Our Story
Our Early Impact
Why the World Affairs Council?
From our first by-laws: “In the belief that better community education in world affairs is necessary for sound democratic citizenship, and in order to present facts and realistic appraisals and to foster free and informed discussion of world problems, including economic, political and social problems, the World Affairs Council of Seattle is established.
“The purposes of the Council shall be to promote study and public education on world affairs, particularly through the encouragement of informed and intelligent discussion, and to facilitate cooperation among organizations or groups which have similar aims. World affairs shall be taken to include all aspects of the relations among peoples, of United States foreign policy, and of the aims and activities of the United Nations.”
From an early handout: “If the United States is to surmount the problems of a highly complicated world situation it will do so because of a clearly established foreign policy developed and maintained upon the insistence of an informed citizenry.”
"There is nothing wrong with the desire to analyze and criticize our foreign policy, but first one must recognize it for what it is.”
~ Jeanne Smith, director of the World Affairs Council from 1961 to 1971.
Founding the Council
Following the model of the first World Affairs Council in Cleveland, University of Washington (UW) political science professor Charles E. Martin led a coordinating committee of several organizations exploring the international field with the goal of building a substantial platform:
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Institute of Pacific Relations
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United Nations Association
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China Club
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The Seattle Council on Foreign Relations
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Commission to Study the Organization of Peace
The coordinating committee deliberated on whether to act as a periodic planning meeting between these groups, to establish an office within UW, or to set up an entirely new organization following the Cleveland model. After seeking advice from UW president Raymond B. Allen, the committee began the work of steering the creation of an independent organization. The group submitted articles of incorporation for the Council on September 14, 1951.
The Early Impact
One of the Council’s earliest programs, “The Problem of Power in a World at Peace,” featured the founder of the Cleveland Council on World Affairs, Brooks Emeny. Other events show the range of global topics the Council aimed to highlight to its Seattle audience. “The Police Action in Korea,” and “The Strategic Importance of East Africa” are two examples. U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk joined a month after our founding for a program entitled “Current Problems of Far Eastern Policy.”
Here is a sampling of our programs ten years later, from 1961:
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“The 101 years of Japan/USA” with the Consul General of Japan in Seattle
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“Africa,” with the U.S. Consul General for Tanganyika (now part of Tanzania)
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“The Progress of European Unification,” with Hubert Ehring, legal specialist
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“The Significance of Panama,” with the U.S. Consul General in Panama
Dinner Diplomacy quickly became a mainstay of the Council’s work during this decade. In 1961, the Council made arrangements for 138 visitors from 38 countries.
“This people-to-people program is one of the most important parts of the total program of the World Affairs Council. With its broad scope, it reaches people from all walks of life from almost every country in the world. I hope that it will continue to grow with full participation of the membership of the World Affairs Council.”
~ Joanna Eckstein, vice-president and co-chair of the hospitality committee at the time