The fellowship begins in September each year and lasts for ten months. The program awards a stipend of $100,000 as well as a modest travel grant. The fellow is considered an independent contractor rather than an employee of CFR and is not eligible for employment benefits, including health insurance.
Launched in 1949, the Edward R. Murrow press fellowship seeks to promote the quality of responsible and discerning journalism that Edward R. Murrow exemplified.
This transformational fellowship offers a distinguished journalist, who has covered international news working in print, broadcast, or online media, to spend ten months in CFR’s New York office researching and writing on a critical foreign policy topic. The program enables the fellow to engage in sustained analysis and writing, expand their intellectual and professional horizons, and contribute to CFR’s active program of research, writing, and events. Strong preference is given to candidates whose proposed projects would contribute to the Council’s current strategic initiatives on China, U.S. economic leadership, climate change, technology, Ukraine/Russia, the Middle East, or grand strategy.
CFR awards one fellowship annually, beginning in September. Qualified applicants must be U.S. citizens and possess a strong record of professional achievement.
The fellowship begins in September 2025 and runs for ten months. Fellows are independent contractors rather than CFR employees, and they are not eligible for employment benefits, including health insurance.
Recent Fellows (affiliations at the time of award):
Elise Labott,Adjunct Professor, School of International Service at American University; Founder, Zivvy News; Contributing Editor, Politico; Author, Substack- Cosmopolitics
Miriam Elder, Independent Journalist
Amy Maxmen, Senior Reporter, Nature
Célestine Bohlen, Contributing Writer, Contributor, New York Times; Adjunct Professor, Paris Institute of Political Studies
Matthieu Aikins, Contributing Writer, the New York Times Magazine;Contributing Editor, Rolling Stone
CFR has a long-standing commitment to making the foreign policy community in the United States more representative of American society as a whole and actively seeks fellowship candidates from diverse backgrounds.
The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank, and publisher dedicated to being a resource for its members, government officials, business executives, journalists, educators and students, civic and religious leaders, and other interested citizens in order to help them better understand the world and the foreign policy choices facing the United States and other countries. Founded in 1921, CFR takes no institutional positions on matters of policy.
