Billionaire Plans Europe Version of Council on Foreign Relations

Billionaire investor George Soros plans to start a foreign-affairs research institute in Europe similar to the Council on Foreign Relations.

"Europe has to be interested in recreating what used to be called the West, based on the principles of international cooperation," Mr. Soros said yesterday at a conference in Oxford, England. "Out of this idea came the idea of founding a European Council on Foreign Relations."

Mr. Soros, who spent $27.5 million trying to defeat President Bush in the 2004 election, said America can't deal with global affairs on its own. If a leading Democratic presidential candidate, Senator Obama, wins the post in 2008, the U.S. may regain some of "the high ground," he said.

Mr. Soros declined to say how much money he is spending on the project. It may start by the end of this year, he said.

"Our resources are similar to the United States, but we punch pathetically below our weight," Timothy Garton Ash, a professor of European Studies at Oxford University who is helping Mr. Soros with the plans, said in an interview. "The idea is to contribute a European voice. It's still in the making."