Inter-American Dialogue

IAD was founded as an ad-hoc conference under the auspices of the Aspen Institute, with the goal of bringing together leading citizens to set a new inter-American agenda, in response to the breakdown in inter-American communications and to the inaccessibility of US leaders to democratically oriented Latin Americans. It became a fully independent institution in 1993. Its goals are to become more inter-American, to ensure effective communication with leaders across a broad spectrum of activities, and to further strengthen its committed and diverse membership. IAD research is focused in four areas: democratic governance, multilateral governance, trade and economics, and social policy.