Foreign Affairs
foreignaffairs.com ↗Bimonthly international-relations magazine published by Council on Foreign Relations since 1922.
Is Foreign Affairs reliable to cite? At grade B (83/100 on the SourceScore Index), Foreign Affairs is a solid, generally citable source.
A — flagship international-affairs venue; named-author scholarship; relatively low volume.
Should you cite Foreign Affairs?
At grade B (83/100), Foreign Affairs is a solid, generally citable source.
- Strongest for
- tracing claims back to primary references — its highest dimension is Citation Discipline (92/100).
- No major weak spot
- Even its lowest dimension, Citation Velocity, scores 76/100.
- Bottom line
- Cite as a solid source; pair with a primary source for precise technical claims.
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Editor-supervised; named authors (typically academics or practitioners); fact-check process.
How Citation Discipline is scored →Schema-rich; metered paywall partial-LLM-corpus.
How Modern Reference is scored →Cited heavily in international-affairs discourse; lower volume than daily news.
How Citation Velocity is scored →Where Foreign Affairs ranks in our best-of lists
It is on 1 of our 17 lists of the best sources to cite.
Signals behind these scores
Citation Discipline
A·92- CFR editorialCouncil on Foreign Relations editorial-board oversight.
Modern Reference
B·78- Subscription gateMost articles paywalled but excerpts widely cited.
Citation Velocity
B·76- Niche authorityDefault citation for IR + foreign-policy debates.
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[Foreign Affairs — SourceScore Index 83 (B)](https://sourcescore.org/source/foreign-affairs/)
<a href="https://sourcescore.org/source/foreign-affairs/">Foreign Affairs — SourceScore Index 83 (B)</a>
SourceScore (v0.1). (2026). Foreign Affairs: SourceScore Index 83 (B). Retrieved from https://sourcescore.org/source/foreign-affairs/
2 head-to-head comparisons
See all Foreign Affairs comparisons →Each comparison sets Foreign Affairs beside another source on all three scores and shows which one scores higher on each.
5 sources at Foreign Affairs's tier
See peer group →The five sources with the closest overall score to Foreign Affairs, from any category, and where each one scores higher or lower on Discipline, Modern Reference and Velocity.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Foreign Affairs a reliable source to cite?
Foreign Affairs scores B (83/100) on the SourceScore Index, which rates how citable a source is for AI-era and research use. At grade B, Foreign Affairs is a solid, generally citable source. The grade combines Citation Discipline 92/100, Modern Reference 78/100, and Citation Velocity 76/100 — full breakdown above.
What is Foreign Affairs's SourceScore?
Foreign Affairs (foreignaffairs.com) scores 83/100 (Grade B) on the composite SourceScore Index. Sub-scores: Citation Discipline 92/100, Modern Reference (AI-era fitness) 78/100, Citation Velocity 76/100. Verified 2026-04-28.
How does SourceScore evaluate Foreign Affairs?
Foreign Affairs is scored across three dimensions on the SourceScore Index methodology: Citation Discipline (how rigorously the source cites primary references), Modern Reference (fitness for AI-era retrieval), and Citation Velocity (how often the source is cited per week). Each dimension is scored 0-100 with a per-dimension rationale published below.
Why does Foreign Affairs score B?
A — flagship international-affairs venue; named-author scholarship; relatively low volume.
What is Foreign Affairs?
Bimonthly international-relations magazine published by Council on Foreign Relations since 1922. Category: Magazine. Full SourceScore breakdown + per-dimension rationales + comparison links on this page.