abstract:The Centre for Analysis, Planning and Strategy (Centre d’analyse, de prévision et de stratégie, or CAPS, formerly known as the Direction de la prospective or Directorate for Foresight) is a think tank within the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, tasked with making strategic recommendations to the Foreign Minister and insuring a French presence in European and international debates and institutions. It is the French counterpart to the US State Department’s Policy Planning Staff. It is currently headed by historian Justin Vaïsse, who was appointed by Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius in March 2013.director of the CAPS reports directly to the Minister and is often considered a member of his cabinet. The CAPS is tasked with performing three tasks with complete independence of approach and expression:
In 1947, George Marshall, the Secretary of State, appointed Kennan chief of a new PolicyPlanning Staff an effort to think ahead in the area of international relations, not something that the United States had had much practice with.
Apart from his two years as director of the PolicyPlanningStaff, when creating ideas for policy was his job, it was normally not only his role but his professional duty to execute faithfully policies that had been made by others.