On the tenth anniversary of the Contemporary Issues Program (CI) in September, 2004, IREX administered four regional alumni reunions in Kyiv, Ukraine; Moscow, Russia; Tashkent, Uzbekistan; and Tbilisi, Georgia, to celebrate the exceptional accomplishments of the program’s alumni.
“IREX is proud to organize these reunions to showcase the achievements of CI alumni,” said IREX Education Programs Director Joyce Warner. “In 10 years, the CI Program has given nearly 1,000 policymakers from the former Soviet republics of Eurasia the chance to research, observe, and work with mentors and peers in the United States on topics crucial to the economic, political, and social transitions of their societies.”
Each reunion event focused on a pressing policy issue in the region, such as the fight against HIV/AIDS in Western Eurasia, transboundary water management in Central Asia, security in the South Caucasus, and combating terrorism in Russia.
About 300 CI alumni—about one-third of all CI alumni—participated in these events, as did 150 guests from leading international and regional organizations, US embassies, and Eurasian governments, and the reunions in Kyiv, Moscow, and Tbilisi commenced with welcoming remarks from US ambassadors.
The tragic attack on schoolchildren in Beslan, Russia, took place just a few weeks prior to the Moscow reunion on combating terrorism, and the urgency surrounding this situation was reflected in the comments of all of the speakers.
A summary of each of the four regional reunions is available on our reunion report page.
CI participants serve as leading policymakers in the fields of business development, journalism, civic education, law, educational policy, military/security policy, economics, NGO development, energy policy, political science, environmental policy, public administration, human rights policy, public health policy, international relations, and social welfare.
The CI Program, a program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the US Department of State, allows midcareer professionals in specific fields to conduct policy-focused research and analysis in the United States for up to four months—long enough for substantive work and collaboration, but without derailing their work at home.
