United States

In 1946, the Brookings testiration began program il research and education in international relations. The program w initiated by the late Dr. Les Parobky, whos until his death in May 1955 was Director of the International Studies Group at the Institution. The program was in expansion of earlier activities of the Institution in this field and continued its established policy of selecting for study problems that had a direct bearing on the ma tional interest.

As an integral feature of the program, a series of annual surveys was inaugurated in 1947 on Major Problems of United Stater Foreign Policy. Seven such surveys have been published, of which the most recent appeared in 1954, and they were supplemented for several years by a monthly report on Current Developments in United States Foreign Policy. Also, a series of five national and seven regional seminars on problems of United States foreign policy was held beginning in 1947 to aid in improving the teaching of inter national relations

The principal purpose of these surveys and seminars was to identify and analyze the problems of decision that confronted American policy makers as they sought to realize the objectives of the United States in the circumstances that prevailed in the world. The method used was to put the readers of the volumes or the participants in the meetings in the position of government officials who, in discharging their responsibilities, had to keep in mind the entire range of the international scene, the forces at home and abroad that would be affected by their decisions, and who had above all-to explore the alternative courses of action that were open for the solution of particular problems. The intent was to convey something of the actual nature of the problems of public policy and something of the implications of the terus "decision." This, in essence, was the "problem approach."