Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

• 1. The Philanthropist's Gift

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  On the 25th of November 1910, Andrew Carnegie stood before a crowd to announce the creation of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He had just turned seventy-five years old and decided that his final major financial commitment would be dedicated to ending war. The gift consisted of $10 million worth of first mortgage bonds paying a 5% rate of interest. This sum generated enough income to fund a new think tank dedicated to advancing world peace. Carnegie wrote in 1907 that he was drawn more to this cause than any other. His deed of gift charged trustees with hastening the abolition of international war. He gave them wide discretion over the measures they should adopt to carry out the purpose of the fund. Carnegie chose Elihu Root as the organization's first president. Root served until 1925 after winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1912.

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• 2. War And Library Initiatives

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  At the outset of America's involvement in World War I in 1917, the Carnegie Endowment trustees declared that prosecuting the war against Germany was the most effective means of promoting durable international peace. In December 1918, Secretary James Brown Scott and four other personnel sailed on the USS George Washington to join peace talks in France. While many remember Andrew Carnegie for building libraries funded by other trusts, the Endowment built libraries in Belgium, France, and Serbia. These cities had been badly damaged during the war. In 1918, the Endowment began supporting library special collections through its International Mind Alcove program. The program aimed to foster a global perspective among the public in the United States and other countries. The Endowment concluded support for this program in 1958. On the 14th of July 1923, the Hague Academy of International Law formally opened in the Peace Palace at The Hague. The Peace Palace had been built by the Carnegie Foundation Netherlands in 1913.

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• 3. Cold War Strategic Shifts

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  In 1963, the Carnegie Endowment reconstituted its International Law Program to address emerging issues like the spread of Communism and new forms of economic activity. Thomas L. Hughes became the sixth president of the Endowment in 1970. He moved headquarters from New York back to Washington D.C. and closed the European Centre in Geneva. The Endowment acquired full ownership of Foreign Policy magazine in the spring of 1978. They published it for thirty years before selling it to The Washington Post in 2008. In 1981, Associate Fred Bergsten co-founded the Institute for International Economics. Hughes formed an eighteen-member Task Force on Non-Proliferation and South Asian Security citing the danger of a nuclear arms race between India and Pakistan. Two former associates Barry Blechman and Michael Krepon founded the Henry L. Stimson Center in 1989.

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• 4. Global Expansion Strategy

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  Morton Abramowitz was named the seventh president of the Endowment in 1991 and focused attention on Russia in the post-Soviet era. The Carnegie Moscow Center opened in 1994 as a home for Russian scholar-commentators. Jessica Mathews joined as the eighth president in May 1997 with the goal of becoming the first multinational global think tank. During her tenure, the organization launched the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut in 2006. Carnegie Europe followed in Brussels in 2007. The Carnegie-Tsinghua Center opened at Tsinghua University in Beijing in 2010. An additional program established partnership with al-Farabi Kazakh National University in Kazakhstan in late 2011. Carnegie India opened in New Delhi in April 2016. These centers combined research platforms with fresh perspectives from Washington to bring a unique global vision to policy communities worldwide.

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• 5. Geopolitical Challenges And Closures

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  In February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine shortly after which the Russian government ordered the closure of the Carnegie Moscow Center. Dmitri Trenin had headed the center until that directive arrived in April 2022. In April 2023, Russia's Ministry of Justice added the Centre to the list of foreign agents. By July 2024, it designated the organization as undesirable. Following these events, the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center opened in Berlin Germany in April 2023. This new center focuses on major policy challenges across the wider region in the wake of the invasion. It is home to the digital publication Carnegie Politika. The original Moscow center was led by Rose Gottemoeller from 2006 until December 2008 before being handed over to other leadership.

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• 6. Leadership Succession Patterns

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  Elihu Root served as president from 1912 until 1925 and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1912. Nicholas Murray Butler succeeded him and served until 1945. John Foster Dulles became chairman of the board of trustees in 1947 and served until Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed him Secretary of State in 1952. Alger Hiss took office as president in 1946 but resigned in 1949 after being denounced as a spy for the Soviet Union. James T. Shotwell replaced him temporarily before Joseph E. Johnson took the helm in 1950. Thomas L. Hughes led from 1971 to 1991 while Morton I. Abramowitz served from 1991 to 1997. Jessica Mathews held the position from 1997 to 2015. William J. Burns became ninth president in 2015 and later became Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar assumed the presidency on the 1st of November 2021.

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