2018
In December of 2018, Track Two participants from all three of our programs reconvened for a second One Network Conference to discuss Track Two’s future. Presentations were invited to “consider” this future. Some provided important backdrops (rate of environmental degradation, state of cyber-surveillance, state of the media, etc.). Strategies and plans were discussed.
The Whom Do We Trust 2018 Conference held in St. Petersburg, Russia, brought together Russian and American college-aged students to discuss their news and information sources, their worries and their understanding of an increasingly complex global arena. The three days of discussions and activities were designed to encourage the open exchange of ideas, to foster new friendships and to inform the Track Two network about how a younger generation is viewing international relations and forming perceptions via news media. The conference was held in collaboration with Esalen Institute’s Center for Theory and Research, The Herzen Russian State Pedagogical University, the Center for International Education and Exchange (CIEE), and Track Two: An Institute for Citizen Diplomacy. More information can be found here.
In June of 2018, participants from the North Pacific Rim Project (NPRP) joined Track Two staff and several Board Members in Northern California. The purpose of the meeting was twofold: first, to widen the circle and introduce those who have not met before; second, to launch planning for a meeting at Esalen in 2019 that will further CTR/Track Two’s citizen diplomacy efforts in China and the North Pacific Rim. Topics of discussion included the impact of Big Data and AI on citizen to citizen communication, the future of media and entertainment, the use and impact of psychedelics in Silicon Valley, Chinese interest in the human potential movement, the current relationship between the United States and East Asia, and global approaches to and impact of modernization.
In April of 2018, the Track Two One Network conference brought together representatives of each of the three Track Two Programs - practitioners and activists from the political realms encompassing the Middle East, Russia and the North Pacific Rim - for a five-day immersive conference at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. The purpose of the conference was for each program to share its wisdom, lessons learned, inspiration, challenges and new thinking in order to cross fertilize, and bring great ideas and new perspectives to entrenched problems that each program might be addressing.