Around the WorldBoston

November - December 2003

Editor in Chief: Brandie E. Conforti                                                          Editor: Lorraine Goldstein - Communications

Our Mission: WorldBoston is a catalyst for global engagement that offers cultural perspectives and promotes international thinking in individuals and organizations.  WorldBoston provides a staging ground for issues-focused forums, one-on-one dialog, networking and personal and professional growth for residents, businesses and institutions of 

Greater Boston and around the globe.

FEATURES

A Letter From Our Executive Director

   World Affairs

  Emerging Leaders

 The WorldBoston Wish List

  Contact Us

A LETTER FROM OUR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Brandie E. Conforti, Executive Director

Dear Members and Friends of WorldBoston:

As another year has drawn to a close, I would like to express my thanks to each of you for your continued support of WorldBoston.  The past year was especially important to me since it was my first year of leading the organization.  During that time, we faced many challenges both as an organization and as a country.  At each turn, WorldBoston strived to continue to provide the Greater Boston community with access to information on critical foreign policy issues facing our nation.

To help make better sense of the issues surrounding the war with Iraq, through our World Affairs program WorldBoston organized a town meeting with media experts representing the press, radio, television and the publishing industry in order to give members of the Greater Boston community an opportunity to both listen to these individuals assess the coverage the war was receiving and to voice their own opinions and engage in a dialogue.  In light of the tense situation that exists on the Korean peninsula, WorldBoston hosted both Thomas Hubbard, the United States Ambassador to the Republic of Korea, and Sung-Joo Han, the Republic of Korea Ambassador to the United States, at a luncheon at the facilities of Mintz Levin, one of our most generous sponsors.  More recently, in order to get a close examination of the Middle East, WorldBoston welcomed Karim Kawar, Jordanian Ambassador to the United States, to speak at a luncheon that was the inaugural event of the WorldBoston/Suffolk University Global Leadership Series, a new initiative that you will hear more about as the year unfolds.

In addition to this public face of our work, through our Emerging Leaders program WorldBoston brings approximately 700 international professionals to our city each year.  As the organization responsible for ensuring that each of these visitors is given the best opportunity to meet and speak with Boston-area professionals who are experts in whatever areas the visitors are here to discuss, WorldBoston plays a significant role in prompting the professional and personal relationships forged through this program.  At another level, we see the positive economic impact of Emerging Leaders:  each year our visitors infuse over $700,000 into the local economy for lodging, transportation, meals and personal spending.

All of us at WorldBoston continue to believe that engagement in international relations is critical to our community, our citizenship and our country.  In 2004 we will work even harder to reach additional individuals who believe in our mission.  I hope you will join us by helping to spread the word about WorldBoston and our mission.  If you know a potential WorldBoston member, donor or sponsor, please bring that individual to our attention.  I also encourage you to stay involved with WorldBoston.  Together, we really CAN make a difference in the world around us.

With all best wishes for the year ahead,

Brandie

WORLD AFFAIRS

Melissa McDonald, Director, World Affairs

World Affairs strives to educate, inform and foster understanding of international affairs; and to provide accessibility for the general public to participate in the discussion of global issues. 

A Strong Kick-Off for the New Year

The period from mid-November through the end of December was fairly quiet for World Affairs as holiday preparations and festivities dominated many calendars.  We were delighted that our first event of the New Year, in which Ambassador Yoram Ben-Zeev talked about the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process, drew a large group and prompted many questions and comments from the attendees.

In order to ensure that our future programs address your personal interests, we will be including a Member Survey in our next mailing.  We hope you will take a few minutes to complete this survey and return it to us so we can incorporate your feedback into our planning and implement some new ideas.

“Great Decisions” Lecture Series

The “Great Decisions” lecture series will take place on eight consecutive Tuesday evenings starting on March 2, 2004.  This series is made possible through a grant from the Lowell Institute, and the discussions are free and open to the public.  We will be sending out information about the series as soon as details have been finalized.  We hope you will be able to join us!

WorldBoston/Suffolk University Global Leadership Series

The plans for the second WorldBoston/Suffolk University Global Leadership Series event are under way.  Scheduled for late February, the event will focus on HIV/AIDS and its impact on economic development.  We will distribute more information about this event as soon as possible.

