ABSTRACT
America's pioneer world affairs foundation, the Endowment had a sixty-year prehistory before 1971. The Endowment's American headquarters were located in Washington and New York, with European "centers" in Paris until 1950 and Geneva thereafter. The Endowment returned to Washington in 1971 not only under an often uncongenial political atmosphere but also amidst a growing proliferation of literally dozens of nongovernmental organizations, many of them also think tanks on foreign policy and international security issues. The Endowment's comparative advantages flowed in large part from its financial independence and relatively small size. The activities of the Endowment are shaped by its charter to advance the cause of world peace. It seeks to be relevant by focusing on critical topics of American and international policy with a changing mix of projects conducted by experienced people.
