Program2008 Report “Pullquote.” CONTENTS 2008 HIGHLIGHTS Peter Hakim, Foreign Affairs The Sol M. Linowitz Forum .................5 We are pleased to present this summary of the Inter-American Dialogue’s work in 2008. U.S. Foreign Policy in the This year was the 16th time that Dialogue members have met in plenary session for the Hemisphere ...........................................7 Sol M. Linowitz Forum. The forum brought together some one hundred leaders from across the Western Hemisphere—led by our co-chairs Ricardo Lagos and Carla Hills—to Congressional Program ..................7 identify ways the next U.S. president can improve inter-American relations, and to debate Reshaping Drug Policy ..................9 policy prescriptions for fast-changing economic scenarios across the region. Drawing on the conclusions and recommendations of the Linowitz Forum, the Dialogue released in Inter-American Institutions ................12 March 2009 A Second Chance: U.S. Policy in the Americas, its 10-point agenda for a new Latin America and the World ...........13 U.S. policy in the Americas designed to guide the Obama administration through the most important challenges it is likely to confront in the region. Trade and Economics ........................15 In 2008, Dialogue staff published a dozen articles and interviews in leading policy Remittances & Development .............19 journals—Great Decisions, Current History, World Policy Journal, Latin American Politics Democratic Governance .....................20 and Society, Foreign Affairs en Español, and Revista América Economía—that analyzed the policy choices facing the next U.S. president, next steps for Cuba, consequences Dialogues on Democracy .............21 of Latin America’s increasingly diverse international relations, the impact of Press Freedom ..............................22 globalization on Peru’s economy and social fabric, and the paradoxes presented by Chávez’s Venezuela. Staff also published over 100 articles in newspapers, including Women’s Leadership .....................23 The Washington Post, The Miami Herald, El Tiempo, O Estado de São Paulo, El Mercurio, Education Policy/PREAL .....................24 El Universal, El Comercio, ideele, La Prensa, and Confidencial—on topics ranging from Social Policy .......................................28 Countries and Subregions ..................29 Corporate Program ..........................42 Publications ........................................45 Financial Report .................................49 Funding Sources .................................50 Inter-American Dialogue Members .......................................56 Staff ..............................................58 Board of Directors .......................59 The Dialogue’s Sol M. Linowitz Forum INTER-AMERICAN DIALOGUE 2008 Program Report 1 inter-american dialogue • 2008 PROGRAM rePORT Barack Obama’s cabinet picks to questions about free trade with Colombia, the rising tide of women in political power, student The summit achievement, trends in remittance flows, and the state of democracy in the Caribbean. “is a one-man show. Dialogue staff are regularly quoted by U.S., Latin American, and European newspapers The spotlight is on and interviewed on television and radio. Obama. Nobody else The Dialogue’s Democratic Governance Program, in partnership with the Organization matters. of American States, Proyectamérica, and the Centro de Estudios Públicos, hosted the third ” of eight national dialogues on democracy Peter Hakim, in Reñaca, Chile in July. The program also The Economist Dialogue member Lee Cullum, columnist with published several reports this year, including The Dallas Morning News Ten Years after the Agreements on a Firm and Lasting Peace, which featured the results of its second dialogue on democracy in Antigua, Guatemala the year before; Media and Governance: A Reform Agenda in Latin America and the Caribbean, Access to Information in the Americas, and Women in the Americas: Paths to Political Power. Other highlights of the year’s activities include the 12th annual Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF) conference, which reviewed hemispheric political and economic trends, and evolving U.S. relations with Latin America and the Caribbean. This year’s meeting featured CAF president Enrique García, OAS secretary general José Miguel Insulza, Inter-American Development Bank president Luis Alberto Moreno, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon, and two lead Latin American policy advisors from the Obama and McCain presidential campaigns. Dialogue Board members Jim Kolbe, Mack McLarty INTER-AMERICAN DIALOGUE 2 2008 Program Report In 2008, the Andean Working Group met twice—once in Washington and again in Lima, Peru. The Dialogue’s