The French-American Foundation is a privately funded, non-governmental organization established to promote bilateral relations between France and the United States on topics of importance to the two countries, with a focus on contact between upcoming leaders from each country. It employs a variety of initiatives that include multi-year policy programs, conferences on issues of French-American interest, and leadership and professional exchanges of decision-makers from France and the United States.
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Founded in 1976, the Foundation is an operating organization that relies on outside financial support to carry out its mission and does not provide grants. It is an independent, non-partisan, nonprofit organization.[1]
The idea was born in 1973 between Ambassador James G. Lowenstein, James Chace, editor-in-chief of Foreign Affairs, both members of the Council on Foreign Relations, an independent think tank, and Nicholas Wahl, a specialist of post-war France at Princeton University.[2] In order to counter an anti-French sentiment within the State Department, the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and the press, as well as anti-Americanism among the French elite, the three men grew the desire to create a structure dedicated to friendship between the US and its oldest ally, and outside government control, unlike the existing exchange programs led by the State Department since 1941.[3]
The Young Leaders program is the flagship program of the French-American Foundation.[4] The program was created in 1981, under the sponsorship of Princeton French-American economist Ezra Suleiman [fr] who remained its president until 2000.[5] It was initially intended as a response to observations that the close working relationships between French and American leaders in the post-war period were waning as new, younger leaders rose with little exposure to their transatlantic counterparts. 38 years later, it still plays a key role in the creation of transatlantic bonds, with more than 500 leaders in government, business, media, military, culture and the non-profit sector having taken part.[4]
Every year, juries in France and the United States select a small group (around twenty) of French and Americans between 30 and 40, that are destined to hold a leadership position in their field and to play an important role in a globalized world.[5] The selected Young Leaders then participate in two five-day seminars, alternatively in the U.S. and France, with the opportunity to discuss issues of common concern and, more importantly, get to know each other and create durable bonds.[6][7][8]
Notable alumni
Young Leaders alumni include prominent Americans such as:[9][10]
French honorees include:[9]
The Annual Gala is the principal fundraising event of the French-American Foundation. Each year at the Gala, the Foundation presents its Benjamin Franklin Award to two individuals who have made significant contributions to the French-American relationship. The Comte de Vergennes Award is presented to longtime supporters of the French-American Foundation.
Past honorees include: Anne Lauvergeon, Patricia Russo, Ambassador Anne Cox Chambers, Henri de Castries, John A. Thain, Hon. C. Douglas Dillon, Hon. Walter J. P. Curley, Médecins Sans Frontières, Bernard Arnault, Michel David-Weill, the Forbes family, Maurice Lévy, and Frederick W. Smith.
Mohr, Alexander (2010), The German Political Foundations As Actors in Democracy Assistance, Political Science, Boca Raton, Florida: Universal-Publishers, p. 145
"Mission". French-American Foundation. Archived from the original on 2019-01-05. Retrieved 2019-01-04. "The Program". French-American Foundation. Archived from the original on 2019-01-04. Retrieved 2019-01-04.