Each year the Salzburg Global Seminar invites an international group of distinguished guests to join our Board of Directors for a weekend discussion at Schloss Leopoldskron in Salzburg, Austria. This year the Board and our distinguished guests met between Friday evening, June 24 and Saturday, June 25 for a weekend of intellectual exploration, divine music, great food and warm fellowship.

The purpose of these annual weekends is twofold. The presence of participants from diverse cultures and regions of the world helps to expand our thinking about future Seminar programs for emerging leaders as well as policy initiatives that would contribute meaningfully to solving global problems. In turn, thinkers from every part of the world get to know the Seminar's work, and connections are made across fields and backgrounds that are mutually eye-opening and practically beneficial.

For this year's annual Board of Directors weekend we chose the theme of "Are 'Universal Principles' Universal After All? Lessons from the Arab Revolt." To help guide our discussions we had with us The Honorable Esther D. Brimmer, Assistant Secretary, International Organization Affairs, United States Department of State, who provided the keynote on Friday evening. On Saturday, June 25 panel discussions were led by Ali Altinay, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution, Former Executive Director, Open Society Foundation-Turkey; Ambassador Lakhdar Brahimi, former Foreign Minister of Algeria, United Nations Special Envoy, and Member of The Elders; Ms. Maja Daruwala, Executive Director, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, India; Saad Eddin Ibrahim, Founder, Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies, and Trustee, Arab Democracy Foundation; Professor Chibli Mallat, The Custodian of the Two Holy Places Visiting Professor of Islamic Legal Studies, Harvard Law School and Presidential Professor of Law and Professor of Middle Eastern Law and Politics, S.J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah; and Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, Executive Director, Centre for Policy Alternatives, Sri Lanka.