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Emerging Leadership Program

TRAC's planned conference on emerging leadership in the United States and Russia will unite a large group of Russian and American leaders in five fields: business/economics, science/technology, politics/governrnent, media and the arts. They will meet at Esalen to explore common interests and concerns and to share ideas about how influential leaders can promote stable, propitious relations between the two countries. This project is based on the belief that informal personal relationships between leaders can result in improved relations between countries and in peaceful resolution of future conflict.

TRAC will provide structure for the conferences, while allowing discussion and interaction among the participants to determine the long-term results of the meetings. In June, 1994, a group of Russian and American advisors met at Esalen, where they discussed the objectives of the project and identified major themes to be addressed. The Esalen talks were extremely productive, leaving both TRAC's staff and the advisory group, which included representatives from each of the four fields, highly optimistic and enthusiastic about the project.

The advisors and staff met at Esalen again in June and December, 1995 to set up a timeline and discuss corporate fund raising and the progress of nominations for the participants from both countries. In September, 1996 a group of nominees joined our directors and advisors for a preliminary conference at Esalen Institute. The team worked together to develop alternative scenarios for the future of Russian-American relations. Leading the scenario development effort were two experienced facilitators from Global Business Network (GBN), a research and consulting organization that specializes in long-range strategic planning. Alternative scenario development engaged emerging leaders in conversations about their shared futures. The leadership participants gained a shared sense of the dangers and opportunities they face together. Through working on focused scenarios, they reached deeper understanding of both their responsibilities to the future and their capacity to create a desirable future. This first set of scenarios has been published. (Click here.)

What makes this project so exciting is that it combines much of the work TRAC has established over the last 20 years. It addresses the areas of ethnic conflict resolution, environmental responsibility in business, health, technology and film.

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