Heldref Publications was the publishing division of the Helen Dwight Reid Education Foundation, a nonprofit educational organization. Professor Helen Dwight Reid, a political scientist who taught at Bryn Mawr College and the State University of New York at Buffalo, established the foundation in 1956. Heldref Publications at one time published 50 scholarly journals and magazines devoted to education, political science, history, world literature, the arts, popular culture, psychology, other social sciences, health, and the environment.

Heldref Publications was headquartered in Washington, D.C.

In July 2009, Heldref sold all but two of its publications to Taylor & Francis

Taylor & Francis

Taylor & Francis Group is an international company originating in the United Kingdom which publishes books and academic journals. It is a division of Informa plc, a United Kingdom-based publisher and conference company.- Overview :...

 of London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. In its July 21, 2010, press explaining the sale, Heldref announced that the proceeds of the sale would be used to establish a new institute to promote US engagement and democratic development and that the newly restructured organization would pay tribute to two the legacy of Heldref’s original founders (deceased), Professor Evron Kirkpatrick and his wife, Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick.

This restructuring, however, did not take place. Rather, in November 2009, the board of Heldref, made up of members of the Kirkpatrick Family, was renamed the Kirkpatrick Jordan Foundation and determined to divide the sale’s proceeds and deposit them into three newly established foundations headed separately by three family members (Jerry Jordan, Esq., Stuart A. Kirkpatrick, and John E. Kirkpatrick, Esq.). In January 2010, the Heldref board transferred publishing rights for the foundation’s two remaining journals (World Affairs and Demokratizatsiya

Demokratizatsiya

Democratisation in the Soviet Union was proposed by General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev in January 1987. He was calling for the infusion of "democratic" elements into the Soviet Union's single-party government. Gorbachev's democratisation meant the introduction of multi-candidate-not...

) to the independent World Affairs Institute

World Affairs Institute

World Affairs Institute is a nonprofit organization established in 2010 and located in Washington, DC. The organization's stated mission is to "promote democratic governance as well as public education, awareness, and dialogue on international affairs and security issues through publications and...

headed by Heldref’s former executive director, James Denton.