Twenty leading global experts will serve on a new blue-ribbon advisory council to develop ideas for more constructive relations between wealthy nations and the world’s Middle Income Countries, the Stimson Center announced today. The Global Advisory Council will support the Center’s New Majority program, under the direction of Stimson Distinguished Fellow Robert J. Berg.
“Stimson is pleased to announce the formation of the Global Advisory Council,” said Stimson President and CEO Brian Finlay. “The luminaries on this Council bring to bear a remarkable breadth of experience working in government, civil society, and the private sector. Working with them, our goal is to help redefine relations with Middle Income Countries and break down the artificial impediments between the Global North and the Global South.”
Over time, the United States and other wealthy governments have designed and operated institutions and bilateral programs to effectively engage the extreme ends of the global wealth spectrum. The United States and other wealthy governments engage with other wealthy countries through, for example, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the G-7. While poor countries receive foreign aid, trade preferences, and access to universities in the U.S. and Europe.
But a gap remains in effectively engaging Middle Income Countries. Now, nearly all countries in Latin America, South and Southeast Asia and over a third of countries in Africa have achieved middle-income status. The U.S. and other wealthy states have yet to develop more mature relationships with Middle Income Countries that would better identify mutual challenges and opportunities. As a result, the U.S. and many wealthy countries have ceded a competitive advantage — pursuing old agendas, employing outdated instrumentalities, and neglecting Middle Income Countries.
“At their best, relationships between the U.S. and partner countries serve as an avenue of mutual exchange, not a one-way street,” said Distinguished Fellow, Robert J. Berg. “More can be done to enrich and deepen relationships between the U.S. and Middle Income Countries. Stimson’s New Majority program, under the guidance of the Global Advisory Council, will push the envelope to ensure that the U.S. particularly — and Middle Income Countries around the world — can work together more constructively to achieve mutual goals and interests.”
Members of the Global Advisory Council include:
Jaffar Al-Rikabi, World Bank; Former Advisor, Government of Iraq
K.Y. Amoako, Founder and President, African Center for Economic Transformation; former Executive Secretary, UN Economic Commission for Africa
Brian Atwood, Chair of Global Policy Studies, Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota; Professor of Public Policy, Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota; former Administrator, USAID; former chairman, Development Assistance Committee, OECD
Barry Blechman, Co-Founder, Member, Board of Directors, Stimson Center
Colin Bradford, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Global Economy and Development Program, Brookings Institution
Salah Brahimi, President and CEO, Grey Matter International Ltd.
Richard Carey, Chair of the International Advisory Committee for the China International Development Research Network; Member of the Advisory council, IDS Rising Powers in International Development programme; Former Chairman, Development Assistance Committee, OECD
Pamela Coke Hamilton, Executive Director, Caribbean Export Development Agency
Rachel Holt, Director of Strategy, Social Impact, Propper Daley
Jim Kolbe, Fellow, German Marshall Fund; Consultant, McLarty Associates; former U.S. Congressman
Michael Krepon, Co-Founder, Stimson Center
M. Peter McPherson, President, Association of Public and Land-grant Universities; former Administrator, USAID; former Executive Vice President, Bank of America
Johanna Mendelson Forman, Senior Advisor, Stimson Center
Bill Novelli, Professor, McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University
Founder, Global Social Enterprise Initiative (GSEI), Georgetown University’; Co-Chair, Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC); former CEO of AARP, the largest membership organization in the U.S.
Jose Antonio Ocampo, Professor of Professional Practice in International and Public Affairs, Columbia University; Director of the Economic and Political Development Concentration, Columbia University; Chair, Committee for Development Policy (expert committee of U.N. Economic and Social Council)
Keith Porter, President, Stanley Foundation
Julia Roig, CEO, Partners Global
Ravi Venkatesan, Chairman, Bank of Baroda; Member of the Board, Rockefeller Foundation
Sundeep Waslekar, Director, Strategic Foresight Group
Sam Worthington, CEO, InterAction
Ting Xu, Co-Founder and Director of Advisory, Aetos Strategy & Advisory
The Stimson Center is a nonpartisan policy research center working to solve the world’s greatest threats to security and prosperity.