The World Affairs Council of Washington, DC, founded in 1980, was a

nonprofit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

nonpartisan Nonpartisan or non-partisan may refer to: __NOTOC__ General political concepts * Nonpartisanship, also known as Nonpartisanism, co-operation without reference to political parties * Non-partisan democracy, an election with no official recognition ...

organization in

Washington, DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

. The group aimed at informing and educating the public about contemporary international affairs. Its corporate sponsors included Aramco Service Company,

AIG American International Group, Inc. (AIG) is an American multinational finance and insurance corporation with operations in more than 80 countries and jurisdictions. As of 2023, AIG employed 25,200 people. The company operates through three core ...

Raytheon Raytheon is a business unit of RTX Corporation and is a major U.S. defense contractor and industrial corporation with manufacturing concentrations in weapons and military and commercial electronics. Founded in 1922, it merged in 2020 with Unite ...

, and

ExxonMobil Exxon Mobil Corporation ( ) is an American multinational List of oil exploration and production companies, oil and gas corporation headquartered in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Founded as the Successors of Standard Oil, largest direct s ...

, and it relied primarily on dues from individual and corporate members.About The World Affairs Council of Washington DC
/ref> On December 31, 2018, after 38 years in the community, the World Affairs Council - Washington, DC ceased operations. The National Press Club Journalism Institute announced in a shared press release that an agreement with WAC-DC to offer ongoing community support in 2019 and beyond.

Events

The World Affairs Council organized events in the D.C. area, providing educational opportunities in international affairs. These events included public programs featuring journalists, public officials, and foreign policy experts, seminars for educators, and outreach programs for students.

Notable speakers

* Shahid Javed Burki - Finance Minister of

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

and Vice President of the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

. * 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 The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...

. * General Wesley K. Clark – retired, former

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

Supreme Allied Commander. * Hon. William Cohen – former

secretary of defense A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and military forces, found in states where the government is divided ...

. * Hon. Lorne Craner – former assistant secretary of state, democracy, human rights, and labor, and president of the

International Republican Institute The International Republican Institute (IRI) is an American nonprofit organization founded in 1983 and funded and supported by the United States federal government. Most of its board is drawn from the Republican Party. Its public mission is to a ...

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

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...

. *

Thomas L. Friedman Thomas Loren Friedman ( ; born July 20, 1953) is an American political commentator and author. He is a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner who is a weekly columnist for ''The New York Times''. He has written extensively on foreign affairs, global ...

- Three-time

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

winner of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''. * Dr. Harry Harding – former dean of the Elliot School of International Affairs at

The George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a private federally-chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by the United States Congress and is the first ...

. *

Jean-Marie Guehenno Jean-Marie is both a given name and a surname. Notable people with the name include: * Jean-Marie Carroll (born 1956), English musician and composer * Jean-Marie Abgrall (born 1950), French psychiatrist, criminologist, specialist in forensic med ...

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

Under-Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations. * Dr. Richard Haass - president of the

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank focused on Foreign policy of the United States, U.S. foreign policy and international relations. Founded in 1921, it is an independent and nonpartisan 501(c)(3) nonprofit organi ...

and former

director of policy planning The director of policy planning is the United States Department of State official in charge of the department's internal think tank, the policy planning staff, with a rank equivalent to assistant secretary. The position has traditionally been he ...

at the

US State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs o ...

. *

Morton Halperin Morton H. Halperin (born June 13, 1938) is an American analyst who deals with U.S. foreign policy, arms control, civil liberties, and the workings of bureaucracies. He served in the Johnson, Nixon, Clinton, and Obama administrations. He has t ...

- director of US Advocacy at the

Open Society Institute Open Society Foundations (OSF), formerly the Open Society Institute, is an American grantmaking network founded by business magnate George Soros. Open Society Foundations financially supports civil society groups around the world, with the s ...

and senior fellow at the

Center for American Progress The Center for American Progress (CAP) is a public policy think tank, research and advocacy organization which presents a Modern liberalism in the United States, liberal viewpoint on Economic policy, economic and social issues. CAP is headquarter ...

