Leadership Missions
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For more than a decade, the WACA has offered unique opportunities for council leaders and sponsors to gain insight and deeper understanding of other countries.
What is a Leadership Mission?
• A Leadership Mission is a fact-finding working visit of 7 to 10 days duration made by a national leadership delegation selected by the World Affairs Councils of America (WACA) to a foreign city, country, or organization.
• The World Affairs Councils of America is the largest nonprofit international affairs organization in the United States with 89 member councils in 39 states and the District of Columbia, 26 national and international affiliates, and 535,000 individuals. More than 20 million people take part in WACA-sponsored events and programs each year.
What is the purpose of a Leadership Mission?
• Leadership Missions allow participants to obtain firsthand knowledge of the people, issues, and problems of the visited city, country or organization. They also help establish more meaningful connections between the visited city, country or organization and a well-informed and influential part of the American public.
• When Leadership Mission participants know more about a foreign city, country or organization, they are better able to design and operate programs, events and activities for their individual member councils that make a real difference in fostering grassroots understanding and engagement in international affairs.
• WACA prides itself on its independence of inquiry. WACA and its member councils wish to confront and understand the world’s issues directly, and not through the prisms of official foreign policies, interest group ideology, or the news media. WACA believes strongly in people-to-people diplomacy. It is this belief that has made WACA one of the nation’s premiere international affairs organizations.
Who goes on a Leadership Mission?
• Delegations are generally made up of 10 national leaders from the WACA member council system, including presidents of councils, national board members, local chairpersons, program directors, and local board members.
Who pays for a Leadership Mission?
• The host government or organization covers participant expenses and will sometimes pay the international airfare for Leadership Mission participants. Hosts have included foreign affairs ministries, national information services, local foundations, and local nonprofit organizations.
What do Leadership Mission delegations do?
• While abroad, delegations hold a wide variety of discussions and make numerous site visits. Typically, discussions include a session at the foreign ministry and often include time with defense, education, and economics ministries, along with other field experts. In addition, delegations also meet with the news media, business associations, think tanks, foundations, and universities. Discussion sessions are arranged as short briefings followed by extensive question-and-answer periods.
• Leadership Mission visits often include industrial facilities, military installations, and urban and rural development projects. Delegations are usually hosted once by the U.S. Embassy and sometimes the delegations are able to pay a courtesy call on the country’s president or prime minister.
What are the benefits of Leadership Missions?
• Information gained by participant delegations is communicated to member councils throughout the United States by means of a trip report, as well as through enhanced member council programming.
• Events, activities and programs sponsored by member councils on the host country have increased through WACA’s 89 member councils as a result of each tour. Tour participants discuss their perspectives in publications, on radio and television, at conferences, in national foreign policy discussion publications, and in educational materials WACA prepares for students.
• These visits also lead to the development of long-term working relationships between counterpart organizations in the host country and the member councils. The working relationships produce joint projects, conferences, professional exchanges, speakers’ visits to the United States, intern exchanges, publications, and more. As well, the tours sometimes lead to increased business interest from some of the 2,000 business groups and corporations that financially support the world affairs council movement in the United States.
• National delegation visits often then lead to follow-up work by local councils. Many local councils sponsor educational travel programs for their members and Leadership Missions often serve as a catalyst for other trips organized by WACA member councils.
What countries or organizations have hosted Leadership Missions?
• Since 1996, WACA member councils have participated in Leadership Missions to:
o 2007: Saudi Arabia and Germany
o 2006: Tunisia and Taiwan
o 2005: Egypt and the European Union/NATO headquarters in Belgium
o 2004: Lebanon, Taiwan and Kuwait
o 2003: Mexico, Poland and Jordan
o 2002: Lebanon and Israel
o 2001: Taiwan
o 2000: Morocco and Northern Ireland
o 1999: Singapore
o 1998: Taiwan
o 1997: Brazil, China and Korea
o 1996: Japan
What is a Leadership Mission?
• A Leadership Mission is a fact-finding working visit of 7 to 10 days duration made by a national leadership delegation selected by the World Affairs Councils of America (WACA) to a foreign city, country, or organization.
• The World Affairs Councils of America is the largest nonprofit international affairs organization in the United States with 89 member councils in 39 states and the District of Columbia, 26 national and international affiliates, and 535,000 individuals. More than 20 million people take part in WACA-sponsored events and programs each year.
What is the purpose of a Leadership Mission?
• Leadership Missions allow participants to obtain firsthand knowledge of the people, issues, and problems of the visited city, country or organization. They also help establish more meaningful connections between the visited city, country or organization and a well-informed and influential part of the American public.
• When Leadership Mission participants know more about a foreign city, country or organization, they are better able to design and operate programs, events and activities for their individual member councils that make a real difference in fostering grassroots understanding and engagement in international affairs.
• WACA prides itself on its independence of inquiry. WACA and its member councils wish to confront and understand the world’s issues directly, and not through the prisms of official foreign policies, interest group ideology, or the news media. WACA believes strongly in people-to-people diplomacy. It is this belief that has made WACA one of the nation’s premiere international affairs organizations.
Who goes on a Leadership Mission?
• Delegations are generally made up of 10 national leaders from the WACA member council system, including presidents of councils, national board members, local chairpersons, program directors, and local board members.
Who pays for a Leadership Mission?
• The host government or organization covers participant expenses and will sometimes pay the international airfare for Leadership Mission participants. Hosts have included foreign affairs ministries, national information services, local foundations, and local nonprofit organizations.
What do Leadership Mission delegations do?
• While abroad, delegations hold a wide variety of discussions and make numerous site visits. Typically, discussions include a session at the foreign ministry and often include time with defense, education, and economics ministries, along with other field experts. In addition, delegations also meet with the news media, business associations, think tanks, foundations, and universities. Discussion sessions are arranged as short briefings followed by extensive question-and-answer periods.
• Leadership Mission visits often include industrial facilities, military installations, and urban and rural development projects. Delegations are usually hosted once by the U.S. Embassy and sometimes the delegations are able to pay a courtesy call on the country’s president or prime minister.
What are the benefits of Leadership Missions?
• Information gained by participant delegations is communicated to member councils throughout the United States by means of a trip report, as well as through enhanced member council programming.
• Events, activities and programs sponsored by member councils on the host country have increased through WACA’s 89 member councils as a result of each tour. Tour participants discuss their perspectives in publications, on radio and television, at conferences, in national foreign policy discussion publications, and in educational materials WACA prepares for students.
• These visits also lead to the development of long-term working relationships between counterpart organizations in the host country and the member councils. The working relationships produce joint projects, conferences, professional exchanges, speakers’ visits to the United States, intern exchanges, publications, and more. As well, the tours sometimes lead to increased business interest from some of the 2,000 business groups and corporations that financially support the world affairs council movement in the United States.
• National delegation visits often then lead to follow-up work by local councils. Many local councils sponsor educational travel programs for their members and Leadership Missions often serve as a catalyst for other trips organized by WACA member councils.
What countries or organizations have hosted Leadership Missions?
• Since 1996, WACA member councils have participated in Leadership Missions to:
o 2007: Saudi Arabia and Germany
o 2006: Tunisia and Taiwan
o 2005: Egypt and the European Union/NATO headquarters in Belgium
o 2004: Lebanon, Taiwan and Kuwait
o 2003: Mexico, Poland and Jordan
o 2002: Lebanon and Israel
o 2001: Taiwan
o 2000: Morocco and Northern Ireland
o 1999: Singapore
o 1998: Taiwan
o 1997: Brazil, China and Korea
o 1996: Japan