Meridian International Center is the nation’s premier non-profit institution dedicated to advancing international understanding through public diplomacy and global engagement.   For almost 50 years Meridian has brought people together to discuss issues across nations, across generations, across economic divides.  Meridian has served as a catalyst to bridge sectors and peoples and to enrich the cultural perspective of audiences across the United States and abroad.  Read more

See below for our featured upcoming exchanges, programs and events.

Meridian invites you to enjoy historic images that document what the New York Times in 1955 – and again in 2008 – referred to as America’s “Super Sonic Weapon.” This groundbreaking exhibition chronicles the State Department-sponsored travels of our country’s Jazz Ambassadors from Africa, to Asia, Latin America and Europe. Gallery visitors will be treated to images of jazz icons including, Dave Brubeck, Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman and others, as they carried out their musical mission to make friends for America. Learn more…  

Meridian International Center
White-Meyer Cafritz Galleries
1624 Crescent Place, NW Gallery Hours: Wednesday through Sunday, 2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Closed for July 4

Image Caption:
Louis Armstrong entertains children at the Tahhseen Al-Sahha Medical Center.
Cairo, Egypt, 1961
Courtesy of the Louis Armstrong House Museum.

Meridian International Center and The Gallup Organization have launched a multi-year initiative to connect world leaders, global institutions, corporations, and foundations directly to the opinions of citizens around the world.  The Gallup World Poll measures the current opinions and behaviors of 6 billion people by continually surveying citizens in more than 140 countries around the world.

The initiative will be launched during the World Bank Annual meetings with a Global Engagement Forum that will bring together leaders from government, international institutions, corporations, foundations, and the non-profit world to listen directly to the views and opinions of the world’s publics as represented in the Gallup World Poll. The forum will highlight successful models for global collaboration and the role and power of technology and new media to promote the development of multi-country global solutions. For more information on October’s conference, please download our PDF.