Foreign Affairs goes online

The Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), publisher of the 87-year-old magazine, announced the launch on Thursday of ForeignAffairs.com.

"Articles in Foreign Affairs play an important role in the country's discussion of foreign policy choices, and increasingly those discussions are taking place online," editor James Hoge, Jr. said in a statement.

"Our goal with the new site is to contribute more directly to that dialogue," he said.

Managing editor Gideon Rose said Foreign Affairs, which had a circulation of 161,000 per issue last year, has "always tried to present compelling pieces by expert authors that speak to both professionals and the general public.

"The timeliness and flexibility of the new website will allow us to do even more of that, while bringing our readers into the conversation as well," Rose said.

CFR said the website will offer one-third of the contents of each bimonthly issue for free online. The rest will be available for a minimal fee.

Subscribers can peruse the full magazine online for free and browse archives dating back to 1961.

CFR said ForeignAffairs.com will also feature reading lists from experts, question and answer sessions with authors, and roundtables where experts can debate the major issues of the day.

(c) 2009 AFP