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The Congress for Cultural Freedom, formed in 1950 and lasting until 1979, was a major international institution based in Paris and dedicated to freedom of the intellect in the arts and sciences. However, since the late 1960s, revelations about its close links with the CIA have clouded its position within post-war cultural history. Yet, without an appreciation of its cultural origins its relevance becomes reduced to being merely a major example of intellectual fraud. This article attempts to reassess parts of the cultural dimension to its creation and raison d'être, largely through the figure of one of its principal founders, Melvin J. Lasky.

Introduction : conceptualizing the history of international scholarship programs (19-21st centuries) / Giles Scott-Smith and Ludovic Tournes -- The politics of scholarly exchange : taking the long view on the Rhodes scholarships / Tamson Pietsch & Meng-Hsuan Chou -- The defeat of university autonomy : French academic diplomacy, mobility scholarships and exchange programs (1880s-1930s) / Guillaume Tronchet -- The commonwealth university interchange scheme : promoting exchanges in a changing world (1948-1960) / Alice Byrne -- Students as ambassadors : German-American exchange diplomacy during the 1980s / Jacob S. Eder -- Muscular Christian exchanges : Asian sports experts and the international YMCA training school (1910s-1930s) / Stefan Hubner -- Managing scientific exchange in interwar Germany : August Wilhelm Fehling and Rockefeller Foundation fellowships / Judith Syga-Dubois -- Wedges and webs : Rockefeller nursing fellowships, 1920-1940 / Pierre-Yves Saunier -- Fellowship programs for public health development : the Rockefeller Foundation, UNRRA, and WHO (1920s-1970s) / Yi-Tang Lin, Thomas David, Davide Rodogno -- New missionaries for social development : the ILO internship program (1950-1963) / Veronique Plata-Stenger -- The Fulbright program and the philosophy and geography of U.S. exchange programs since World War II / Lonnie R. Johnson -- Grassroots diplomacy : fighting the cold war on the family farm with the International Farm Youth Exchange / Peter Simons -- Third world students at Soviet universities in the Brezhnev period / Julie Hessler -- US exchange programs with Africa during the civil rights era / Hannah Higgin -- Working on/working with the Soviet bloc : IREX, scholarly exchanges and detente / Justine Faure -- American foundations and the challenge of funding international fellowship and exchange programs since 1970 / Patricia L. Rosenfield -- Global networks, soft power, and the U.S. military / Carol Atkinson -- American Fulbrighters in China, 1979-2014 / Guangqiu Xu -- Importing barbarian knowledge : the JET program and the development of cultural internationalism in Japan (1987-2014) / Jesse Sargent -- New actors of the post-cold war world (Europe, China, India) : towards a genuine globalization of scholarship programs / Ludovic Tournes

The idea of the Cold War as a propaganda contest as opposed to a military conflict is being increasingly accepted. This has led to a re-evaluation of the relationship between economic policies, political agendas and cultural activities in Western Europe post 1945. This book provides an important cross-section of case studies that highlight the connections between overt/covert activities and cultural/political agendas during the early Cold War. It therefore provides a valuable bridge between diplomatic and intelligence research and represents an important contribution towards our underst.