The World Affairs Councils of America was founded in 1918.[2] It is the largest nonprofit international affairs organization in the United States.
In mid-February 2011, Chairman of the Board Ambassador Marc Grossman stepped down to become the United States Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, replacing Richard Holbrooke. In June 2011, Ambassador Paula Dobriansky filled the position of Chair of the National Board. In June 2015, WACA announced that Ambassador Roman Popadiuk who served as the first United States Ambassador to Ukraine under George H. W. Bush, from 1992 to 1993, has been elected the new chairman of the national Board of Directors. Following a three-month co-chair period, Glenn Creamer succeeded Popadiuk as chairman in November 2020, chosen for his work as chairman of the Catholic Relief Services Foundation.
In 2014, the World Affairs Councils of America won the Diversity and Inclusion (DANDI) Award in the international category.[3]
Programs
The World Affairs Councils of America supports a group of 93 councils who present programs annually.[citation needed] The Councils sponsor international exchanges, school programs, teachers workshops, foreign policy discussions, national opinion polls, travel programs, young professionals’ programs, conferences, and corporate programs.
The national association organizes an annual conference, leadership missions to other nations, a speaker referral system, international speaker exchanges, people-to-people diplomacy missions, educational workshops, book tours, subscription discounts, operations workshops, and video-conferences. It has also run national program series such as World BankTown Meetings, Two Koreas, Future of Russia, Western Hemisphere, Human Rights Worldwide, the EU, Rising Anti-Americanism, American Security, UN Reform, and The People Speak.
WACA has four flagship programs: Academic WorldQuest, Leadership Missions, the annual National Conference, and the Engage America speaker series. The National Conference is an annual event that engages diplomats, experts, members from the business, civic, and education communities with leading policy. Academic WorldQuest is an annual team-based international affairs, geography, history, and culture competition for high school students sponsored by the World Affairs Councils of America.[4] The WorldQuest has been held every year since 2003. WorldQuest was created in 1995 by Jennifer Watson Roberts of the World Affairs Council of Charlotte.
In order to compete at the national WorldQuest competition, teams must first win at their regional council level (usually held from November to March). Every year, 4,000 high school students across the country participate in local competitions hosted by their World Affairs Council.
For more than a decade, the WACA has been invited to bring small delegations of council leaders to learn about a host country. A leadership mission consists of an overseas fact-finding visit to a city, country, or organization by a delegation of the World Affairs Council.
The Speakers Series includes partnerships between the National Office and think tanks, foundations, publishing companies, and government agencies to provide speakers to America's communities through our local councils on the critical global issues of our times.
Individual councils
Members councils are located in 40 states, as well as in D.C. and Puerto Rico. Councils are funded through membership dues, corporate sponsorships, grants, in-kind donations, fundraising events, and fee-for-service activities. Over 2,000 corporations, foundations, and individuals help support council work.
Stavros Lambrinidis is a Greek lawyer and politician, currently serving as Ambassador of the European Union to the United Nations. He was previously Ambassador of the European Union to the United States from March 2019 until December 2023, European Union special representative for human rights from 2012 to 2019 and Minister for Foreign Affairs in Greece from June 2011 to November 2011.
Clifford Michael Sobel is an American business executive, financier, Republican fundraiser, U.S. diplomat and former ambassador.
UN Youth Australia is a national youth-led organisation which seeks to educate and empower young Australians on global issues and foster an understanding of the work of the United Nations, human rights and International relations in young Australians. The organisation is fully operated by volunteers who have left high school and are under the age of 25, over 15,000 young people participate in UN Youth Australia’s programs, activities and events each year.
The Carlucci American International School of Lisbon is a prominent not-for-profit private international school in Linhó, Sintra, a suburb of Lisbon. Founded in 1956, CAISL is the oldest American school in the Iberian Peninsula and the only U.S. State Department sponsored school in Portugal. It is named in honor of Frank C. Carlucci III, former U.S. Ambassador to Portugal and U.S. Secretary of Defense. Hillary Clinton, at the time First Lady of the United States, officially inaugurated CAISL's current campus in Linhó in 1998.
Edward Lionel Peck is a retired career United States diplomat who served 32 years in the U.S. Foreign Service.
The Inter-American Dialogue, also known as the Dialogue or IAD, is a U.S.-based think tank in the field of international affairs primarily related to the Western Hemisphere. Headquartered in Washington, D.C it intends to "foster democratic governance, prosperity, and social equity in Latin America and the Caribbean". The Dialogue's research areas focus on the rule of law, education, migration, remittances, energy, climate change and extractive industries.
The National Service-Learning Conference was first held in 1988 to serve as "the largest gathering of youth and practitioners from the service-learning movement" of the United States. The conference is a program of the National Youth Leadership Council, and is co-hosted annually by partner organizations in the state or region where it is being held. Sponsors of the conference include United Parcel Service, Best Buy, Shinnyo-en Foundation, United Way of America, and E. Ronald and Patricia Parish.
