Background
The Center has hosted a steady stream of visiting scholars and international visitors since its founding. In 1976, the Center welcomed its first Visiting Fellow, Alexandre Marc, emeritus director of the International Center for Federal Studies in Nice. Over months, Dr. Marc assisted in creating the International Association of Centers for Federal Studies (IACFS), among other responsibilities. Also that year, political theorist Vukan Kuic of the University of South Carolina joined the Center as a Visiting Fellow to explore federalism theory.
Center fellows have advised foreign governments, participated in numerous international conferences, and lectured widely on themes of federalism. The Center also has organized numerous international workshops, conferences, study tours, and training programs for international scholars and public officials. Some of these are listed below.
Activities
“The U.S. Constitution: Origins, Evolution, and Contemporary Issues,” U.S. Department of State, Fulbright Institute for International Scholars, Lafayette College, Easton, PA, June – August 2003. Directed by John Kincaid.
American Studies for Participants from Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, U.S. Department of State, International Visitors Program (IVC), Philadelphia, November 27, 2002. Directed by J. Wesley Leckrone.
“The U.S. Constitution: Origins, Evolution, and Contemporary Issues,” U.S. Department of State, Fulbright Institute for International Scholars, Lafayette College, Easton, PA, June – August 2002. Directed by John Kincaid.
“Municipal Government and Intergovernmental Relations,” Current U.S. Political, Social and Economic Issues, Germany, U.S. Department of State, International Visitors Program, IVC, Philadelphia, November 8, 2001. Directed by J. Wesley Leckrone.
“American Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations,” American Studies: A Single Country Project for Russia, U.S. Department of State, International Visitors Program (IVC), Philadelphia, November 6, 2001. Directed by J. Wesley Leckrone.
“The U.S. Constitution: Origins, Evolution, and Contemporary Issues,” U.S. Department of State, Fulbright Institute for International Scholars, Lafayette College, Easton, PA, June – August 2001. Directed by John Kincaid.
“The United States Constitution: Classic Works and Scholarly Approaches,” international seminar and study tour, Philadelphia, PA, funded by the U.S. Department of State, June-August 2000. Directed by Joseph Marbach. “
American Federalism,” presentations for the IVC program, “Democratic Institutions in the United States, Gaza and the West Bank,” U.S. Department of State, Philadelphia, June 30, 2000. Directed by J. Wesley Leckrone.
“The United States Constitution: Classic Works and Scholarly Approaches,” international seminar and study tour, Breckenridge, CO, funded by the United States Information Agency, June-August 1999. Directed by Joseph Marbach.
“The Current State of Federalism in Germany, Russia and the United States,” roundtable, chaired by J. Wesley Leckrone, Center for the Advanced Study of India, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, March 22, 1999.
Korean Local Autonomy, a one-year project supported by the USIA, with a workshop and study tour in the U.S. in October 1998 followed by a conference in Seoul in March 1999. Co-sponsored by the Korean Center for Local Autonomy and the Korean Research Institute for Local Administration, the program provided Korean local elected officials with opportunities for advanced study of institutions of local autonomy and their relationship to regional and national democratic institutions. For more, see Federalism Report 23:1 (Spring 1999): 2-3.
“American Federal Democracy: Classic Works and Scholarly Approaches,” United States Information Agency, Institute for International Scholars, Steamboat Springs, CO, 1998. Directed by John Kincaid.
The Cypriot Federalism Project began in June 1997 with a conference in Philadelphia on federal solutions to the Cypriot crisis. In 1998, the U.S. Embassy in Cyprus sent a delegation of Greek and Turkish Cypriots to attend the IACSF conference in Jerusalem on Federalism and Peacemaking. The Center then sent speakers to Cyprus. In August 1999, John Kincaid organized a U.S. study tour for Greek and Turkish Cypriot municipal officials on “Federalism, Local Government, and Regional Cooperation,” sponsored by the Fulbright Commission and AMIDEAST.
“American Federal Democracy: Classic Works and Scholarly Approaches,” United States Information Agency, Institute for International Scholars, Steamboat Springs, CO, 1997. Co-directed by Daniel J. Elazar and John Kincaid.
The Center joined with Turkish Municipal Association to co-sponsor a conference on “The Interactive Relationships between Central and Local Governments at the Threshold of the Twenty-First Century,” Celal Bayar University, Manisa, Turkey, December 1997. This conference culminated a multi-year collaboration between the Center and Turkey’s Center for the Study of Local Government, supported by the USIA, to study ways of developing greater local government autonomy and flexibility in the historically centralized Turkish system.
“American Federal Democracy: Classic Works and Scholarly Approaches,” United States Information Agency, Institute for International Scholars, Steamboat Springs, CO, 1996. Co-directed by Daniel J. Elazar and John Kincaid.
Philadelphia International Visitors’ Council selected the Center to receive the Citizen Diplomacy Award for 1996.
“The Development of the Siberian International Center for Regional Studies,” an exchange program for international scholars funded by the United States Information Agency (USIA), Novosibirsk, Siberia, Russia, September 1994 – August 1996. Directed by Joseph Marbach. For more on this program, see “Federalism and Regional Policy in Russia and the USA,” Federalism Report 20:4 (Fall 1995): 3-4.
“Promoting Turkish Democracy at the Grassroots,” study tour for Turkish local government officials funded by the United States Information Agency, Istanbul, Turkey, September 1994 – August 1995. Directed by Joseph Marbach.
“Confederal Responses to Ethnic Conflict,” international conference and study tour for international scholars funded by the United States Institute of Peace, Tomsk, Siberia, Russia, September 1992 – August 1994. Directed by Joseph Marbach.
“Rebuilding Civil Society in the Russian Republic,” international conference and study tour for Russian local government officials funded by the United States Information Agency, Novosibirsk, Siberia, Russia, September 1992 – August 1993. Directed by Joseph Marbach. To learn more about this program, see Viacheslav Seliverstov, “The American Federative System: A Program for Training Russian Regional Leaders,” Federalism Report 18:3 (Spring 1993): 21-22; and “Rebuilding Russian Civil Society,” Federalism Report 18-4 (Summer 1993): 2-5; “Russian Civil Society,” Federalism Report 19:1 (Fall 1993). One of the participants, Vladimir Ryzhkov, later became Deputy President of the Russian Duma, a presidential candidate, and a liberal voice in Russian politics.
“Restoring Federal Democracy in Nigeria,” conference sponsored by The Ford Foundation and Center for the Study of Federalism, Lagos, 1989. Directed by John Kincaid.
American Federalism by John Kincaid for series called “About the United States” published by the United States Information Agency, Washington, D.C., 1987.
