2011 Atlantic Council Global Citizen Awards Dinner

On September 21, 2011, the Atlantic Council hosted its second annual Global Citizen Awards Dinner in New York. As last year, it brought together leaders from the United States, Europe and the world – including senior government officials, ambassadors, chief executives of some of the world’s most influential global companies and media leaders.

The Council presented a Global Citizen Award posthumously to Prime Minister Rafik Hariri of Lebanon, whose vision of a prosperous and peaceful Middle East ended tragically with his assassination in 2005. Yet the principles he governed by have since found new hope in the Arab Awakening – and through the work of the Atlantic Council’s new Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East.

A second award was presented to Senator John Kerry, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee in the United States Senate and one of America’s leading statesmen and foremost thinkers on foreign policy. He is a long-standing advocate of constructive US international leadership and engagement who has played a pivotal role in normalizing relations with Vietnam, served as a trusted US envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, advanced the Middle East peace process, and shaped the debate on Libya by calling for international intervention.

Klaus Schwab, last year’s honoree and founder of the World Economic Forum, returned to New York to present a Global Citizen Award to Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund. Lagarde has previously served as chairman of the global law firm Baker & McKenzie, and as French finance minister for the cabinet of François Fillon. At the IMF, she will play a critical role in resolving Europe’s sovereign debt crisis, and in ensuring economic recovery worldwide.

The inaugural Atlantic Council Global Citizen Award Dinner, held on September 23, 2010 honored Professor Klaus Schwab, the Founder and Executive Chairman of World Economic Forum, upon the forum’s 40^th Anniversary. The dinner highlighted the exceptional achievements of one of the more prominent global citizens and intellectual entrepreneurs of our time. Senior government officials, leading policy makers, corporate leaders and well-known artists – among them a great many friends of Klaus Schwab – were in attendance.