World Affairs Council of Washington, DC

The World Affairs Council of Washington, DC, founded in 1980, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization in Washington, DC. The group's efforts are aimed at informing and educating the public about contemporary international affairs. Its corporate sponsors include Aramco Service Company, AIG, Raytheon, and ExxonMobile [ [http://www.worldaffairsdc.org/sponsors.php Corporate Sponsors] ] , and it relies primarily on dues from individual and corporate members. [ [http://www.worldaffairsdc.org/mission.php About The World Affairs Council of Washington DC] ]

The Council is an affiliate of the Foreign Policy Association in New York and is part of a national network of 86 World Affairs Councils representing 500,000 members throughout the United States.

Mission Statement

The aim of the World Affairs Council of Washington, D.C. is to provide opportunities for education on world affairs and current events in the D.C. area. The Council organizes events and programs focused on international issues for students, educators, and the general public. These programs are meant to allow the public access to foreign policy experts, provide resources for educators in conveying world issues in their classrooms, and give students opportunities to learn about foreign affairs and the Foreign Service through events, special programs, and internships. [ [http://www.worldaffairsdc.org/mission.php About The World Affairs Council of Washington DC] ]

Programs and Events

The World Affairs Council organizes a number of events in the D.C. area geared toward providing educational opportunities focused on international affairs. These events include public programs featuring journalists, public officials, and foreign policy experts, seminars for educators, and outreach programs for students.

Public Programs

Foreign Affairs SeriesThe Foreign Affairs Series includes panels and speakers featuring foreign policy experts and public officials who discuss current events and other timely topics. These events typically include a panel discussion of experts or include discussion of opposing views on U.S. foreign policy. Speakers at the Foreign Affairs Series have included Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid, US Ambassador Chas. W. Freeman, and Colombian Ambassador Camilo Alfonoso Ospina Bernal.

Meet The Ambassadors SeriesThe Meet the Ambassadors Series invites both U.S. and Foreign Ambassadors to speak about the regions they work in and with in public events. Recent speakers have included Afghan Ambassador Said Taeb Jawad, U.S. Ambassador Ronald E. Neumann, and Venezuelan Ambassador Bernardo Álvarez Herrera.

Embassy SeriesIn the Embassy Series, event attendees visit foreign embassies in Washington, D.C. and meet with the ambassador or other embassy officials. Embassies have included those of South Africa, Sri Lanka, and Spain.

Author SeriesThe Author Series features prominent authors whose work focuses on foreign affairs issues. Recent speakers have included Ashraf Ghani, author of "Fixing Failed States"; Ellen Frost, author of "Asia's New Regionalism"; and Sir Lawrence Freedman, author of "A Choice of Enemies: American Confronts the Middle East".

Town Hall MeetingsForums are conducted by a panel of experts who discuss and debate global topics. Past meetings have included Global Climate Change, Nuclear Arms Proliferation, and Darfur.

Distinguished Speaker SeriesThe Distinguished Speaker series allows council members and guests to attend talks with leading figures in the international community. These speakers have included Lloyd’s Chairman Lord Peter Levene and General (Ret.) Anthony Zinni.

Young Professional EventsUnlike other WACDC events, Young Professional occasions are held exclusively for the Council's Young Professionals and their guests, providing for a more relaxed environment to enable those in the working young professional community in the District to meet one another and converse about the most pressing global issues of the day.)

Education Programs

Summer Institute for High School EducatorsIn its 19th year, the Summer Institute on International Affairs affords high school teachers with an international outlook from around the greater Metropolitan area and across the country the opportunity to learn how to bring an understanding of global issues and world affairs into the classroom. The week-long seminar consists of reputable speakers, workshops, discussions and idea exchanges, and embassy trips, providing the visiting educators the chance to better recognize how the United States fits into to the greater international arena.

Young Journalist ProgramLaunched in 2004, the Young Journalist program’s mission is to present high school journalists with the opportunity to meet in an exclusive setting with American policymakers, academics, writers, diplomats, and others with relevant international experience. The program enables these students to develop their journalism skills while reporting, interviewing, thinking, and writing critically.

Youth Forum SeriesWACDC also hosts all-day forums targeting local high school students and their teachers, with specific topics focused on key and relevant issues in today’s international arena.

Worldquest
Worldquest is an academic competition with programs geared toward high school students and young professionals in which teams answer questions pertaining to foreign affairs, geography, foreign culture, international organizations, and recent history. Such competitions take place at the local level, arranged by individual branches of the World Affairs Council, and goes onto a national competition arranged by the World Affairs Councils of America in Washington, D.C. The D.C. branch also arranges monthly Worldquest competitions for young professionals in the D.C. area. Both competitions entail four-person teams that answer questions during seven rounds with varying categories, as well as questions that test the competitors’ knowledge of international flags and world leaders.

