World Leaders Forum

A World Leaders Forum event in Low Library's rotunda

The World Leaders Forum was initiated by President Bollinger in 2003 as part of his plan to make Columbia more "global". During the UN General Assembly meeting each fall, Columbia invites a number of major world figures onto campus to deliver speeches and take part in conferences. Forum events are also held throughout the year as opportunities present themselves.

These invitations are rarely uncontroversial, featuring as they have the likes of even Vladimir Putin. Protests have broken out during the appearances of individuals such as Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Ethiopia's Menes Zenawi (see Zenawi Protests).

You know the forum's in town when there are snipers on the roofs of Columbia buildings.

Visiting leaders

2003

Mircea Dan Geoana, Foreign Minister of Romania Enrique Bolaños Geyer, President of Nicaragua Tassos Giannitsis, Foreign Minister of Greece Mladen Ivanic, Foreign Minister of Bosnia-Herzegovina Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan Kamal Kharrazi, Foreign Minister of Iran

John Agyekum Kufuor, President of Ghana Vladimir Putin, President of Russia Dimitrij Rupel, Foreign Minister of Slovenia Goran Svilanovic, Foreign Minister of Serbia-Montenegro Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Prime Minister of India

2004

Madeleine Albright, former Secretary of State Ilham Heydar oglu Aliyev, President of Azerbaijan Charles Gyude Bryant, Chairman of the Transitional Government of Liberia Joaquim Alberto Chissano, President of Mozambique Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz, Foreign Minister of Poland Carlos Diego Mesa Gisbert, President of Bolivia Ion Iliescu, President of Romania

Carolina Barco Isakson, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Colombia Dodo Aichatou Mindaoudou, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Niger Ilinka Mitreva, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Macedonia Kristina Ojuland, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia Surakiart Sathiarathai, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand Vaira Vike-Freiberga, President of Latvia

2005

Shaukat Aziz, Prime Minister of Pakistan The Dalai Lama Tarja Halonen, President of Finland Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, President of Sierra Leone Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda

Aleksander Kwaśniewski, President of Poland Pervez Musharraf, President of Pakistan Mikheil Saakashvili, President of Georgia Jalal Talabani, President of Iraq Susilo Yudhoyono, President of Indonesia

2006

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran (CANCELLED) Kim Campbell, former Prime Minister and former Minister of Defense, Canada David Choquehuanca, Minister of Foreign Relations of Bolivia Yegor Gaidar, former Prime Minister of Russia Evo Morales, President of Bolivia Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former Minister of Foreign Affairs and former Minister of Finance, Nigeria; former Vice President of the World Bank

Sheikha Lubna al Qasimi, Minister of Economy, United Arab Emirates Mary Robinson, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and former President of Ireland Dr. Ivo Sanader, Prime Minister of Croatia Sir Michael Somare, Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea Ong Keng Yong, Secretary-General of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations

2007

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed, Chief Advisor of the Caretaker Government of Bangladesh Michelle Bachelet, President of Chile Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, President of Turkmenistan Toomas Hendrik Ilves, President of Estonia

Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, President of Tanzania (CANCELLED) Željko Komšić, Presidency Chairman of Bosnia and Herzegovina Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika, President of Malawi Mikheil Saakashvili, President of Georgia

2008

Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, President of Iceland Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Prime Minister of Denmark Danilo Türk, President of Slovenia Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Prime Minister of Turkey

2009

Martti Ahtisaari, former President of Finland Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the UN Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, President of Argentina Bharrat Jagdeo, President of Guyana

Boris Johnson, Mayor of London Madhav Kumar Nepal, Prime Minister of Nepal Boris Tadic, President of Serbia Abhisit Vejjajiva, Prime Minister of Thailand

2010

Abdullah Gül, President of Turkey George Soros Ivo Josipović, President of the Republic of Croatia José Manuel Ramos-Horta, President of Timor-Leste Meles Zenawi, Prime Minister of Ethiopia José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Prime Minister of Spain

José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission Jigmi Y. Thinley, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bhutan Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France Vikram Pandit, CEO of Citi

2011

Roza Otunbayeva, President of Kyrgyzstan Rafael Correa, President of the Republic of Ecuador Abdullah II bin al-Hussein, King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan Michel Martelly, President of the Republic of Haiti

Alpha Condé, President of the Republic of Guinea Atifete Jahjaga, President of the Republic of Kosovo Lance Armstrong Sanjay Gupta

2012

Eric Holder, Attorney General of the United States Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United Nations Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia Aung San Suu Kyi, chair of the National League for Democracy, Burma

2013

• Laurent Lamothe, Prime Minister of Haiti
• Leymah Gbowee, 2011 Nobel Peace laureate
• Judge Sang-Hyun Song, President of the International Criminal Court

2023

Matt Damon, Cofounder of Water.org & WaterEquity Klaus Werner Iohannis, President of Romania Oleksandra Matviichuk, Human Rights Lawyer, Head of the Center for Civil Liberties (2022 Nobel Peace Prize Winner) Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament

Santiago Peña Palacios, President of the Republic Paraguay Tharman Shanmugaratnam, President of the Republic of Singapore Gary White, Cofounder of Water.org & WaterEquity

External links

• http://www.worldleaders.columbia.edu/