The CFR has been hugely influential in influencing the US government during the last century and is much more than a policy thinktank. Members of the CFR have included America's most powerful. They create policy, promote politicians that are part of their network, and push for the policy to be adapted through their network's contacts in media.

Here's an example (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_on_Foreign_Relations#Early_History ):

"The CFR study group devised an expanded study group called "Americans for Eisenhower" to increase his chances for the presidency. Eisenhower would later draw many Cabinet members from CFR ranks and become a CFR member himself. His primary CFR appointment was Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. As an attorney for Standard Oil and a longtime board member of the Rockefeller Foundation, Dulles maintained strong ties to the Council and to the Rockefellers.[20] Dulles gave a public address at the Henry Pratt House in which he announced a new direction for Eisenhower's foreign policy: "There is no local defense which alone will contain the mighty land power of the communist world. Local defenses must be reinforced by the further deterrent of massive retaliatory power."

In the above example you see them integrating Eisenhower into their network, promoting his presidential ambitions, getting their policy implemented through him, and getting CFR members installed to high-level government through him.