HISTORY OF SCI
Sister Cities International was created at President Eisenhower’s 1956 White House conference on citizen diplomacy. Eisenhower envisioned an organization that could be the center spoke in the wheel of peace and prosperity by creating bonds between people from different cities around the world. By becoming friends, President Eisenhower reasoned that people of different cultures could celebrate and appreciate their differences instead of deriding them, fostering suspicion and sowing new seeds for war.
Growing out of the two-day White House Conference, participants formed forty-two “People-to-People” committees. The autonomous nature of the federally backed movement meant that some committees flourished while others never left the ground. By 1960, thirty-three committees continued the original mission. People-to-People International also grew out of this umbrella group of committees.
The sister city idea developed from the Civic Committee. Envisioned by President Eisenhower as the ‘main cog’ for citizen diplomacy, Sister Cities International has played a key role in renewing and strengthening important global relationships since its inception.
(Excerpts from the Sister Cities International website.)
Growing out of the two-day White House Conference, participants formed forty-two “People-to-People” committees. The autonomous nature of the federally backed movement meant that some committees flourished while others never left the ground. By 1960, thirty-three committees continued the original mission. People-to-People International also grew out of this umbrella group of committees.
The sister city idea developed from the Civic Committee. Envisioned by President Eisenhower as the ‘main cog’ for citizen diplomacy, Sister Cities International has played a key role in renewing and strengthening important global relationships since its inception.
(Excerpts from the Sister Cities International website.)
Mission
Sister Cities International creates relationships based on cultural, educational, information and trade exchanges, creating lifelong friendships that provide prosperity and peace through person-to-person “citizen diplomacy.” Since then, Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush and now President Barack Obama have served as the Honorary Chairman of Sister Cities International.
Sister Cities International creates relationships based on cultural, educational, information and trade exchanges, creating lifelong friendships that provide prosperity and peace through person-to-person “citizen diplomacy.” Since then, Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush and now President Barack Obama have served as the Honorary Chairman of Sister Cities International.