Foreign Policy Formulation and American Society - Indonesian Journalists

January 29 - February 12, 2005, Washington, D.C., New York, Los Angeles, California
Contacts: Washington Foreign Press Center Program Officer: Joe Bookbinder, 202-504-6354, Email: bookinderja@state.gov; New York Foreign Press Center Program Officer: JoDell Shields, 212-317-8334, Email: shieldsjd@state.gov ; Los Angeles Foreign Press Center, 310-235-7693, fpcla@cruznet.net

The three Foreign Press Centers organized the two-week reporting tour for ten Muslim journalists from Indonesia.  The participants traveled to Washington, DC, New York and Los Angeles. 

In Washington, the group spent a day at the State Department where they participated in briefings on the Middle East, Afghanistan and Southeast Asia.  They also visited the Pentagon and USAID where they met with Brigadier General John Allen and senior USAID officials for briefings on USG tsunami relief efforts.  The group traveled to the U.S. Senate and the U.S. - Indonesia Society (USINDO) where they discussed bilateral relations with senior Republican and Democratic Foreign Relations Committee staffers and USINDO President, Ambassador Alphonse La Porta.  The journalists also gained insights from scholars on U.S. federalism, pluralism and foreign policy from meetings with Dr. Clyde Wilcox and Professor Jean AbiNader of Georgetown University and Professor Joanna Spear of George Washignton University.

In New York the journalists met with the American Jewish Congress; the Council on Foreign Relations - a roundtable discussion with Edward R. Murrow Press Fellow, Mary Ann Weaver, on comparing Islam in Egypt, Pakistan and Indonesia; The Conference Board; Columbia University - the School of International and Public Affairs; the U.S. Mission to the United Nations and visited the United Nations and Ground Zero. 

In Los Angeles, the journalists got a firm grounding in the economic aspects of foreign policy through meetings with Scott Suh of the LA Mayor's Office of International Trade and Michael Intriligator, Senior Fellow of the Milken Institute and Economics Professor at UCLA.  The group learned about the American Presidency and foreign policy in the 1980's through a VIP tour of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley.  The group also got a first-hand view of American society and foreign policy formulation through the eyes of the young and not-so-young through an extended introduction to Lang Ranch Elementary School's Civic Education Program, through a public forum hosted by the Riverside International Relations Council and World Affairs Council and through a meeting with Susan Pinkus, the Director of the LA Times Poll, to discuss the foreign policy views of Americans.  Finally, the group was briefed on the role of religion in foreign policy and Muslim life in LA through meetins with Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl, Commissioner of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and UCLA Law Professor, and Dr. Dafer Dakhil, Director of the Omar Ibn Al Khattab Mosque.