“As Yet Undiscovered Avenues”: IREX, American Councils, and the Diversification of the Cold War US–USSR Exchanges

Abstract The International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX) that was formed in 1968 to administer the official US–USSR academic exchanges was partially a government creation that became an independent nonprofit only after the end of the Cold War. It long held a monopoly on official exchanges, such that “IREX” and “exchanges” are virtually synonymous in Cold War historiography. American Councils for International Education (then known as the American Council of Teachers of Russian) entered the sphere of language study and research support in the Soviet Union beginning in the mid‐1970s by building on its institutional relationships and its success in implementing federal grant projects, challenging the IREX monopoly. When the relationship of the United States and the Soviet Union improved during perestroika, American Councils was able to leverage its experience, flexibility, and institutional relationships in an increasingly diversified US institutional ecosystem in order to rapidly implement a range of new exchange initiatives. Through archival documents, published accounts, and original interviews with founders of American Councils, this article examines the role of American Councils in challenging the predominance of IREX and in diversifying the US–Soviet exchange relationship as the Cold War concluded.