Chatham House Rule
An overview of how Chatham House Rule may be utilized in RFF events.
Background
Chatham House is a London-based think tank founded in 1919 to study international affairs with a vision to foster mutual understanding between nations and for the institute to propose solutions to the world’s biggest challenges.
The Chatham House Rule (CHR) was formally adopted in 1927, and states simply “When a meeting, or part thereof, is held under the Chatham House Rule, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed.” So, the people who were there are confidential, but not what they said.
The Chatham House Rule enables groups to learn more candid information more quickly, and to use this information as they try to carve out public positions or private strategies on a topic. This is perhaps most important for groups who are trying to stake out a position that diverges substantially from that of other groups important to them.
Participants at RFF events have found Chatham House Rule useful to:
- Map out where other organizations stand on an issue
- Calibrate their own positions and strategies for greater effect
- Learn about an issue without attracting attention
- Connect quickly with a broader community of others over a shared interest.
We use Chatham House Rule as a tool to engender trust. It is trust that helps us gather unusually diverse interests for candid conversations covering not just the academic, but points of strategy and tactics as well.
Some considerations we take into account when running a Chatham House Rule event:
- Explicitly stating the event is under Chatham House Rule
- Limiting circulation of public speaker lists or agendas via email so they cannot be forwarded
- We never record a confidential meeting, except to facilitate our notetaking (whether by AI or by person, speaker affiliation and identities are not recorded)
- Notes are held in confidence and shared only with participants upon request.
Please note: Not all of RFF’s events are held under the Chatham House Rule.