The American Foreign Policy Council has recognized the importance of supporting institutions, not personalities, as Russia tries to find its way. AFPC has long promoted ties between the legislative branches of Russia and the U.S. to help develop separation of powers in Russia, and to inform the U.S. Congress better about Russian developments.
From October 9-17, 1999, AFPC conducted its sixth annual fact-finding mission to the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
From July 7-15, 1999, a Chinese Association for International Understanding (CAFIU) delegation studying U.S. federalism was hosted by AFPC in Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington, DC.
Belarusian National Front co-founder and shadow candidate for president Zianon Pazniak was the guest at an AFPC luncheon for Congressional staff on February 22, 1999.
It was a rare sight: senior officials from the Soviet security services discussing the future of Russia with ey U.S. Congressional staff members and policy makers.
AFPC hosted the House International Relations Committee’s top Russia specialists to discuss their recent fact-finding trip in Russia.
AFPC hosted Central Asia Development Corporation President Charles Santos at a luncheon on September 18, 1998.
As part of an ongoing AFPC-People’s Republic of China (PRC) exchange, a nine person delegation headed by Mr. Wan Guoquan, Vice Chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), visited Washington, Philadelphia, and New York, August 21-29, 1998.
As part of our ongoing involvement with the formal exchange between the U.S. Congress and the Russian Duma, AFPC hosted a dinner for the latest delegation of Duma members on May 19.
U.S. foreign policy officials recently had the occasion to hear about the strife in Bosnia-Herzegovina firsthand. In January, two distinguished Bosnian leaders addressed congressional staffers about the ongoing struggles at an AFPC luncheon.
Without frank discussion of difficult issues in U.S.-China relations, the room for miscalculation and misunderstanding grows. As part of its commitment to educated decision-making, AFPC has just completed its Fall 1997 exchange with the Chinese Association for International Understanding (CAFIU).
While Russia faces uncertainty with its people engaged in astruggle for democracy, the American Foreign Policy Council has launched the Russian Parliament Exchange Program. The program was established in May of last year at the request of the Chairman and the Deputy Chairman of the Russian parliament.
Last December, Mr. Andrei Kolosovsky, Charge d’Affaires of the Russian Embassy, was the guest of honor at an AFPC-sponsored dinner in Washington, D.C
In late September, 1992, AFPC sponsored a trip for senior policy analysts to Russia. The delegation sought to achieve a deeper understanding of the difficult and complicated circumstances there. The purpose of the trip was to study the economic, political and social situation in the country through a number of channels including meetings with Parliamentary leaders, government officials, journalists, business executives and others, and through general exposure to life in Moscow and its environs.
Through the generous support of the Pew Charitable Trusts of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the American Foreign Policy Council has been able to conduct an in-depth study of the U.S. foreign aid program. This study project has culminated in a book entitled Modernizing Foreign Assistance: Resource Management as an Instrument of Foreign Policy. With the final manuscript now with the publisher, Praeger Publishing of New York, the book is scheduled to be released in Summer 1992.
The American Foreign Policy Council traveled to Prague, Czechoslovakia this past July to co-sponsor the “Peaceful Road to Democracy” conference. The three day event was initiated at the request of President Vaclav Havel, in coordination with his group, Charter 77, and was directed by the American Foundation for Resistance International.
The central theme of the “Peaceful Road to Democracy” conference, sponsored in Prague by Resistance International and the American Foreign Policy Council, addressed the difficult task of transition: How do we build a free-market economy and a democratic society “from under the rubble” (in Solzhenitsyn’s phrase)? “Mr. Gorbachev is turning the Soviet Union into one giant Beirut,” said Vladimir Bukovsky in his opening remarks at the conference. “State structures remain the greatest obstacle to human freedom, and…socialism cannot be restructured or reformed: it can only be eliminated.”
The American Foreign Policy Council traveled to the Soviet Union this past June to co-sponsor the Moscow Summer School.
AFPC Senior Fellow in Defense Studies Peter Garretson discusses the new US Space Command vision