536 results for author: SCI Staff


Board Member Edmund Adams Takes Honor Flight

Sister Cities International board member, Edmund Adams, will participate in the Honor Flight Tri-State from Cincinnati to Washington D.C. on Tuesday, May 22.  The purpose of the Honor Flight Program is to recognize American military veterans for their sacrifices and accomplishments who served their country during wartime. Adams, as a 1st Lieutenant, was a Platoon Leader, Executive Officer, and Battery Commander of a HAWK surface-to-air missile unit on the West German-East German border near Kassel, Germany in 1964-65 during the early stages of the Vietnam War. All eight generations of Adams family have served in the military since their arrival ...

Maryland Receives Visitors from South Africa and Japan

The month of March was a busy one for Maryland’s sister state programs. The state hosted two delegations: one from the coastal South African province of KwaZulu-Natal on March 12, and the other from Japanese prefecture Kanagawa, which lies between Tokyo and Mount Fuji, on March 28. At the first of these meetings, the Maryland-KwaZulu-Natal Sister State Committee facilitated a dialogue between the Maryland Department of Commerce (MDOC), local economic authorities in Baltimore, the South African Embassy, and the KwaZulu-Natal International Trade and Investment Office. Dr. Jean Bailey, Chair of the Maryland-KwaZulu-Natal Sister State Committ...

U.S. – China City Diplomacy: Sister City Contributions to Peace, Commerce, and Governance

Contributed by Ben Leffel In 1993, my late mentor, economist Richard V. Knight, presented a lecture titled “Global & Local Cities” to an audience of scholars and city officials in Venice, Italy in which he described the knowledge and technology transmission made possible by Sister Cities International’s worldwide bilateral exchange programs. The validity of his points still stand today, but are especially relevant when looking at the ways in which sister city relationships have helped connect countries like China to the rest of the world. The immediate economic benefits of sister city connections with China have long been underapprec...

Tackling the Heroin Crisis: Sister Cities Seattle and Bergen Working Together

When you think of Bergen, Norway; the first thing that comes to mind is its picturesque harbor with its quaint wooden houses. The UNESCO World Heritage Site is one of the most photographed scenes in the world. It is no wonder that the postcard-perfect city set on a fjord against the backdrop of seven majestic mountains, served as the inspiration for many of the settings in Disney’s Frozen. A native Seattleite, I have often made the observation that my own city is like “Bergen in larger format, but more modern.” Norway’s second city, like its sister city Seattle, is also a bustling center of business, industry, education, culture, and ...

Power Up: Duluth Hopes to Foster Competitive Robotics Teams Throughout Sweden

Sister cities Duluth, Minnesota and Växjö, Sweden have for years exchanged college and high school students, professors, artists, professionals, and athletes. Now they can add one more category to the list: Robots. Last summer, Linnea Frisk traveled all the way from her hometown of Duluth to the south-central Swedish city of Växjö with her family. There, the Minnesota high-schooler and captain of the Duluth East High Daredevils competitive robotics team reached out to a group of local students who were interested in building a robot. “The daredevils started thinking about how we really wanted to start a team in another country and we ...

Juneau Extends a Friendly Hand Over the Bering Sea

The long-dormant relationship between Juneau, the capital city of Alaska, and its sister city in Eastern Russia, Vladivostok, was rejuvenated early last month when American Consul General Michael Keays delivered a book to the sister city committee there. The book, written by Alaskan author David Ramseur, describes the blossoming of citizen diplomacy efforts across the Bering Sea during the late 1980s and early 90s, set against the backdrop of the collapse of the Soviet Union and normalization of diplomatic relations between the United States and Russia. Families divided by the outbreak of the Cold War were reunited, and large delegations of ...

Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Steve Goldstein Presents Citizen Diplomacy Award to Council Bluffs Sister Cities Association

1/24/2018 WASHINGTON, DC (January 24, 2018) – Sister Cities International congratulates one of its members, the Council Bluffs Sister Cities Association, on receiving the Bureau of Public Affair’s annual Citizen Diplomacy award. Steve Goldstein, Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, will present the award at a ceremony to be held at 4pm on Monday, January 29, 2018, at the U.S. Department of State. The Citizen Diplomacy Award was created in recognition of American citizens and organizations engaged in international work that furthers U.S. foreign policy objectives and strengthens important relationships around the globe. ...

“The Sultan and the Saint”: Building Bridges Through Film

Stories move us.  Films are one of the most effective forms of storytelling and one that can be used to great advantage by Sister Cities, as the Baltimore Luxor Alexandria (Egypt) Sister City Committee did in recent months. A nonprofit film production company, Unity Productions Foundation uncovered an incredible, virtually unknown aspect of a meeting between two men – St. Francis of Assisi and Sultan al Malik of Egypt -  in 1219, during the height of the Crusades on the battlefield in Damietta, Egypt. Their meeting inspired the Sultan to make an incredible humanitarian gesture to the defeated Crusader army, which planted the seeds for eventual ...

Three Generations of Citizen Diplomacy

In 1972, Kettering, Ohio established their first sister city relationship with Steyr, Austria. Since then, they have created lasting traditions and legacies together. The two cities have overseen five adult homestays and have conducted an alternating youth exchange for the past 40 years. Kettering and Steyr also participate in cultural exchange: they have been sending music and performance groups to each other’s cities since 1980. Their most outstanding cultural exchanges include when Kettering sent their civic band to Steyr to help celebrate the city’s 1,000th birthday in 1980, and in 1993 when Steyr sent their civic band to Kettering to march ...

Kettering Sister Cities 50th Anniversary Celebration

"The 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Kettering Sister Cities Committee was kicked off at a recent Kettering City Council meeting. Mayor Don Patterson issued a Proclamation congratulating Kettering Sister Cities for 50 years of  promoting cultural understanding with our Sister Cities abroad. It was accepted by Dr.Darrell Apt, a member of the first Sister City Committee in 1967 and by Emily Zimmer, Chair of the 2017 Sister Cities Committee. It was an honor to have a member of the original committee with us on this special occasion. .   Also at the meeting, the beautiful award received from Sister Cities International was presented to ...