After 1991, late Soviet foreign policy adviser Anatoly Chernyaev worked with the Gorbachev Foundation and also published books.

In 1995, the foundation hosted its first event, the State of the World Forum, at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, which discussed international political goals of the 21st century such as resolving differences following the Cold War.

Bush, former British PM Margaret Thatcher, scientists Carl Sagan and Jane Goodall, broadcaster Ted Turner, billionaire David Packard, former Senator Alan Cranston, singer John Denver, and chef Wolfgang Puck, South Korean politician Kim Dae-jung,[6] the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu, journalist Bernard Shaw,[7] and Reagan administration US-Soviet Exchange official Stephen Rhinesmith.

[8] The conference was described and partially criticized by the book The Global Trap in 1996, written by later populist European Parliament member Hans-Peter Martin.

"[12] In 2017, the Gorbachev Foundation hosted a conference called "Russian Lessons for Reagan" involving various end of the Cold War diplomats, a book of the same name by Suzanne Massie, and guests included U.S.