. * Dr. Anthony Lake – former

US national security advisor The assistant to the president for national security affairs (APNSA), commonly referred to as the national security advisor (NSA),The National Security Advisor and Staff: p. 1. is a senior aide in the Executive Office of the President, based at t ...

. * Lord Peter Levene - Chairman of

Lloyd's of London Lloyd's of London, generally known simply as Lloyd's, is a insurance and reinsurance market located in London, England. Unlike most of its competitors in the industry, it is not an insurance company; rather, Lloyd's is a corporate body gover ...

. * Hon. John F. Maisto – former permanent representative of the United States to the

Organization of American States The Organization of American States (OAS or OEA; ; ; ) is an international organization founded on 30 April 1948 to promote cooperation among its member states within the Americas. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, the OAS is ...

. * Dr. Jessica Tuchman Mathews - President of the

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) is a nonpartisan international affairs think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C., with operations in Europe, South Asia, East Asia, and the Middle East, as well as the United States. Foun ...

. *

Philip Merrill Philip Merrill (April 28, 1934 – June 10, 2006) was an American diplomat, publisher, banker, and philanthropist. Career Born Philip Merrill Levine, he was a graduate of Cornell University and Harvard Business School. At Cornell, he was ma ...

– former chairman of the ''Washingtonian''. * Major General William L. Nash – retired, Senior Fellow for Conflict Prevention and Director of the Military Fellows Program at the

. * 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 The Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee, also referred to as the Defense Policy Board (DPBAC or DPB), is a discretionary federal advisory committee to the United States Department of Defense. The objective of the DPB is to "provide independ ...

* H.E. Zoran Jolevski - Macedonian ambassador to the United States and former chief of staff of the president of Macedonia

Boris Trajkovski Boris Trajkovski ( GCMG; , pronounced ; 25 June 1956 – 26 February 2004) was a Macedonian politician who served as the President of Macedonia from 1999 until his death in 2004 in a plane crash. Early life Trajkovski was born on 25 June 195 ...

. * Dr. Anne-Marie Slaughter - Dean of the

Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (''abbrev.'' SPIA; formerly the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs) is a professional public policy school at Princeton University. The school provides an array of c ...

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

. * Dr. Helmut Sonnenfeldt - Director of the

Atlantic Council of the United States The Atlantic Council is an American think tank in the field of international affairs, favoring Atlanticism, founded in 1961. It manages sixteen regional centers and functional programs related to international security and global economic prosper ...

. * Dr. Lawrence H. Summers – former

US Secretary of the Treasury The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...

and former president of

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. * Hon. Togo D. West - President of the

Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, originally the Joint Center for Political Studies and also known in abbreviated form as Joint Center, is an American public policy think tank headquartered in Washington, DC. Founded in 1970 t ...

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 Colin Luther Powell ( ; – ) was an Americans, American diplomat, and army officer who was the 65th United States secretary of state from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African-American to hold the office. He was the 15th National Security ...

. * James D. Wolfensohn - Ninth president of the

World Bank Group The World Bank Group (WBG) is a family of five international organizations that make leveraged loans to developing countries. It is the largest and best-known development bank in the world and an observer at the United Nations Development Group ...

. * Hon. R. James Woolsey - Vice-president of

Booz Allen Hamilton Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation (informally Booz Allen) is the parent of Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., an American company specializing in intelligence, AI, and digital transformation. It is headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Washing ...

and former

director of Central Intelligence The director of central intelligence (DCI) was the head of the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 1946 to 2004, acting as the principal intelligence advisor to the president of the United States and the United States National Se ...

/ * Gen. Anthony Zinni – retired, former commander at US Central Command. * General Martin E. Dempsey - Chairman of the

Joint Chiefs of Staff The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) is the body of the most senior uniformed leaders within the United States Department of Defense, which advises the president of the United States, the secretary of defense, the Homeland Security Council and ...

External links

World Affairs Council of Washington, DC website

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:World Affairs Council Of Washington, Dc World Affairs Councils of America Non-profit organizations based in Washington, D.C.