces at its St. James's Square home. The Institute reopened formally on 28 October 1943; the session was addressed by the American commanding general of U.S. Army logistics forces in the ETO, then-Maj. Gen.John C. H. Lee, who spent a substantial part of his time working with the Theater G-5 officer (Civil-Military Affairs), MGRay W. Barker. Research facilities were opened to refugee and allied academics, whilst arrangements were made for both theNational Institute of Economic and Social Research and the Polish Research Centre to relocate to the Institute following the bombing of their premises. In addition, allied officers undertook courses in international affairs at the Institute in an attempt to develop their international and political awareness as well as post-war reconstruction planning.[28]
Chatham House had been researching potential post-war issues as early as 1939 through the Committee on Reconstruction.[28] Whilst a number of staff returned to the Institute at the end of the war, a proportion of members found themselves joining a range of international organisations, including theUnited Nations and theInternational Monetary Fund. Combining this with the institute's early support of the League of Nations and impact of the gold study on theBretton Woods system, Chatham House found itself to be a leading actor in international political and economic redevelopment.[28]
In reaction to the changing post-war world, Chatham House embarked on a number of studies relating to Britain and theCommonwealth's new political stature, in light of growing calls fordecolonisation and the development of theCold War.[31] A board of studies in race relations was created in 1953, allowing for the close examination of changing attitudes and calls for racial equality throughout the world. The group broke off into an independent charity in 1958, forming theInstitute of Race Relations.[32]
Following theCuban Missile Crisis andBrazilian coup d'état, the institute developed a growing focus on the Latin American region.Che Guevara, thenCuba's Minister of Industry, wrote an analysis of 'The Cuban Economy: Its Past and Present Importance' in 1964 forInternational Affairs.[33]
Chatham House played a more direct role in the international affairs of theCold War through the October 1975 Anglo-Soviet round-table, the first in a series of meetings between Chatham House and theInstitute of World Economy and International Relations in Moscow. As an early example oftwo-track diplomacy, the meeting sought to develop closer communication and improved relations between Britain and the Soviet Union.[34]
At the start of the 1980s, the Council moved to expand the institute's research capabilities in two key emerging areas. The first modern programmes to be created under this initiative were the Energy and Research Programme and the International Economics Programme, formed in 1980 - 1981.[35]
In addition to reshaping its research practices, the institute also sought to strengthen its international network, notably amongst economically prosperous nations. For example, Chatham House's Far East programme, created with the intention of improving Anglo-Japanese relations in the long and short term, was bolstered by the support of the Japan 2000 group in 1984.[36]
In 1998, Chatham House launched the Angola Forum (also known as the British-Angola Forum, BAF), expanding its research beyond Anglophone Africa, withBP as the founding sponsor.[37][38][39] Angola's oil reserves, combined with growing international ambition, facilitatedAngola's quick ascent as an influential African nation. Chatham House said the Angola Forum was intended to create an international platform for "forward looking, policy focused and influential debate and research".[37] It served as the basis for launching the Institute's wider Africa Programme in 2002, beginning the modern structure ofarea studies programmes.[40][38] Alex Vines was appointed as the head of the Africa Programme and convenor of the BAF (alongside Manuel Paulo) in 2002.[41]
In 2005,Security, Terrorism and the UK was published.[42]
The Chatham House Prize was launched in 2005, recognisingheads of state and organisations that made a significant contribution to international relations during the previous year. Queen Elizabeth II presented the debut award to Ukrainian PresidentVictor Yushchenko.[43]
In January 2013, the Institute announced its Academy for Leadership in International Affairs, offering potential and established world leaders a 12-month fellowship at the institution with the aim of providing "a unique programme of activities and training to develop a new generation of leaders in international affairs."[citation needed] In November 2014, The Queen formally launched the academy under the title of the "Queen Elizabeth II Academy for Leadership in International Affairs."[44]
The Institute celebrated its centenary in 2020 with a series of events and initiatives such as the SNF CoLab, the Common Futures Conversations project, and the introduction of a panel of young advisers,[45] plus three Chatham House Centenary Awards[46] forSir David Attenborough,Melina Abdullah andGreta Thunberg.
