The Foreign Service Journal, December 2015

34 DECEMBER 2015 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL T he International Visitor Leadership Program dates back to the Franklin D. Roosevelt adminis- tration. Thanks to a jarring incident with a heckler at a Buenos Aires peace conference in 1936—a firsthand experience of America’s image problem in the hemi- sphere—President Roosevelt directed his administra- tion to enhance the profile of the United States in Latin America. Given the United States’ isolationist mood at the time, progress was slow. The State Department’s first visitor arrived in Decem- ber 1940. Father Aurelio Espinosa, director of the College of Cotocollao in Quito, Ecuador, met scholars in Wash- ington, Baltimore and at Princeton, Fordham, Harvard and Northwestern universities, as a participant in the Hemisphere Leader Program. Magdalena Petit, a novel- ist and critic from Santiago, Chile, was the first female participant. By mid-1941, programs became more numerous and the State Department created cultural attaché positions in the embassies to help manage them. By the end of 1943 approximately 250 visitors—educators, lawyers, government officials, medical specialists, men and women of letters or the arts and journalists—had come from Latin America on the program. The precursor of the State Department’s Western Hemisphere Affairs Bureau, known then as the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs and led by Nelson Rockefeller, also ran exchange programs. These emphasized training for Latin American professionals in fields ranging from journalism to engineering. U.S. government exchange programs grew during the Second World War to include up-and-coming professionals from China and the Middle East. Realizing the success of such programs, Representa- tive Karl E. Mundt and Senator H. Alexander Smith intro- duced a bill in 1948 to codify the necessity of U.S.-spon- sored exchanges. The “Smith-Mundt Act” calls, in part, on Congress to appropriate funds for “an educational exchange service to cooperate with other nations.” Entry into the program is by official nomination at U.S. embassies and consulates in countries around the world. During what is typically a four-city visit, participants are hosted by “citizen diplomats,” who arrange professional and cultural interactions, as well as welcome them into their homes. The professional meetings, small and large, are the heart of the programs. This year, for example, Afghan farmers went to Oregon to learn sustainable beekeep- ing. The State Department partnered with Bloomberg Philanthropies to convene foreign mayors and city sustainability officials with U.S. counterparts to address climate issues. And since 2010, 184 sub-Saharan female entrepreneurs have focused on economic development and social advocacy to create more than 17,000 jobs in their communities. After their programs, IVLP alumni have become vocal experts in politics, art, science and business in their countries; they have become Nobel Prize winners; and 335 became heads of state. Alumni include: • The world’s second female head of state, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi • Four U.K. Prime Ministers—Margaret Thatcher, Edward Heath, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown • Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, whose tumultuous relationship with the U.S. ripples into current events • Former South African President F. W. de Klerk, who after his 1976 IVLP trip was convinced race relations in his country must be addressed • Current Guinean President Alpha Condé, whose cabinet is the first all-civilian government in Guinea •Former Mongolian Prime Minister Norovyn Altankhuyag • First female Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard • Current Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico • Former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, who, with then-Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize To date the IVLP has brought more than 200,000 people from more than 190 countries to the United States to examine today’s issues with Americans in their companies, government offices, news organizations and communities. At the program’s core, participants leave the United States with a wealth of knowledge and an expanded professional network. The hope is that having first-hand experiences with Americans will broaden their world outlook. —FSO Robert Zimmerman and retired FSO Andrea Strano IVLP’s Latin American Roots