Recent Activities

RIETI signs MOU on Cooperation with the Council on Foreign Relations

RIETI signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation with the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) of the United States in July 2011.

The Council on Foreign Relations, established in 1921, is a nonprofit membership organization, think tank, and publisher specializing in foreign affairs. Its headquarters is located in New York.

Maintaining a diverse membership, the CFR is engaged in activities that include (1) convening meetings in locations such as New York and Washington D.C., (2) facilitating independent research, and (3) publishing Foreign Affairs, the preeminent journal on international affairs and U.S. foreign policy. The first chairman of the CFR was Elihu Root, a former Secretary of State of the United States, and many major cabinet members and high officials of U.S. administrations after World War II were members of the council.

RIETI has invited experts who are CFR members, such as Edward Lincoln, as lecturers at past seminars, and has accepted CFR fellows invited to Japan by the CFR-Hitachi Fellowship Program as its visiting scholars.

In light of the past record of cooperation, RIETI and CFR have agreed to formalize their cooperative relationship by a written agreement so that RIETI may host visiting scholars from CFR on a regular basis. The present memorandum was signed as such an agreement.

RIETI has been active in international activities, promoting research exchange with the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), a representative European research institution, and joint research with the Development Research Center of the State Council (DRC) of China. RIETI hopes to further develop its international network and enhance its international research activities by engaging in more active exchanges with the Council on Foreign Relations.