work on the Andean region analyzes the policy issues Latin America and choices confronting the region’s leaders. Our Andean program published three has learned from its working papers, and, with the Johns Hopkins “ University Press, the Dialogue published past mistakes, but it the third edition of Constructing Democratic Governance in Latin America will still be buffeted In 2008, the Dialogue’s Congressional Members by global economic Working Group hosted over two dozen members of Congress in private discussions turmoil… 2009 will and public forums on Capitol Hill and in other Dialogue events. Colombian defense Dialogue Board member Billie Miller be a tough year. minister Juan Manuel Santos met over dinner with Congress members to discuss the rescue ” operation that freed 15 hostages of the FARC. Joyce Chang, Members also discussed the merits and 2008 CAF Report shortcomings of the Mérida Initiative with Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, Assistant Secretary Tom Shannon, Assistant Secretary for International Narcotics David Johnson and the ambassadors of Mexico and El Salvador. On other occasions they discussed challenges facing Afro-Colombians with Minister of Culture Paula Moreno and Cartagena Mayor Judith Pinedo. Other dinner topics included trade and poverty in the region, U.S.-Cuba policy choices, and the challenges facing Afro-descendents in Latin America. Dialogue Board member Antonio Navarro Wolff This year, the Inter-American Dialogue began its Latin American Economies Roundtable (LAER) series, a joint project with the Elliot School for International Affairs at The George Washington University. It brings together in closed sessions a small group of leading economic analysts from government agencies, international financial institutions, the private sector, think-tanks, and universities. The group explored the risks of the U.S. slowdown for Latin American economies and alternative policy responses; concerns about rising commodity prices and inflation, and how governments and central banks might respond; Latin America’s increasing vulnerability to the global credit crunch; and the region’s deepening capital shortage problem and the need for and feasibility of financing through international financial institutions. Also in 2008, the Dialogue began its Rethinking the Drug War initiative with the help of the Open Society Institute and the Alvar-Alice Foundation. The project is designed to examine alternatives to current U.S. drug policies in the hemisphere and promote debate within the U.S. government and around the region. The Dialogue commissioned several papers outlining alternative policies and held small roundtable discussions debating the merits of those alternatives. These meetings paved the way for the publication of a final report and a major conference on drug policy in 2009. INTER-AMERICAN DIALOGUE 2008 Program Report 3 In partnership with the Canadian Foundation for the Americas (FOCAL), the Dialogue has organized a Hemispheric Think Tank Working Group on the Fifth Summit of the Americas. The working group brings together think tank leaders from around the hemisphere to Cuba and discuss the agenda of the summit to be held in Trinidad and Tobago in April 2009, and to re-think the overall summit process. Working group members have written papers on specific “Colombia will offer topics related to the summit’s three main themes: human prosperity, energy security and environmental sustainability. our new president In 2008, the Dialogue initiated the China and Latin America Working Group to examine the opportunities he changing nature of this relationship and recommend strategies to make the emerging ties among China, Latin America, and the United States as constructive as possible. must grab. The Dialogue’s education reform program, PREAL, working with national partners, initiated ” a project to encourage national policy change in four Central American countries, expanded Marifeli-Pérez Stable, its business-education alliance, and launched an initiative to assess specific national education The Miami Herald policies (policy audits) as a complement to its report cards. It collaborated on three national and international education conferences (on accountability, quality education for the poor, and educational equity gaps) and hosted three events in Washington (on education in Haiti, Cuba’s education system, and recent reforms in São Paulo, Brazil). In addition, PREAL worked with national partners throughout the region to co-organize more than 30 events on key education topics, and its two working groups held 12 events designed to generate in-depth information and analysis for policy-makers on standards, assessments and the teaching profession. Over the course of the year, PREAL produced and distributed