October 7: Democracy and U.S. Presidential Elections: A View from Europe. 

Featured Speaker:
Willem Post, Senior Research Associate, Clingendael Institute, The Hague
 
October 7, 2024, 12:00 noon Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Reception for in-person participants begins at 11:30 a.m.
 
 Location: International Student House
1825 R Street NW, Washington DC
(Light lunch available beginning at 11:30 a.m.)
 
​​An alumnus of the U.S. State Department International Visitor Leadership Program (1995), Willem Post is well known throughout The Netherlands as the commentator who reports on and interprets U.S. elections on Dutch television. An historian on the U.S. presidency and U.S. foreign policy, Willem’s latest book is entitled The Soul of America.
 
To register for the in-person program (registration ends October 2nd at 11:59 p.m.), click here.
 
To register for the Zoom program, click here.
 
Co-sponsors:

Willem Post studied U.S. history, diplomacy, and international relations at Leiden University in The Netherlands. He is a Senior Research Associate on U.S. politics and history at the Clingendael Institute in The Hague. He specializes in the U.S presidency and U.S. foreign policy.

Willem has written hundreds of articles and sixteen books about U.S. politics, history and society. To name just a few: John F. Kennedy (1993, in Dutch), Obamaworld (2009, in Dutch), The Enchantment of New York (2015, in English) and Cities Go Global, an introduction to city diplomacy (2016, in English). In December 2023 he published De Ziel van Amerika (in Dutch) about the essence of U.S. democracy and how to strengthen democracy in the United States and elsewhere.

At the international press center Nieuwspoort in The Hague, Willem Post is well-known for his White House lecture-series, especially in an election year. On November 6, 2024, Post will be co-organizer of the national U.S. election breakfast. Post will comment live on the U.S. election results from The Hague for Dutch and international media. 

Post is also the chief-editor of the Holland-America Magazine with the mission to strengthen the ties between the United States and The Netherlands. The Holland-America Magazine includes special editions about the Marshall Plan and a tribute to Americans and the other allies in the Second World War.

In 1995 Willem Post participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) in Washington D.C., offering him a unique in-depth look into U.S. society. Post considers this transformative experience a highlight in his career. He became the first chairman of the Dutch IVLP alumni organization. Also, in this capacity Willem worked closely with the U.S. Embassy in The Hague.

Willem Post is also an expert on city diplomacy and was international advisor to the municipal government and the mayor of The Hague. The Hague is renowned as the city of Peace and Justice and legal capital of the world because of its tribunals and courts, including the famous Peace Palace and the International Court of Justice. He initiated The Hague Bridge program, bringing international citizens and local citizens together. He also set up an ‘American style’ Hospitality Center in The Hague City Hall. Willem Post was inspired by the great hospitality he experienced when he visited Global Ties U.S. community-based member organizations during his IVLP program. Post visited these organizations in cities including Springfield, Illinois; El Paso, Texas; Bozeman, Montana; and Atlanta, Georgia.

Willem Post is guest speaker for many organizations. He is a media-commentator on international affairs for numerous Dutch and international media. In 2020 Dutch leading newspaper De Volkskrant chose him as the number-one television-commentator on the United States in The Netherlands.

Post lives in The Hague, is married and has two sons.