Notable Speakers

Notable speakers at WACDC events have included [ [http://www.worldaffairsdc.org/speakers.php?speaker=distinguished Distinguished Speakers] ] :

*Dr. John Duke Anthony - Founding President and CEO of the National Council on US-Arab Relations, Board Member and Secretary of the US-GCC Corporate Cooperation Committee.

*David Bosch - Director of Aramco Services Company.

*Shahid Javed Burki - Finance Minister of Pakistan and Vice President of the World Bank.

*Lt. General Kevin P. Byrnes - Retired US Army Deputy Chief of Staff for Programs, Director of the Army's Quadrennial Defense Review Efforts.

*Hon. William J. Clinton - Former President of the United States.

*General Wesley K. Clark - Retired, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander.

*Hon. William Cohen - Former Secretary of Defense.

*Hon. Lorne Craner - Former Assistant Secretary of State, Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, and President of the International Republican Institute.

*Alan M. Dershowitz - Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School.

*Hon. Diana Lady Dougan - Chairman of the Cyber Century Forum.

*Thomas L. Friedman - Three-time Pulizter Prize winner of The New York Times.

*Dr. Harry Harding - Former Dean of the Elliot School of International Affairs at The George Washington University.

*Lt. Colonel Heinrik van der Gaag - Of the Royal Netherlands Army and Allied Commander Atlantic.

*Dr. Andrew S. Grove - Chairman of the Intel Corporation.

*Jean-Marie Guehenno - United Nations Under-Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations.

*Dr. Richard Haass - President of the Council on Foreign Relations and former Director of Policy Planning at the US State Department.

*Miguel Hakim - Undersecretary for Latin America and the Caribbean at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the United Mexican States.

*Morton Halperin - Director of US Advocacy at the Open Society Institute and Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress.

*Hon. Franklin D. Kramer - Former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs and Partner at Shea & Gardner.

*Dr. Anthony Lake - Former US National Security Advisor.

*Hon. Alan P. Larson - Former Assistant Secretary at the US Department of State, and Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs.

*Lord Peter Levene - Chairman of Lloyd's of London.

*Hon. John F. Maisto - Former Permanent Representative of the United States to the Organization of American States.

*Dr. Jessica Tuchman Mathews - President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

*Philip Merrill - Former Chairman of the Washingtonian.

*Dr. Lee Morin - Former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Science at the US Department of State.

*Major General William L. Nash - Retired, Senior Fellow for Conflict Prevention and Director of the Military Fellows Program at the Council on Foreign Relations.

*Hon. Roger Noriega - Former US Assistant Secretary of State.

*Hon. Richard Perle - Former Assistant Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee

*Leonard H. Robinson, Jr. - Former President and CEO at the Africa Society of the National Summit on Africa and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs.

*Dr. Anne-Marie Slaughter - Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

*Dr. Richard Solomon - President of the United States Institute of Peace.

*Dr. Helmut Sonnenfeldt - Director of the Atlantic Council of the United States.

*Dr. Lawrence H. Summers - Former US Secretary of the Treasury and former president of Harvard University.

*Hon. Togo D. West - President of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies and former US Secretary of the Army and US Secretary of Veterans Affairs.

*Col. Lawrence Wilkerson - Retired, former Chief of Staff to US Secretary of State Colin Powell.

*James D. Wolfensohn - Ninth President of the World Bank Group.

*Hon. R. James Woolsey - Vice-President of Booz Allen Hamilton and former Director of Central Intelligence/

*Gen. Anthony Zinni - Retired, former Commander at US Central Command.

Current Board of Directors and Staff

The members of the current Board of Directors of the World Affairs Council of Washington, D.C. are Robert D. Bauerlein, Robert J. Berry (Treasurer), Julia Chang Bloch, Joseph Caracuel, Ronald Covais, Diana Lady Dougan, John M. Duff, Jr., Chas. W. Freeman, Jr., R. Michael Gadbaw, Patrick Gross (Co-Founder and Former Chairman), Michael Haltzel (Secretary), A. Elizabeth Jones, Franklin Kramer (Chairman), Noel Lateef, Richard P. Merski, Philip A. Odeen, Thomas J. Reckford (Vice-Chairman), Helmut Sonnenfeldt, Togo D. West, Jr., Wesley S. Williams, Jr., R. James Woosley, Howard Woolley, and Tobia Mercuro. [ [http://www.worldaffairsdc.org/board.php Board of Directors] ]

The current president of the Council is Heidi Shoup. [ [http://www.worldaffairsdc.org/staff.php Staff Biographies] ]

External links

* [http://www.worldaffairsdc.org World Affairs Council of Washington, DC]
* [http://www.worldaffairsdc.org/blog/ WACDC Blog]
* [http://www.worldaffairscouncils.org World Affairs Council of America]
* [http://www.worldaffairscouncils.org/programs/flagship/worldquest/ WorldQuest]

References