To keep abreast of these and other future events, be sure to check our website often or call World Affairs (phone: 617-542-8995, ext. 112).  If there are any topics that you would like us to address in the future or if you would like to offer feedback on events you have attended, please send an email to wac@worldboston.org.

EMERGING LEADERS

Natasha Palmroth, Director, Emerging Leaders

Kate Harvey, Director, International Visitors

Julie Harmon, Community Connections Project Associate

The mission of Emerging Leaders is to engage and develop dynamic thinkers from around the world who will drive global change in the future.  It involves the administration of two United States Department of State grants: International Visitors and Community Connections.  

Citizen Diplomacy:  A Tool of Foreign Policy

With the presidential primaries heating up and the war on terrorism escalating, foreign policy has become a hot topic in political, academic and business circles.  However, many Americans may not realize that you don’t need to be a politician or a professional diplomat living in Washington, D.C., to participate in discussions of U.S. foreign policy.  In fact, many individuals in the Boston area participate regularly in citizen diplomacy through WorldBoston’s Emerging Leaders program, reinforcing the importance of such participation as a tool of U.S. foreign policy.

Visitors who come to the United States through the International Visitors and Community Connections programs are selected by U.S. embassies abroad.  At WorldBoston we have noticed a correlation between the world’s “hot spots” and the areas of the world, types of professions and number of visitors who come through Boston.

For example, since 1991 the former Soviet states have worked to integrate themselves into the free-market economy.  In 2003, WorldBoston saw many visitors from these states come to Boston to learn about small business development and university administration.  We believe that this reflects both the level of development these countries have achieved over the past decade and the desire of the U.S. government to encourage further growth and continued economic stability in that part of the world.  In 2003, we also saw many more groups start to come to Boston from the Middle East and South East Asia.  The areas of interest to the individuals in these groups were conflict resolution, religious pluralism, rule of law and freedom of the press.

The themes of all of these programs reflect the visitors’ as well as the United States’ desire to foster stability and democratic principles in these regions and, at the same time, promote a better understanding of American ideals and values.

While both International Visitors and Community Connections are U.S. government sponsored programs, we encourage visitors to seek a balance of views and opinions that accurately reflect the diversity of U.S. popular opinion.  This understanding does not have to take the form of agreement with all of our policies, practices and values; it may simply be an appreciation for an individual’s right to dissent.

When Bostonians meet with international visitors, they have the opportunity to express their own beliefs and points of view, which may or may not reflect government policy.  In the end, regardless of the stance that program participants take on U.S. policy, WorldBoston’s primary objective is for our international visitors to leave the United States having achieved their professional goals, and for the residents of Greater Boston to have had an opportunity to interact with these emerging leaders.

Although we have just entered 2004, we expect to see more visitors coming from the Middle East and South East Asia, and we hope to continue to provide them with programs that reflect the diverse professional resources and opinions that our local “citizen diplomats” have to offer.

A reminder – In February, WorldBoston’s Community Connections project will be hosting a business group from St. Petersburg.  To learn more about this group, please visit our website.

If you would like to get involved with the International Visitor Project, please contact Kate Harvey.  Be sure to check our website for up-to-date listings of our International Visitors.

If you are interested in becoming a homestay host or business internship host for our Community Connections professionals, please contact Julie Harmon, Community Connections Project Associate, or Natasha Palmroth, Director of Emerging Leaders. 

THE WORLDBOSTON WISH LIST

We hope that you will consider making a donation to WorldBoston.  Please visit our website and click on Give a Gift to see the kinds of activities your gift will support, as well as a donation form.

Other things on our Wish List are:

   * Volunteer part-time bookkeeper

   * Color printer (PC compatible, 14ppm color;

      installation software must be included)

   * Event sponsors and space

If you are able to donate your time or a top-quality color printer, or are interested in event sponsorship, please contact Brandie Conforti. 

Check Our Website. We are continually updating the WorldBoston website to keep you informed about our programs, upcoming events and visitors, and to make it easier for you to contact us. Please check out our website regularly.