grants totaling $3.8 million to twenty-three U.S. law schools
and one school of international law for fellowships for young
scholars in the field of public international law. As part of our
continuing support for projects intended to increase the
effectiveness of the United Nations, we also recently funded a
study by Brian Urquhart, Scholar-in-Residence at the Ford
Foundation and a former U.N. Under-Secretary General, and Erskine
Childers, another former senior U.N. official, recommending methods
for improving the selection of leaders throughout the U.N.
system.
In an effort
to respond to new challenges and opportunities in international
security and arms control, the Foundation this year made twenty-two
grants totaling $3.6 million to study worldwide and regional
approaches to conventional arms control and international
peacekeeping. The grants are supporting research at institutions in
twelve countries: Australia, Canada, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan,
Nigeria, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the
United States.
In these and
in many other of our programs, we are seeking to contribute to the
creation of an international system that is truly participatory and
truly multilateral in the broadest sense.
SOURCES
OF STRENGTH
The grants
and programs I have mentioned are only a sampling of the
Foundation's efforts to help build a world that not only tolerates
diversity but sees it as a source of strength. As I have mentioned
before in previous reviews, besides pursuing these goals through
its grants program, the Foundation strives for broad diversity on
its own board and staff. Currently, 44 percent of the Foundation's
Board of Trustees are minorities and 25 percent are women; 27
percent of the professional staff are members of minority groups
and 62 percent are women.
The
Foundation also seeks to encourage diversity on the boards and
staff of organizations receiving its grants and loans.
Organizations with diverse staffs and boards are in a better
position to recruit from an expanded talent pool, to bring a wider
range of views to decision making, and to gain greater public
support for their activities.
I am pleased
to welcome to the Board of Trustees David T. Kearns, chairman and
former chief executive officer of the Xerox Corporation. We have
already benefited from David's broad experience in the business and
nonprofit worlds, his keen insights into educational policy, and
his consistently good judgment.
Franklin A.
Thomas