Geneva, Switzerland

The Center for Business Diplomacy (CBD) is a non-profit association that serves as a forum for interested individuals to meet and search for constructive responses to the challenges facing global leaders at the turn of the 21^st Century.

The CBD was created in response to the need for more recognition and understanding, by all persons active in global affairs, of the growing influence of private-sector business interests in international relations. The CBD attempts to address this need by seeking solutions to global problems in a context where the role of business is properly identified, weighted and assessed.

Members gather in Geneva for a dinner discussion and debate on the last Thursday of every month, except in July and August. Meeting objectives are:

1. to identify and analyze the issues relevant to a specific global problem;

2. to construct and evaluate solutions to that problem;

3. to ensure that participants walk out of each meeting with more than they walk in with.

Discussion topics are sent to participants in advance of meetings, and take the form of a problem scenario to resolve. Assuming the role of a principal decision-maker, participants think about the issues relevant to the scenario under study, devise a concrete solution, and then present their solution before the group for evaluation and debate. In order to maintain a conducive atmosphere for bold thinking and open dialogue, meetings are kept informal and strictly "off the record".

Membership is open to all people, no matter where their geographic location, who share our concern about the importance of better global thinking and decision making. Members outside Geneva who are not able to attend dinner discussions on a regular basis can participate in monthly meetings by sending their analyses and proposals for solutions via electronic mail.

The Center's two founding members and co-Directors are Mr John Tourtellotte and Mr John Parent, both of whom were trained in diplomatic affairs at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in the USA, and have spent most of their professional careers in private international business.