Institute of Current World Affairs (ICWA)

Compass

A journal about global cultures and developments published by the Institute of Current World Affairs.

Letter from Kuwait

ICWA

No one here wanted this.

The gap in US foreign policy

Suren Avanesyan

Should Washington restore the role of international assistance?

When nuclear apocalypse angst was a thing

Jean-Louis Doublet

Seven decades ago, a Hollywood movie helped raise the kind of concern very few feel today.

Fellows

The latest dispatches from the institute’s fellows writing about Taiwan, Brazil and the Norwegian Arctic. Sign up for emails to follow their research.

The road to Carnival

Rowland Robinson

In Brazil, the celebration is about forgetting problems in a country full of them.

Norway

Out of the darkness

Brett Simpson

The sun returns to northern Norway.

Netherlands, Portugal, Brazil

On belonging

Rowland Robinson

Reflections on a nomadic fellowship

Advancing understanding of global cultures and affairs

The Institute of Current World Affairs has sent outstanding young professionals abroad to acquire deep knowledge of international societies for 100 years. Many become leading experts on global cultures and affairs.

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ICWA@100

As the institute marks its centenary, we’re looking back at the writing and lives of our fellows over the past 100 years.

Visiting Mahatma Gandhi in colonial India

Phillips Talbot spends time with the visionary leader and his community of disciples in 1941.

Out of Ethiopia

Smith Hempstone takes an adventurous road trip from Addis Ababa to Nairobi in 1957.

The Students of Prague

Barbara Bright Novovitch takes the pulse of young people in Czechoslovakia in 1969 following the Soviet invasion.

Updates & Events

We need your help to support our fellows

I can’t tell you how important the experience of the fellowship was for me. Those years I spent from 1971 to 1975 really shaped my ideas about health and healing in the natural world.

DR. ANDREW WEIL, FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR OF THE ANDREW WEIL CENTER FOR INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA (ICWA FELLOW IN THE AMERICAS AND AFRICA, 1971-1975)

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Home

Justifying murder

Compass

Letter from Kuwait

The gap in US foreign policy

When nuclear apocalypse angst was a thing

Fellows

The road to Carnival

Out of the darkness

On belonging

Advancing understanding of global cultures and affairs

ICWA@100

Visiting Mahatma Gandhi in colonial India

Out of Ethiopia

The Students of Prague

Updates & Events

Apply for a nuclear disarmament education fellowship

ICWA awards new 2026-2028 fellowships

ICWAns mark centenary in record numbers

Alumni

Journal for the Anthropology of North America: Amelia Frank-Vitale on immigration court watching

House Foreign Affairs Committee: Andrew Tabler testifies to Rep. Pramila Jayapal at Syria hearing

The Dial: Eve Fairbanks on South Africa’s police state

NYRB webinar: Pramila Jayapal on the state of the left

We need your help to support our fellows