The Royal Institute of International Affairs, also known as Chatham House, is a British think tank based in London, England. Its stated mission is "to help governments and societies build a sustainably secure, prosperous, and just world." It has been praised for providing a safe space for speakers and encouraging openness. Its current presidents are Theresa May, Valerie Amos, Baroness Amos and Helen Clark.

The Royal Institute of International Affairs has its headquarters in central London at 10 St James's Square, which is known as Chatham House. It is a Grade I listed 18th-century building that was designed in part by Henry Flitcroft and was occupied by three British prime ministers, including William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, whose name became associated with the house.Michela Rosso, "Georgian London revisited." The London Journal 26.2 (2001): 35–50. Canadian philanthropists Lieutenant-Colonel Reuben Wells Leonard and Kate Rowlands Leonard purchased the property in 1923 and then donated the building to the fledgling institute as its headquarters. As a result, the Chatham House name is used as a metonym for the institute as a whole.

Chatham House accepts individual members, as well as members from corporations, academic institutions, embassies, and NGOs. The institute has also faced scrutiny over perceived elitism, limited funding transparency, alignment with interventionist foreign policy positions, and its early links to British imperialism. It is the originator of the Chatham House Rule.

Chatham 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 held on the record rather than under the Chatham House Rule.Richard Horton, "Offline: The Chatham House Rule, over-ruled." The Lancet 375.9732 (2010): 2132.

Research structure Chatham House is structured around thirteen research programmes, comprising six thematic programmes and seven regional programmes.

Thematic programmes:

Environment and Society Global Economy and Finance Global Health International Law International Security Digital Society

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:

Africa Asia-Pacific Europe Middle East and North Africa Russia and Eurasia US and the Americas UK in the World

Chatham House regularly hosts speakers from the UK and international policy and business communities.

Chatham House has produced the policy journal International Affairs since 1922, and the Journal of Cyber Policy since 2016. It has also published a quarterly global affairs magazine, The World Today, since 1945.

Members The currently around 6,000 members pay an annual membership fee of between £170 and £365, depending on their status. Corporations and companies can choose between a partnership, a major corporate membership, and a standard corporate partnership. There are also separate memberships for academic institutions and NGOs.

Partners of Chatham House include BP, ExxonMobil, Equinor and Chevron, as well as Apple, Shell, McKinsey & Company, HSBC, Reliance Industries and Novartis. Other partners include NGOs like the Open Society Foundations, the Robert Bosch Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Stavros Niarchos Foundation, as well as the UK Ministry of Defence and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

Major corporate members include mining giants Rio Tinto Group, BHP Billiton, one of the world's largest banks Citigroup, the defense contractors BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman, the British Army, the law firm Linklaters, the world's largest accounting and consulting firms KPMG, Boston Consulting Group, Deloitte, and PricewaterhouseCoopers, media groups BBC, The Economist and Bloomberg, the City of London, the Gates Foundation, S&P Global, TikTok, Trafigura, Pfizer, Nvidia and Vodafone.

The following companies and organisations are among others represented as corporate members: Anglo American plc, Bank of England, Bank of Japan, Barclays, Bayer, Cisco, De Beers, EY, GSK, The Guardian, Hakluyt & Company, International Institute for Strategic Studies, Prudential plc, Rolls-Royce plc, Standard Chartered, Temasek Holdings, UBS, Vitol, Walmart and Wellcome Trust. NGO members include the Aga Khan Foundation, Carbon Trust, The Royal Society, Islamic Relief and Save the Children UK. Academic members include King's College London and the London School of Economics. In addition, over 60 embassies from around the world, are also members of Chatham House.

History

Origins

The Royal Institute of International Affairs originated in a meeting, convened by Lionel Curtis, of the American and British delegates to the Paris 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. The British and American delegates formed separate institutes, with the Americans developing the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City.

The British Institute of International Affairs, as it was then known, held its inaugural meeting, chaired by Robert Cecil, on 5 July 1920. In this, former Foreign Secretary Edward 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." These two, along with Arthur J. Balfour and John R. Clynes, became the first Presidents of the institute, with Lionel Curtis and G. M. Gathorne–Hardy appointed joint Honorary Secretaries.

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 Canadian Colonel R. W. Leonard, Chatham House, Number 10 St. James's Square, where the institute is still housed.

Inter-war years Following its inception, the Institute quickly focused upon Edward Grey's resolution, with the 1920s proving an active decade at Chatham House. The journal International Affairs was launched in January 1922, allowing for the international circulation of the various reports and discussions which took place within the institute.

After being appointed as Director of Studies, Professor Arnold 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'.'Report of the Council of the Royal Institute of International Affairs to the 7th AGM' in The Royal Institute of International Affairs Annual Reports 1926–1931, (London: Chatham House, 1931), p. 3. 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.''Report of the Council of the Royal Institute of International Affairs to the 7th AGM' in The Royal Institute of International Affairs Annual Reports 1926–1931, (London: Chatham House, 1931), p. 11.

In 1926, 14 members of Chatham House represented the United Kingdom at the first conference of the Institute of Pacific Relations, a forum dedicated to the discussion of problems and relations between Pacific nations.'Report of the 8th AGM' in Annual Reports 1926–1931, p. 3 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.'Report of the 11th AGM' in Annual Reports 1926–1931, p. 31.

In the same year the Institute received its royal 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."'Report of the 11th AGM' in Annual Reports 1926–1931, pp. 5–6.

Further expansion 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), in which he oversaw the institute's rapid expansion with its growing research, organisational and financial needs,Obituary of Ivison Macadam published in The Times, London, 31 December 1974 by Kenneth Younger 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 of Waldorf Astor, John Power, and others) and later 9 St James's Square, then the Portland Club, in 1943 (through a donation to cover its purchase by Henry 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.The Institute then owned the freeholds covering a rectangle of properties fronting on 10 and 9 in St. James's Square on the south running north bordered on the east by Duke of York Street to the properties on Ormand Yard on the north (the mews immediately south of Jermyn Street). These freehold properties also later proved to be a valuable financial asset when in the 1960s the northern properties were redeveloped to provide additional annual income for the Institute.

1929 also saw the inception of the institute's special study group on the international gold problem. The group, which included leading economists such as John Maynard Keynes, conducted a three-year study into the developing economic issues which the post-war international monetary settlement created. The group's research anticipated Britain's decision to abandon the gold standard two years later.

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.

In 1933 Norman Angell, whilst working within the institute's Council, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his book The Great Illusion, making him the first and only Laureate to be awarded the prize for publishing a book.