In April 2022, Russia designated Chatham House as an "undesirable organisation".[47]
Christopher Sabatini, a senior fellow at Chatham House, leads a project promoting opposition to the Venezuelan government ofNicholas Maduro. AfterJuan Guaidó failed to replace Maduro as president, Sabatini said "The current strategy on Venezuela hasn't worked, so we have to try something else. The Guaidó government was a failure but it did provide a rallying point which no longer exists".[48]
In 2015, several reports were published by Chatham House, includingNigeria's Booming Borders: The Drivers and Consequences of Unrecorded Trade, which urges formalising trade and driving more sustainable and less volatile growth;[49]Changing Climate, Changing Diets: Pathways to Lower Meat Consumption examines a reduction in global meat consumption as critical to keeping global warming below the "danger level" of two degrees Celsius;[50]Heat, Light and Power for Refugees: Saving Lives, Reducing Costs examines the reasons why energy provision to displaced people undermines the fundamental humanitarian aims of assistance;[51] andTowards a New Global Business Model for Antibiotics: Delinking Revenues from Sales argued for revenues for pharmaceutical companies to be de-linked from sales of antibiotics to avoid their over-use and avert a public health crisis.[52]
In 2016, Chatham House publishedElite Perceptions of the United States in Latin America and the Post-Soviet States, examining how elites in Latin America and the former Soviet Union view the United States, and providing recommendations on how the US could adjust its policies based on these perceptions.[53]
2017 reports includedThe Struggle for Ukraine, an exploration of, four years after itsEuromaidan revolution, Ukraine's fight for survival as an independent and viable state;[54]Chokepoints and Vulnerabilities in Global Food Trade advocates for policymakers to take immediate action to mitigate the risk of severe disruption at certain ports, maritime straits, and inland transport routes, which could have devastating knock-on effects for global food security;[55]Collective Action on Corruption in Nigeria: A Social Norms Approach to Connecting Society and Institutions examines how anti-corruption efforts could be made significantly more effective through new ways of understanding why people engage in the practice;[56] andAmerica's International Role Under Donald Trump explores the impact of US PresidentDonald Trump's personality and style—brash, unpredictable, contradictory and thin-skinned—on his engagement in foreign affairs.[57]
Major reports in 2018 includedTransatlantic Relations: Converging or Diverging? which argues that the longer-term fundamentals of the transatlantic relationship remain strong,[58]Making Concrete Change: Innovation in Low-carbon Cement and Concrete exploring why significant changes in how cement and concrete are produced and used are urgently needed to achieve deep cuts in emissions in line with the Paris Agreement on climate change,[59] andArtificial Intelligence and International Affairs arguing the rise of AI must be better managed in the near term in order to mitigate longer term risks and to ensure that AI does not reinforce existing inequalities.[60]
2019 saw three major reports produced.The UK and Japan makes the case that a stronger relationship could advance each country's ability to address shared global concerns.[61]Conflict Economies in the Middle East and North Africa examines the common economic factors that continue to drive conflict in Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen.[62] AndKazakhstan: Tested by Transition examines if the country can pursue modernisation and reform, and break from its authoritarian past.[63]
In 2020 and 2021, there were reports onThe Business Case for Investment in Nutrition claiming to be the first of its kind to reveal the hidden costs of malnutrition for business, and the extent to which these costs are recognised and addressed by multinational companies[64] andMyths and misconceptions in the debate on Russia which aims to deconstruct sixteen of the most prevalent myths and misconceptions that shape contemporary Western thinking on Russia.[65]
As of 2025, the chairman of the Council of Chatham House is Sir Simon Fraser, and its director and CEO isBronwen Maddox.[66] Maddox took over in 2022 fromSir Robin Niblett, who had been director of Chatham House for 15 years.[67]
Chatham House has two presidents: The Rt Hon Sir John Major KG CH, former prime minister of the United Kingdom, andHelen Clark, formerprime minister of New Zealand.[68]
Current personnel are listed on the Chatham House website.[69]
Chatham House publishes its funding sources on its website. Past donors have included the MAVA Foundation; the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office; and The Robert Bosch Stiftung GmbH.
In 2024, the funding transparency websiteWho Funds You? gave the Chatham a B grade (rating goes from A to E, with A being the most transparent).[70]
The Chatham House Prize is an annual award presented to "the person, persons, or organization deemed by members of Chatham House to have made the most significant contribution to the improvement of international relations in the previous year".[71]
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In November 2016, Chatham House was namedProspect magazine's Think-Tank of the Year, as well as the winner in the UK categories for International Affairs and Energy and Environment.[85]
In theUniversity of Pennsylvania's rankings for 2017, Chatham House was ranked thethink tank of the year,[failed verification] and the second-most influential in the world after theBrookings Institution, and the world's most influential non-U.S. think tank.[86]
Chatham House has been criticized for its perceivedelitism, lacking transparency in funding, and alignment withWestern interventionism. Scholars have noted that the think tank is operated by political, academic, and corporate elites.[87][88] TheFinancial Times has questioned the organization's limited disclosure of funding sources, particularly in comparison to European counterparts.[89] In one instance, theBureau of Investigative Journalism revealed that a report published by Chatham House was authored by a lobbyist with undisclosed financial interests in the subject matter, highlighting issues with Chatham House's editorial independence.[90] Critics have also argued that the institution has historically supported interventionist foreign policy positions, especially in relation to theIraq War andNATO expansion.[91][5]
51°30′28″N0°08′10″W / 51.5077°N 0.1360°W /51.5077; -0.1360
