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Between December 1953 and June 1954, the elite think-tank the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) joined prominent figures in International Relations, including Pennsylvania’s Robert Strausz-Hupé, Yale’s Arnold Wolfers, the Rockefeller Foundation’s William Thompson, government adviser Dorothy Fosdick, and nuclear strategist William Kaufmann. They spent seven meetings assessing approaches to world politics—from the “realist” theory of Hans Morgenthau to theories of imperialism of Karl Marx and V.I. Lenin—to discern basic elements of a theory of international relations.

The study group’s materials are an indispensable window to the development of IR theory, illuminating the seeds of the theory-practice nexus in Cold War U.S. foreign policy. Historians of International Relations recently revised the standard narrative of the field’s origins, showing that IR witnessed a sharp turn to theoretical consideration of international politics beginning around 1950, and remained preoccupied with theory. Taking place in 1953–54, the CFR study group represents a vital snapshot of this shift.

This book situates the CFR study group in its historical and historiographical contexts, and offers a biographical analysis of the participants. It includes seven preparatory papers on diverse theoretical approaches, penned by former Berkeley political scientist George A. Lipsky, followed by the digest of discussions from the study group meetings. American Power and International Theory at the Council on Foreign Relations, 1953–54 offers new insights into the early development of IR as well as the thinking of prominent elites in the early years of the Cold War.

Bartolomé de las Casas began his transatlantic career in 1502. Experiences of conquest and penitential discipline led him to renounce his Indian slaves and holdings. He dedicated his life to reforming Spain’s colonial project, eventually joining the Dominicans, and later serving as bishop. His works are foundational for our understanding of early colonialism. This volume’s seven letters—all but one in English for the first time—span the initial stage of his long career as “Protector of the Indians.” Las Casas harangues corrupt officials, denounces perverse incentives, and lays out detailed plans for Spain’s presence in the Americas. He calls for direct crown control with moral oversight by mendicant bishops, proposes alternatives to Indian labor, and demands restitution for stolen property. These letters led to legal changes in the Indies, influencing later Jesuit reducciones in the Río de la Plata and Franciscan missions in California. They also reveal an entrepreneurial Las Casas with moral reflection on early global trade and commerce. The watershed “Carta al Consejo”—a critical source for Latin American theology— concentrates all the force of his later writings into a figuratively rich, biblically saturated, theologically and philosophically sophisticated call to repentance and reform. His web of biblical allusions and dialogue with the Iberian Thomist renaissance are abundantly annotated. A lively introduction and copious notes carefully situate Las Casas within broader trends, including Europe’s nascent religious reformations. These letters also bridge his dramatic entry into the Dominican Order, documenting his transformation from temporal reformer to eschatological prophet. Students of law, theology, Christian mission, human rights, cultural and colonial history, and commerce, will find here rhetorical and theological treasures. While Las Casas is known chiefly for his polemical Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies, these earliest letters suggest a far broader intellectual biography.

Mormon Church founder Joseph Smith had both millennial and temporal aspirations for the organization he called the Council of Fifty, named after the number of men who were intended to comprise it. Organized a few months before Smith’s death in June 1844, it continued under Brigham Young as a secret shadow government until 1851. Minutes from the earliest meetings are closed to researchers but contemporary accounts speak of a deliberative body preparing for Christ’s imminent reign. It also helped to sponsor Smith’s U.S. presidential bid and oversaw the exodus to present-day Utah.

One member downplayed the significance of this secret legislative body in 1849 as “nothing but a debating School.” On the contrary, a typical meeting included decisions regarding irrigation, fencing, and adobe housing, after which the group sang a song written by Parley P. Pratt: “Come ye sons of doubt and wonder; Indian, Moslem, Greek or Jew; … Be to all a friend and brother; Peace on Earth, good will to men.” Two weeks later, the council called for “blood to flow” to enforce its laws.

As the nineteenth century waned and the LDS Church moved toward the American mainstream, ending its emphasis on the imminent End of Days, there was no longer a need for a Church-managed municipal group destined to become the millennial world government. The council became irrelevant but survives today as a historical artifact available in fragmented documentary pieces which are presented here for the first time.