The CSIS Global Strategy Institute’s anniversary conference is held in April of each year to renew the Institute’s mandate of promoting strategic leadership focused on the long term. Each year’s conference highlights a set of enduring challenges facing leaders, offering examination and advice to help bring difficult issues into focus. For information on the 2008 annual conference, click here.
The conferences also serve as an opportunity to bring together the Institute’s advisory council and leaders across sectors—from Fortune 100 companies, government, academia and NGOs—for an exchange of ideas and the formation of innovative and dynamic coalitions.
Lastly, the conference is the occasion on which the CSIS Global Strategy Institute Strategic Vision Award is conferred. The Strategic Vision Award honors leaders who, when faced with short term pressures and the difficult challenge of extending planning horizons, proceed to formulate creative and innovative approaches to strategic issues. Award recipient selection involves the consideration of a broad range of candidates representing government, the private sector, the nongovernmental community and academia. This year we honored David Walker, President and Chief Executive Officer of the newly established Peter G. Peterson Foundation, for his creative and dedicated service as Comptroller General of the United States.
The first award recipient, selected in 2006, was Admiral Thad W. Allen of the United States Coast Guard, who is a far-sighted leader with remarkable ability to respond in crisis situations. As the chief of staff of the U.S. Coast Guard, ADM Allen demonstrated outstanding strategic vision and leadership not only in spearheading long-range planning for the U.S. Coast Guard, but also in his deployment as the Principal Federal Official overseeing Hurricane Katrina response and recovery efforts in the Gulf region. A short time after ADM Allen accepted the Strategic Vision Award, he was confirmed by the U.S. Congress and assumed command as the 26th commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard.
Last year we honored Dr. Greg Allgood, who leads the Children’s Safe Drinking Water initiative at Procter & Gamble. With passion and foresight, he is tackling one of the most strategically important issues of our time—safe drinking water—and building the kinds of creative partnerships across sectors that will be necessary to face the big challenges looming in our future. Dr. Algood's program now reaches more than thirty countries in the developing world, and since it's inception the program has treated 600 million liters of safe drinking water and prevented 20 million days of diarrhea for children.
The 2008 conference, entitled "Future Bound: The United States in a World of Change," assessed the changing international landscape within which the United States will navigate in the future. Together we highlighted areas critical to U.S. engagement—level of competitiveness, workforce trends, state of physical infrastructure, promotion of innovation, investment in science and technology, and the role of government. To listen to audio of the event and to access other resources related to the 2008 annual conference, please click here.
How well does your organization balance short-term priorities with longer-term visions? How well does your organization promote anticipatory thinking and strategic leadership? For our 2007 anniversary conference, "Navigating the Future: the people, the plans, and the policies guiding leading organizations," we invited our audience to explore how organizations at the forefront of the dot-com, dot-gov, and dot-org arenas construct and implement visions and strategies. To see the agenda, read a synopsis, view video clips, or listen to audio from the event, please click here.
The 2006 conference investigated “The Changing Face of Risk.” The goal was to assemble a group of speakers and participants with deep insight on the issue of risk—stretching from traditionally defined geopolitical risk and global hotspots to economic and financial risk to the dangers associated with new threats such as avian influenza. Vice Admiral Thad W. Allen of the United States Coast Guard was recognized with the 2006 Strategic Vision Award. To listen to audio of the event, view video clips, or read a synopsis, please click here.
The 2005 conference considered a more general introduction to long-term geostrategic trends with “Scanning the Horizon: An Assessment of Critical Global Trends.” The event featured remarks by Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, and others. To read a synopsis of the event, please click here.
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The 2008 conference, entitled "Future Bound: The United States in a World of Change," assessed the changing international landscape within which the United States will navigate in the future. Together we highlighted areas critical to U.S. engagement—level of competitiveness, workforce trends, state of physical infrastructure, promotion of innovation, investment in science and technology, and the role of government. To listen to audio of the event and to access other resources related to the 2008 annual conference, please click 
The 2006 conference investigated “The Changing Face of Risk.” The goal was to assemble a group of speakers and participants with deep insight on the issue of risk—stretching from traditionally defined geopolitical risk and global hotspots to economic and financial risk to the dangers associated with new threats such as avian influenza. Vice Admiral Thad W. Allen of the United States Coast Guard was recognized with the 2006 Strategic Vision Award. To listen to audio of the event, view video clips, or read a synopsis, please click 
The 2005 conference considered a more general introduction to long-term geostrategic trends with “Scanning the Horizon: An Assessment of Critical Global Trends.” The event featured remarks by Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, and others. To read a synopsis of the event, please click