Jean Luc Joseph Marie "Jean-Luc" Dehaene was a Belgian politician who served as Prime Minister of Belgium from 1992 until 1999. During his political career, he was nicknamed "The Plumber" and "The Minesweeper" for his ability to negotiate political deadlocks. A member of the Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams (CD&V) party and its antecedents, Dehaene gained his first ministerial appointment in 1981. Dehaene's first government (1992–1995) included both Christian and Social Democrats and presided over the creation of a new constitution, effectively transforming Belgium into a federal state. His second government (1995–1999) coincided with a number of crises in Belgium including the Dutroux scandal. The Dioxin Affair, occurring shortly before the 1999 election, led to a swing against the major parties and Dehaene's government fell. Following his final term as Prime Minister he was active in both Belgian and European politics. He was also on UEFA's financial fair play regulatory body and managed Dexia Bank during the financial crisis. He was the last prime minister of King Baudouin's reign.
The Canadian University Society for Intercollegiate Debate is the national organization which governs all English language competitive university debating and public speaking in Canada. It sanctions several official annual tournaments and represents Canadian debating domestically and abroad. Its membership consists of student debating unions, sanctioned by their respective universities, from across Canada. CUSID has been described as "a student-run, parliamentary debate league with close ties to the American Parliamentary Debate Association".
A student society, student association, university society or student organization is a society or an organization, operated by students at a university or a college institution, whose membership typically consists only of students or alumni.
The Cambridge Union Society, also known as the Cambridge Union, is a debating and free speech society in Cambridge, England, and the largest society in the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1815, it is the oldest continuously running debating society in the world. Additionally, the Cambridge Union has served as a model for the foundation of similar societies at several other prominent universities, including the Oxford Union and the Yale Political Union. The Union is a private society with membership open to all students of Cambridge University and Anglia Ruskin University. The Cambridge Union is a registered charity and is completely separate from the Cambridge University Students' Union.
The American Whig–Cliosophic Society (Whig-Clio) is a political, literary, and debating society at Princeton University and the oldest debate union in the United States. Its precursors, the American Whig Society and the Cliosophic Society, were founded at Princeton in 1769 and 1765 by James Madison, William Paterson, Oliver Ellsworth, and Aaron Burr.
The Society of Cogers is a free speech society, established in 1755 in the City of London. It is the oldest debating society in the world and one of the oldest speaking gatherings of any kind.
The Federal Government of Belgium exercises executive power in the Kingdom of Belgium. It consists of ministers and secretary of state drawn from the political parties which form the governing coalition. The federal government is led by the Prime Minister of Belgium, and Ministers lead ministries of the government. Ministers together form the Council of Ministers, which is the supreme executive organ of the Government.
The Tönissteiner Kreis e.V. (TK) is a network of top ranking leaders in business, academia and politics with a strong international background and interest. It is nonpartisan, interdisciplinary and intergenerational. The TK is a forum for international dialogue and aspires to address society's challenges, supported by pro-bono and non-profit work.
The Washington Literary Society and Debating Union is a literary and debating group at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. While its current incarnation is modern, the society has roots back to the first decade of operation of the University and was founded in the mid-1830s.
The Dutch-speaking electoral college is one of three constituencies of the European Parliament in Belgium. It currently elects 12 MEPs using the D'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation. Previously it elected 13 MEPS, until the 2013 accession of Croatia. Before that, it elected 14 MEPs, until the 2007 accession of Bulgaria and Romania.
The Cercle de Lorraine or Club van Lotharingen is a Belgian business club, located in Brussels, Belgium. The club was founded in 1998, and it wants to bring together, distinguished and representative personalities from the Belgian financial community, French speaking as well as Dutch speaking, who are united within an honorary committee.
The Conférence Olivaint is the oldest, and one of the most private French student societies, established in 1874. Its aim is to educate its members for public life. As its name suggests, its main activity is organizing weekly conferences with notable characters of French public life. It is made up of young people under 30 and an alumni branch.
The Common Sense Society (CSS) was founded in by American and European students in 2009 to promote civic engagement, entrepreneurship, and the ideals of responsible liberty among university students and young professionals. CSS hosted regular debates, panel discussions, lectures, workshops, film screenings, and book events, adding thousands of alumni, members, and patrons. Today—with a community-centered model across North America and Europe—CSS educates 21st-century generations and continues to inform public discourse on the enduring ideas of liberty, prosperity, and beauty through its fellowship programs, curricular resources, publications, public events, civic initiatives, and targeted national media campaigns.
Belgium–China relations began in the early 1970s about 20 years after mainland China came under communist rule. China has an embassy in Brussels whilst Belgium has an embassy in Beijing and consulates in Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Shanghai.
The Calliopean Society is a literary and debating society founded at Yale College in 1819 by a group of members of Linonia dissatisfied with the result of an election for the presidency of the latter society. Its name refers to Calliope, the muse of epic poetry and a daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne (memory).
The Rutgers University Debate Union (RUDU) is Rutgers University's intercollegiate debate team. Re-founded in 2001, the Union's roots extend back to the 18th century literary societies that existed at Rutgers. There have also been the tradition of King's-Queen's Debates with Columbia University when Rutgers was known under its founding name of Queen's College.
The Harvard College Debating Union is Harvard University's only internationally competitive debate team. As the winner of the most American Parliamentary Debate Association National Championships and the 2014, 2016 and 2018 champions of the World Universities Debating Championship, the team is consistently one of the most successful debate organizations in the world.
The Debattierclub Stuttgart (DCS), also known as the Stuttgart Debating Union, is the debating society of the University of Stuttgart. It holds debates in both German and English. It was founded in 2004 and is now one of the internationally most successful German debating societies. The DCS is Vice World Champion and provided the Second Best Speaker of the World in English as a foreign language (EFL) at the World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC) 2010. At WUDC 2011, the DCS provided the Fourth Best Speaker of the World in English as a second language (ESL) as well as the Best Speaker of the World in EFL.
The Berkeley Forum, referred to simply as the Forum, is a prominent, non-partisan student organization at the University of California, Berkeley. Founded in 2012, the Forum hosts debates, panels, and talks with distinguished speakers on various topics; it is modeled after similar organizations at other prestigious universities, like the Oxford Union, Cambridge Union, and Yale Political Union.
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