Great Decisions


Great Decisions promotes citizen awareness and discussion about timely foreign policy issues. Operated by the Foreign Policy Association in New York, it is the oldest and largest grassroots educational program on world affairs of its kind in the country, with about 350,000 participants.

The purpose of Great Decisions is to educate citizens about issues of vital importance to American foreign policy, to provide them with the information to make informed decisions about the topics covered, and to enable them to participate in the foreign-policy process.

Each year eight topics are chosen by a panel; in-depth articles on each subject are prepared by experts. The articles are compiled into the 100-page softbound Great Decisions briefing book that appears with new content every January.

Great Decisions is used by:

• Small discussion groups nationwide
• Participating World Affairs Councils
• American Academy of University Women chapters
• League of Women Voters chapters
• Institutes for Learning and Retirement
• College campuses
• High schools.

Great Decisions is used in 880 US cities and is distributed in every state.

Councils and Great Decisions
Great Decisions celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2004. Councils around the country helped celebrate its tradition and history. World Affairs Councils use Great Decisions materials in many different ways including: small discussion groups both in person and online, as the basis of public lecture series, to offer course credit to teachers and students in college and high school, and town hall style meetings.

Topics

National Balloting System
Since 1954, opinion ballots for each topic have been included with Great Decisions to enable those interested to make their views known.

In each Great Decisions briefing book, there are two copies of opinion ballots per topic. These opinion ballots are completed by participants and sent to the FPA after they have read and discussed the topics presented in Great Decisions.

The results of the ballots are then analyzed by a polling expert and a National Opinion Ballot Report of the findings is published in October. This report is sent to the White House, the State Department, the Defense Department, members of Congress, and the media. The National Opinion Ballot Report was given to Colin Powell on national television at the National Conference 2003.

For more information about the Great Decisions Discussion Program visit the Foreign Policy Association: www.fpa.org.