Council on Hemispheric Affairs Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
The Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA), a nonprofit, tax-exempt and independent research and information organization, was founded in 1975 to promote the common interest of the hemisphere, raise the visibility and increase the importance of the inter-American relationship, as well as encourage the formulation of rational and constructive U.S. policies towards Latin America. In 1982, COHA's board of trustees voted to expand its mandate to include monitoring Canadian/Latin American relations. Since its inception, COHA has been one of the most active and broad-based U.S. private bodies dealing with the entire spectrum of hemispheric political, economic and diplomatic issues, as well as the economic and political challenges confronting the Inter-American community.
From its founding, COHA's board consisted of the leadership of some of this country's most important trade unions, professional organizations and religious groups, as well as distinguished civic and academic figures who joined together to advance their common belief in support of representative government and pluralistic institutions throughout the hemisphere.
COHA subscribes to no specific political credo nor does it maintain partisan allegiances. It supports open and democratic political processes just as it consistently has condemned authoritarian regimes of any stripe that fail to provide their populations with authentic standards of political freedoms, economic and social justice, personal security and civic guarantees.
COHA is staffed by a small professional core, who traditionally have contributed their services, supplemented by a large number of volunteer graduate and undergraduate research associates who often receive academic credit from their home institutions for the experience gained while at COHA. Over the years, active and retired regional specialists also have cooperated with COHA in preparing monographs on such topics as hemispheric development, trade policies, the operations of U.S. multinationals and the controversial development practices of the international lending agencies. The staff is assisted by a number of extra-mural professionals coming from an academic background who serve as COHA senior research fellows, and who are generally considered to be among the leaders in their respective fields of expertise.
COHA's analyses are frequently sought after by the major media, with its long-time director, Larry Birns, as well as other senior personnel being regularly called upon by the major national and international press, along with network radio and TV public affairs programs, to provide commentary on breaking regional issues. COHA contributors also appear regularly in the opinion columns on newspaper editorial pages throughout the country, and its findings and personnel frequently have been heard and seen over the BBC, Voice of America, CBC, Radio Marti, Radio Havana and scores of local radio programs. COHA personnel also have appeared one or more times on CNN, C-Span, Firing Line, CrossFire, Nightline, the CBS, ABC and NBC evening news, as well as the network Larry King program, "Good Morning America" and the "Today Show," and all the National Public Radio public affairs programs.
COHA’s personnel have been interviewed, or the organization’s findings have been referred to in such publications as Time, Newsweek, the Atlantic Monthly, U.S News and World Report, Newsweek, New York Magazine, Harper’s, the New Yorker, the New Statesman, Barron’s, and Maclean’s. On almost a daily basis, the results of COHA’s work appear in the press of Latin America and Europe. COHA also has been cited in numerous occasions in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, the Christian Science monitor, the London Observer, U.S.A. Today, the Boston Globe, the Miami Herald, the Toronto Globe and Mail, the London Independent and the Guardian, among many other newspapers.
COHA has been referred to in the floor of the Senate as “one of our Nation’s most respected bodies of scholars and policymakers.”
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