Annual Meeting
Unveiling a Bipartisan Foreign Policy

In an effort to bridge the partisan divide that has evolved on Capitol Hill and across the country, Citizens for Global Solutions will look to forge a new direction for our nation’s foreign policy.

Our organization is uniquely positioned to propose a platform that will bring people together to promote this agenda. “Building a Bipartisan United States Foreign Policy for the 21st Century” will be the focus of our annual meeting, November 13 - 14 at Hotel Palomar Washington DC.

Our hope is that it will begin a conversation among policy makers and the American public. The meeting will address a broad range of problems ranging from failed and failing states to terrorism to the role of international institutions.

According to Citizens for Global Solutions’ Senior Fellow Raj Purohit, “This conference is the beginning of a dialogue that will go on into 2007 and 2008. We look forward to using the meeting as a jumping off point for a series of sessions across the country that will bring experts of all stripes together to discuss the biggest foreign policy challenges of our time. As an organization, we look forward to town hall meetings from Iowa to California where the public can interact with experts and contribute to this discussion.”

The conference will begin with a plenary session of experts discussing the parameters of a 21st Century U.S. foreign policy. They will address the big-picture ideas of what a new agenda should look like. This will lay the ground work for the conference. We expect these experts will think broadly, be provocative and present outside the box solutions. Throughout the conference we will seek to have additional ideas raised for discussion and debate, with an emphasis on challenging attendees to think about problems to be tackled and possible solutions.

We recognize that it is not enough to only include the traditional foreign policy community. As we seek to lay out new and innovative solutions to the challenges we face in the 21st Century, we strongly believe that a key institutional goal is to ensure that a broader range of voices are able to make themselves heard in this debate. Therefore a key component of this conference is oriented toward “expanding the town common” and thereby ensuring that non-traditional voices are able to be heard during this vital dialogue on our country’s foreign policy. We are seeking to include a diverse group of “unusual suspects” in this conversation, including social entrepreneurs, faith and business leaders, youth activists and civil society representatives.

We believe that a more diverse group will increase the prospect of a more comprehensive and balanced foreign policy for the 21st Century. With that goal in mind, we sincerely hope that you are able to join us in Washington, D.C. this November as we begin a conversation on this critical issue.

For more information about the 2006 Annual Meeting, including how to book your accommodation at the Hotel Palomar Washington DC and/or corporate sponsorship opportunities, please contact Chris Belisle, Director of Corporate Relations & Special Events, at 202.546.3950 x128 or by e-mail at cbelisle@globalsolutions.org.

Contributing Writer: Howard Salter


Updated June 30, 2006