Subgroup 1, Series 1, Administrative Records, dates from 1957 to 1977 and is organized alphabetically by topic. The series contains files relating to the administration and management of the Center, including annual reports, a report on the first seven years of the Center, budgets, brochures and the documents used to complete the brochures. Topics discussed include the awarding of fellowships, appointment of research associates, current projects and funding. The annual reports are complete until 1969, then become fragmentary, and stop after 1973. Similarly, the budgets are only complete until 1973.

Subgroup 1, Series 2, Faculty and Research Associates, 1956-1973, contains the curriculum vitaes and correspondence of Center members, arranged alphabetically. Some of the more prominent names are Paul Nitze, Dean Rusk and Arnold Wolfers. Correspondence in these files describes research and projects going on within the center. Although the series dates to 1977, it is concentrated in the 1960s and early 1970s.

Subgroup 1, Series 3, Seminars, Colloquia and Roundtable Minutes, dates from 1958 to 1980. The minutes are organized in chronological order, and are followed by lists of seminar participants and files on colloquia and seminars, all in chronological order. The seminars and colloquia all involve international meetings, whereas roundtable discussions were on a national and international level.

Subgroup 1, Series 4, Publications, does not contain the actual published works of Center members, many of which were published by the Johns Hopkins University Press. Instead, this series contains correspondence relating to the production of publications. Organized alphabetically by title, this series dates from 1958 to 1980.

Subgroup 1, Series 5, Grant-Funded Projects, 1957-1974, contains applications to foundations and government agencies for general need and specific-need grants. The majority of the files relate to the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations. There is only one finished work in these files: The Balance of Power in the Asian-Pacific Area, published in 1980 as the result of a grant-funded project. These records are organized alphabetically by the name of the foundation or agency to which the grant was proposed. At the end of this series are four proposals organized by topic, because it is not known to whom the request for funds was directed.

Subgroup 1, Series 6 is composed of Correspondence, primarily that of Arnold Wolfers, with institutions and people not officially associated with the Center. Most of the institutions are academic centers with an interest in international relations, such as the Institut Universitaire des Hautes Etudes Internationales, and most of the individuals are Wolfers' academic colleagues or laymen with an interest in international affairs, such as Cyrus Eaton. The series is in two parts, individuals and institutions, each arranged alphabetically by name. This series dates from 1954 to 1977.

Subgroup 2, Series 1, Administrative Records of the Foreign Policy Institute, dates from 1970 to 1992. These records, in paper form, encompass materials relating to the programs, events, and publications sponsored by the Institute, including correspondence, monographs, papers, and minutes. Ongoing programs of a general nature represented in the records include the Washington Roundtable series and the Vandenberg Forum, which features presentations by members of Congress. There are also several specialized projects: studies on international terrorism, Southern Africa, the Strategic Defense Initiative, and technology and the limitation of armed conflict; a roundtable on U.S.-Soviet trade; and the U.S.-Soviet Agenda Project, designed to assess the changing nature of U.S.-Soviet relations and devise an agenda for the future. Materials from Policy Study Groups on the following topics are present: the Bretton Woods international financial institutions, the federal budget deficit, Latin American debt, the media and foreign policy, the Middle East, trade policy, and U.S.-Soviet relations. With regard to publications, there are records on the Case Studies in Diplomatic Negotiation, Policy Briefs, Policy Consensus Reports, SAIS Papers, and a handful of books written or edited by FPI members. In many cases the final published manuscript is present, and in addition there are often records from accompanying presentations on the same topics. One set of files pertains to a conference held April 6-7, 1989, honoring the fortieth anniversary of Dean Acheson's appointment as Secretary of State. Another set consists of correspondence concerning the diplomatic training program funded by the Glenmede Trust. The Washington Briefings for the press round out the major projects documented in the subgroup, but a host of other briefings, presentations, seminars, conferences, and studies are represented as well. All files in series 1 are arranged alphabetically.

Subgroup 2, Series 2, Administrative Records printed from documents on computer diskettes, dates from 1985 to 1989. The files on these diskettes consist of correspondence, mailing lists, and conference papers, announcements and followups. The original files were created in WordPerfect, version 4.2 for DOS. While some of these records exist in paper form in subgroup 2, series 1, it could not be determined that all had been filed in paper form. Due to the impermanence of magnetic media such as diskettes, the files on these diskettes have been printed on paper. Each folder contains the contents of one diskette, and is labeled according to the label on the diskette. Since no order was apparent for the diskettes themselves, and files for more than one topic are on many diskettes, they have been left in the order in which they were printed; many of the diskette labels bear cryptic titles. Certain files, such as computer system files and envelope printing and merge macros, have been deleted. A few files had either been created in a different word processing program or had become corrupted on the diskette. If the files appeared substantially intact they were printed, although the printed versions may be difficult to read. Files that appeared to be corrupt were deleted. The original diskettes have been placed in the folders along with a printed directory of the files on each disk. The printouts were done in alphabetical order by document filename. While these diskettes are currently readable (with the few exceptions noted above), no guarantee is made as to their future viability or compatibility with updated word processing programs.

Subgroup 2, Series 3, Faculty, Visiting Scholars, and Research Assistants dates from 1980 to 1990. The records contain some combination of the following elements: personal correspondance, curriculum vitae, papers, syllabi, grant and other proposals, and newspaper clippings. All files are arranged alphabetically by individual.