National Committee on American Foreign Policy

Abbreviation	NCAFP
Formation	1974
Type	Non-profit, nonpartisan activist organization
Headquarters	320 Park Ave.
Location	New York, New York
President	George D. Schwab
Website	ncafp.org

The National Committee on American Foreign Policy (NCAFP) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan activist organization dedicated to the resolution of conflicts that threaten U.S. interests. Founded in 1974 by Hans J. Morgenthau, the NCAFP works to identify, articulate, and advance American foreign policy interests within the framework of political realism.

Mission

American foreign policy interests include:

• Preserving and strengthening national security
• Supporting countries committed to the values and practice of political, religious, and cultural pluralism
• Improving U.S. relations with the developed and developing worlds
• Advancing human rights
• Encouraging realist arms control agreements
• Curbing the proliferation of nuclear and other unconventional weapons
• Promoting an open and global economy

The National Committee believes that an informed public is vital to a democratic society. To promote this, it offers educational programs that address security challenges facing the United States and publishes a variety of publications, including the bimonthly journal, American Foreign Policy Interests.

Task forces

Long-term National Committee task forces bring together U.S. and foreign scholars, foreign policy practitioners, and others to off-the-record and sometimes closed-door forums where adversaries can, over a period of years, air their views unencumbered by official rhetoric.

Shorter-term task forces deal with immediate foreign policy challenges facing the U.S.

Meetings

The Meetings Program offers members and guests the opportunity to share their thoughts on American foreign policy with influential policymakers, diplomats, renowned scholars, and foreign policy specialists. Each year, the National Committee convenes a series of programs, including single speaker events, panels, and roundtables addressing immediate and long-term issues of national security.

Special initiatives

In May 2004, the National Committee launched its Forum on Northeast Asian Security. Projects chaired by Henry Kissinger and Paul Volcker include exploring the potential for a nuclear-free Korean peninsula, a Northeast Asian Security Forum composed of the United States, Japan, China, Russia, South Korea, and North Korea, and breaking the impasse between China and Taiwan.

Publications

A distinguishing activity of the National Committee is the publication and dissemination of firm, reasoned positions designed to help formulate U.S. foreign policy. When, after study and discussion, the National Committee or one of its Task Forces reaches a consensus on an aspect of foreign policy that affects American national interests, the National Committee makes that judgment known to the Administration, the United States Congress, the media, and the general public.

American Foreign Policy Interests

A cornerstone of the National Committee's publication series is its bimonthly journal, American Foreign Policy Interests. It presents authoritative and provocative articles on critical questions of foreign policy written by leading scholars and policy experts.

Books and booklets

The National Committee on American Foreign Policy publishes hardcover, book-length analyses of foreign policy issues that affect the national interests of the U.S. as National Committee on American Foreign Policy Studies.

The National Committee also publishes short booklets of policy reports and recommendations. Additionally, it publishes speeches and summaries of discussions that have been the hallmarks of its foreign policy briefings, lecture series, and award ceremonies.

Awards

The National Committee presents five distinguished awards:

Hans J. Morgenthau Award

Established in 1981 to commemorate the seminal contributions made by Professor Hans J. Morgenthau to the theory and the practice of American foreign policy, the National Committee on American Foreign Policy presents the Hans J. Morgenthau Award. The person to be so honored is one whose intellectual attainments and/or practical contributions to United States foreign policy have been judged so exemplary in the tradition of Professor Morgenthau as to merit this singular award.

Recipients include:

• Angier Biddle Duke
• Sol Linowitz
• Henry A. Kissinger
• Jeane J. Kirkpatrick
• George P. Shultz
• David Rockefeller
• James A. Baker III
• Margaret Thatcher
• Thomas R. Pickering
• His Majesty King Hussein
• Colin L. Powell
• Richard N. Haass

George F. Kennan Award for Distinguished Public Service

Established in 1994 in honor of George F. Kennan, scholar, diplomat, and statesman, this award honors an American who has served the United States in an exemplary way and has made a seminal contribution to defining and illuminating the national interests of the United States.

Recipients include:

• George F. Kennan
• Cyrus R. Vance
• Paul A. Volcker
• Richard C. Holbrooke
• Maurice R. Greenberg
• John D. Negroponte
• General David Petraeus
• NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly

William J. Flynn Initiative for Peace Award

Established as the Initiative for Peace Award in 1997 in honor of William J. Flynn, NCAFP chairman, for his decisive leadership and daring diplomacy in spurring two cease-fires and promoting the peace process in Northern Ireland, the award, renamed in 2001, is presented to an individual who has worked tirelessly to resolve a conflict that has affected the national interests of the United States.

Recipients include:

• William J. Flynn
• George J. Mitchell
• Marjorie Mowlam
• Viola Drath
• Hugh Carey
• Gerry Adams

Global Business Leadership Award

This award is presented by the National Committee on American Foreign Policy to honor a prominent business leader whose efforts have contributed to setting an unimpeachable standard for globally oriented corporate citizenship promoting the national interests of the United States.

Recipients include:

• Paul E. Jacobs

21st Century Leader Award

The 21st Century Leader Award was created to recognize the achievements of individuals under the age of 40 who display a serious commitment to furthering the United States’ strategic policy interests in accord with the principles of political realism. Through their professional or personal pursuits, they make important contributions to the international dialogue and demonstrate a promising future in the realm of American foreign policy.

Recipients include:

• Nancy Walbridge Collins
• Abraham Denmark
• Marisa Porges
• Nathaniel Fick
• John Delury
• Joshua Cooper Ramo

External links

• National Committee on American Foreign Policy