Off the Record (OTR), a program of the Foreign Policy Association, provides lively lectures and a non-partisan forum for the discussion of America’s role in a challenging world amidst shifting alliances and global disorder. Offering nearly 20 annual events, OTR presents monthly daytime and evening lectures at the New York City Bar Association and private clubs and residences. With over 400 members, OTR presents a variety of perspectives from renowned foreign policy leaders and thinkers in government, politics, business, academia, journalism and the arts.

For over 80 years, members have enjoyed privileged access to individuals who shape or assess the nation’s foreign policy. They have included Secretaries of State Antony Blinken and Madeleine Albright, Generals John Allen and Michael Hayden, heads of state in early career Margaret Thatcher and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, journalists Robin Wright and David Sanger, and foreign policy and intelligence specialists William Burns and Fiona Hill.

In our digital age, when privacy has become an increasingly scarce commodity, Off the Record takes pride in staying true to its original mission: presenting lectures on important global subjects in a setting that has always been and remains “off the record.” Our speakers value the freedom to talk candidly and confidentially, certain that their comments won’t be publicized.