History

The Global Interdependence Center was launched in 1976, during Philadelphia’s Bicentennial Celebration, at convocation of leading United Nations and U.S. officials. GIC’s vision was affirmed and defined in a Declaration of Interdependence, crafted by the renowned historian, educator and author Henry Steele Commager, and symbolically signed by international dignitaries.

This declaration, while written over thirty years ago, remains relevant as a call to global discourse, and as a living document that informs and inspires the actions of the Center. In prescient language, it addresses the need for cooperation in managing economic integration, political relations, and the natural world.

The declaration calls on us to “declare interdependence with the people of all nations, and to embrace those principles and build those institutions which will enable mankind to survive and civilization to flourish.” To that end, we direct the content of our programming.