By Tom Ryan, Kansas City Star Reader Advisory Panel

A visit to the two notable “councils”, the venerated “dot oh are gees” along the partisan policy DMZ reveals that the Council on Foreign Relations (west side) expounds vast quantities of thought and publications.

On the east side, the Council for National Policy, admittedly more secretive, definitely needs some PR and a few writers.

This is just a sample of councils. The non-profit, “.org-tree” seems complex at times, but the conservative CNP and the global brotherhood CFR are good pulsepoints. The CNP appears to be barely alive.

This should be a worry…turn off the radio for a moment, please…and mute the TV…there, thanks.

Sure, we need our Fox and our daily Rush, but like Hollywood, great productions begin with great scripts and excellent writing. Yale used to be a hothouse for the conservative movement, the well for the CIA. We need a bit of intellectual balance to parallel the NPR/PBS + FOX/Rushworldnetwork media. Getting tired of Harvard?

Conservatives definitely need their attack teams of speakers, the critics, and the talking head personalities. But for the movement to move ahead, this east side crew needs a philosophical harbor and a few good anchor points of policy. In the meantime, all we hear is volume. This struggle is about content as well as production quality.

In addition to the content, there is the pragmatic requirement for sponsorship. The west side’s Council on Foreign Relations appears robustly supported with numerous notable nationally headquartered and also international corporations; their board of directors impressive. While the CFR expounds foreign policy thought, their objectives and philosophy directly affect domestic policy. One of their basic historical foundation stones of belief is Wilson’s 14 Points…yes, it goes that far back.

Their program in 2008 to last for 5 years called "International Institutions and Global Governance: World Order in the 21st Century" looks to setting up global institutions at different levels to foster a global governance, in order to address different trans-national problems:
- Countering Transnational Threats, including terrorism, proliferation of WMD, and infectious disease
- Protecting the Environment and Promoting Energy Security
- Managing the Global Economy
- Preventing and Responding to Violent Conflict

If the conservative’s policy alternative is merely a “no” to all this, which it seems to be these days, when will we see something to which we can reply “yes”?

Airwaves propagate sight and sound, the digital networks abound with blogs…lights, camera, action…where’s the east side script? It’s time for conservatives to find safe harbor: read, think, discuss, write.

Council on Foreign Relations website: website
Council for National Policy website