''Foreign Policy'' was founded in the late 1970 by [[Samuel P. Huntington]], professor of [[Harvard University]], and his friend [[Warren Demian Manshel]] to give a voice to alternative views about American foreign policy at the time of the [[Vietnam War]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Samuel Huntington, 1927-2008 |url= https://foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/02/16/samuel_huntington_1927_2008 |accessdate=13 September 2014 |newspaper= Foreign Policy |date=16 February 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=100 Years of Impact: A Timeline of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace |url= http://carnegieendowment.org/about/timeline100/index.html |accessdate=22 April 2015 |newspaper=Carnegie Endowment for International Peace}}</ref> Huntington hoped it would be "serious but not scholarly, lively but not glib".<ref name="Samuel Huntington, 1927-2008">{{cite news |last=Yester |first=Katherine |title=Samuel Huntington, 1927-2008 |url= https://foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/02/16/samuel_huntington_1927_2008 |accessdate=13 September 2014 |newspaper= Foreign Policy |date=16 February 2009}}</ref>
In early 1978, after six years of close partnership, the [[Carnegie Endowment for International Peace]] acquired full ownership of ''Foreign Policy''. In 2000, a format change was implemented from a slim quarterly academic journal to a bimonthly magazine. Also, it launched international editions in [[Europe]], [[Africa]], the [[Middle East]], [[Asia]] and [[Latin America]].
