Our History
2015
Participants in our Russian-American Project travelled to Moscow to better understand the worsening relations between Russia and the West. We were accompanied by documentary filmmakers who interviewed political activists, journalists, psychologists and climate change experts. The footage from these interviews will be linked to our website in 2016. This was the second trip into Russia following our 2014 COLD WAR II conference in Paris.
Held a conference at Esalen with Russian and American colleagues and made plans for a 2016 diplomacy trip to the Yeltsin Center in Moscow and the newly opened Yeltsin Museum in Yekaterinburg. (Esalen and its Soviet-American Exchange Program were the sponsors of Yeltsin’s first trip to America). Growing concern about the deterioration of Russian-American relations has prompted calls from TRACK TWO friends Governor Jerry Brown of California and Pentagon Papers activist Daniel Ellsberg for programs to address the issue in the near future.
The International Abrahamic Network’s (IAN) Middle East group met at Esalen bringing together new colleagues from Israel and Palestine along with our team of activists, academics, filmmakers and journalists. 2015 was a pivotal year for IAN – strengthening relationships and working on common projects fostering nonviolent solutions. During the conference, the Combatants for Peace Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Celebration was live streamed at Esalen. Later in the year we sponsored a public presentation for Combatants for Peace www.cfp.org, an organization closely aligned with TRACK TWO and Esalen.
IAN members Kim Spencer, founder of Link TV, and Evelyn Messinger, founder of This Planet are creating a documentary that explores IAN activities in Israel and Palestine from footage they have taken during our 2014 trip to Jerusalem, interviews with members of our core team at subsequent conferences at Esalen and other gatherings in the United States.
In November, IAN colleagues played leadership roles in a groundbreaking workshop with the Alliance for Middle East Peace, in Bethlehem. This event was held during a critical time in stalled peace negotiations.