The Pacific Council on International Policy is an independent, non-partisan, membership-based organization dedicated to global engagement. Founded in 1995 in partnership with the Council on Foreign Relations and the University of Southern California, the Pacific Council is a 501c(3) non-profit organization. It is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. Its activities include events and conferences, policy-focused task forces, and international delegations.
The Council of American Ambassadors (CAA) is an association of non-career United States ambassadors. A nonprofit and nonpartisan organization, the CAA comprises over 200 members whose ambassadorial service collectively extends over five decades and eleven U.S. presidents.
The International Relations Council (IRC) is a non-profit non-partisan educational organization in Kansas City, Missouri, and a member of the World Affairs Councils of America. As an educational nonprofit, the IRC works in partnership with a range of businesses, universities, community organizations, K-12 schools, and other interested individuals to grow a global perspective and find international connections within the Greater Kansas City metropolitan area. The IRC works to foster interest in and understanding of international affairs among the citizens of Kansas City through the development of various programs and events. As a membership organization, the IRC welcomes individuals and families, businesses, universities, and other organizations to join as IRC members in order to help sustain global-affairs education in the Kansas City community and receive various benefits.
David Huebner is an international arbitrator based in Southern California. He previously served as the United States Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa. He was the first openly gay ambassador in the Obama administration and the third openly gay ambassador in United States history. His tenure was marked by significant improvement in bilateral relations, with commentators observing that relations are stronger and closer than they have been in decades. Called an “excellent public face for the United States,” he has been widely praised as a successful Ambassador including for his accessible, inclusive approach, his emphasis on students and future leaders, and the innovative restructuring of his Embassies around social media and other nontraditional tools and approaches of diplomacy. Before being appointed Ambassador he worked as an international lawyer in Los Angeles, Shanghai, and New York City, specializing in international arbitration and mediation. He is licensed as an attorney in California, New York, and in the District of Columbia, and as a solicitor in England and Wales.
Global Classrooms is a U.S.-based global education program, belonging to the United Nations Association of the United States of America (UNA-USA), that engages middle school and high school students in an exploration of current world issues through Model United Nations, wherein students step into shoes of UN Ambassadors and debate a range of issues on the UN agenda. Global Classrooms was created primarily for students in economically disadvantaged public schools who have little or no knowledge of global affairs or experience with Model UN
Anna Marie Periquet is a Filipino-born entrepreneur advocate, businesswoman, socio civic leader, talk show host, 5-dance Latin dancesport athlete and champion, public servant, and a former member of the House of Representatives.
Roman Popadiuk is an American diplomat of Ukrainian descent. Popadiuk served as the first United States Ambassador to Ukraine under George H. W. Bush, from 1992 to 1993. From 2015 until 2017, he was a principal at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP's subsidiary Morgan Lewis Consulting, and prior to 2015 he was the principal at Bingham Consulting. Since late 2018 Popadiuk has been the president of the Diplomacy Center Foundation which oversees the development of the National Museum of American Diplomacy.
The US–China Education Trust is a non-profit organization based in Washington D.C. Founded in 1998 by Ambassador Julia Chang Bloch, the first Chinese-American U.S. Ambassador, USCET seeks to promote China–United States relations through a series of education and exchange programs. The organization sponsors a variety of fellowships, conferences, workshops and exchanges, focused primarily on strengthening Chinese academic institutions related to the fields of American Studies, Media and Journalism, American Governance, and International Relations.
UN Youth New Zealand is a non-governmental organisation and a registered charity. Its members are all aged 25 or under or are full-time tertiary students. It is the largest youth-for-youth organisation in New Zealand. Annually, over 3,000 young New Zealanders engage with a UN Youth event.
The US-Arab Business Roundtable (USABR), founded in March 1979 and became a non-profit association in the early 1980s which conducted a series of conferences, workshops, trade missions and training programs at a critical juncture of history aimed at fostering regularized dialogue and improved understanding for strengthening US commercial and economic relations with Arab countries of North Africa and the Middle East.
Agri-Energy Roundtable (AER) is a nonprofit and non-governmental organization accredited by the United Nations and established in 1980 as a forum for encouraging dialogue on cooperative energy and agricultural development between industrialized and developing nations. AER conducts international conferences, regional seminars and workshops, trade missions and technical assistance for the formation of autonomous indigenous counterpart associations.
The U.S.-Japan Council is a 501(c) 3 non-profit educational organization that contributes to strengthening U.S.-Japan relations by bringing together diverse leadership, engaging stakeholders and exploring issues that benefit communities, businesses and government entities on both sides of the Pacific Ocean. It is a Japanese American-led organization, fully dedicated to strengthening ties between the United States and Japan in a global context.
The American Turkish Society (ATS) is the oldest non-for-profit, apolitical organization based in America dedicated to building bridges between the United States and Turkey. The Society hosts a broad spectrum of programming, including lectures, workshops, symposia, conferences, festivals, performances, and exhibitions that highlight topics of relevance to the Turkish-American community and help to promote Turkish arts and culture in the United States.
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