Before global governance: the Paris Peace Talks, capital networks, and the origins of global think tanks

This article reexamines the historical origins of global think tanks and their role in shaping global governance within the broader context of state-capital relations. While the post-Cold War era popularized the term ‘global governance’, the study traces its conceptual and institutional foundations back to the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. Drawing on archival materials on President Wilson’s Inquiry group and its links to elite financial circles, it shows how institutions such as the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and Chatham House emerged as part of an early search for international order. The analysis contributes a historical perspective to debates on the political economy of knowledge and the growing influence of non-state actors in global politics. It argues that global think tanks were not late products of globalization but early instruments through which capital, expertise, and state power interacted, offering a new lens on the evolution of global governance.