Pan-Atlantic Student Summit

The Council was a lead organizer of PASS and I-PASS, which brought together university and graduate students from NATO and Partnership for Peace countries for conferences held in conjunction with the official NATO summits in Prague (2002) and Istanbul (2004). More than 400 students attended the two student summits and met with Alliance leaders, including President George W. Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell, President Vaclav Havel, President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, NATO Secretaries General Lord Robertson and Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, SACEURs Generals Joseph Ralston and James Jones and SACT Admiral Edmund Giambastiani, and many other heads of state and ministers from Euro-Atlantic countries.

At PASS and I-PASS, students also represented their own countries or Allied international officials in a NATO simulation, gaining direct exposure to the complexities of decision-making. All teams — including the Russians, Armenians, Swedes, and Ukrainians — were treated as members of NATO, so that all could learn about the values that are central to the Alliance.