children'sbookprograms, thanks to the generosity of more 

 than 300 publishing executives. 



Support for RIF from the book community was also demon- 

 strated during the annual American Booksellers Association 

 convention in Chicago, when the Ingram Book Co. sponsored 

 a Chili Cook-Off to raise money for the literacy programs of 

 Reading Is Fundamental, RIF in Chicago, and Literacy Chi- 

 cago, a consortium of adult lireracy groups. 



Woodrow Wilson International 

 Center for Scholars 



Charles Blitzer, Director 



The Woodrow Wilson Center honors the nation's 28th presi- 

 dent by providing a place for free intellectual inquiry that 

 strengthens links between the worlds of ideas and public af- 

 fairs. Through an annual fellowship competition, scholars 

 from around the world are invited to the center for extended 

 periods of research and writing. The center also sponsors pub- 

 lic meetings, generates publications, and produces broadcast 

 programs that make individual scholarship accessible to pol- 

 icy makers and a broad public. 



A distinguished group of scholars and policy experts dis- 

 cussed the political and policy questions surrounding the affir- 

 mative action debate in a program at the center. Juan 

 Williams, Washington Post journalist and guest scholar, was 

 the moderator. The panelists addressed beliefs about race, gen- 

 der, equality, and opportunity and debated whether affirma- 



tive action is an essential policy tool for ameliorating the dam- 

 age of legal slavery and segregation or a racial and gender 

 spoils system that is unnecessary and divisive. 



Through its new Environmental Change and Security proj- 

 ect, the center is playing an important role in addressing the 

 international ramifications of environmental degradation. 

 Workshops and seminars focused on the relationship between 

 environmental degradation and violent conflict; the environ- 

 mental consequences of war; environmental assistance to de- 

 veloping countries; and international petspectives on how the 

 environment affects security. 



Anthony Lake, the president's national security adviser and 

 a trustee of the center, defended U.S. foreign aid policies in a 

 speech at the National Press Club, given under the center's 

 auspices. 



Speakers in a new series on international financial issues ad- 

 dressed recent exchange rate crises and the lessons of currency 

 and sovereign liquidity problems. The series analyzed current 

 proposals to moderate or prevent international financial crises. 



The center is unique among research centers in bringing to- 

 gether academics, policy makers, and journalists to benefit 

 from and contribute ro the continuing dialogue between pub- 

 lic affairs and scholarship. Academic participants during the 

 past year included Russian economist Lilia Shevtsova; Roger 

 Louis, general editor of the Oxford History of the British Empire: 

 Yeats scholar Helen Vendler; and literary theorist Geoffrey 

 Hartmann. Fellows participating from outside the academic 

 community included Anatoly Dobrynin, former ambassador 

 from the Soviet Union to the United States; author and femi- 

 nist Betty Friedan; Japanese journalist Susumu Awanohara; 

 French diplomat and journalist Eric Rouleau; counselor to the 

 secretary of defense Larry K. Smith; and journalists E.J. 

 Dionne, John J. Fialka, Elizabeth Pond, and Juan Williams. 



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