Essays 7, 8 and 9 comprise a speech delivered by Martin S. Kaplan at the Humanity in Action International Conference in Berlin on June 23, 2017. See the About This Essay page for more information. The annual conference is the concluding program for the 160 HIA Fellows, who are comprised of university students, half from the U.S., and the others from Denmark, Germany, Poland, Netherlands, Bosnia and other European countries. 

The participants are college juniors, seniors and graduate students chosen in each country on a highly competitive basis. This is a fully paid three week program in civic leadership and the study of minority issues and human rights. Recent annual conferences have been held in Sarajevo, the Hague, Athens, and Berlin; next year’s will be in Strasburg at the European Parliament, invited by the EU. HIA is an extraordinary program, with over 1600 Senior Fellows having participated in the program since it was founded by Judy Goldstein twenty years ago. See www.humanityinaction.org and the proceedings of the conference which are on the website.

Martin S. Kaplan, a retired partner of the law firm of WilmerHale in Boston and New York, is a member of the Board of Humanity in Action. He has served as managing trustee of foundations with a focus on human rights, civic engagement, education and the environment. A former Chair of the Massachusetts Board of Education, Kaplan has been a leader in public education reform as well as interreligious affairs andenvironmental issues. He has received awards from Columbia University for his alumni leadership and from which he graduated. Following Harvard Law School, he clerked for the Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Boston. 

Part 1 – Prelude to the American Century
Part 2 – The American Century
Part 3 – Trump and the Future