Facing east toward the sun rising over the Indian Ocean, the 19th Congress of the International Political Science Association took place in Durban, South Africa, June 29 through July 4, 2003. Orienting themselves around a theme of “Democracy, Tolerance, Justice: Challenges for Political Change,” nearly 2,000 attendees arrived from every continent. They came to present their work, discuss current themes in contemporary political science, and learn about the new, post-apartheid South Africa. Between panels one could stroll along the beach and watch the surfers or eat Durban's culinary specialty of Indian food. The Congress opened with an address from current IPSA President, Dalchoong Kim, of South Korea, comments from the Deputy President of South Africa, Zulu poetry, and an African choir.

Meeting only once every three years, the International Political Science Association is primarily an organization of associations including members such as the American Political Science Association, the French Political Science Assocation, the Argentine Society for Political Studies, the African Association of Political Science, and so forth. Among the newest members is the Thai Political Science Association. Member associations pay dues to the International Political Science Association on a sliding scale according to their ability to pay, similar to the scale used for membership in the United Nations. Thus, the smallest and poorest associations and nations pay the lowest amount of dues while richer nations and associations pay more. All association members are represented by at least one delegate to the Council of the International Political Science Association. The American Political Science Association was represented to the Council by three delegates: Executive Director, Michael Brintnall, Program Co-Director Paula McClain, and myself. Professor Theodore Lowi, former President of IPSA, acted as alternate representative for APSA and also shared his advice and experience with the Council. Associational membership in IPSA brings important advantages, such as access to IPSA journals and publications and news about happenings in the profession worldwide. Those publications include the International Political Science Review, Participation, and International Political Science Abstracts. Less wealthy countries receive these publications at reduced rates. Individual political scientists from nations whose national associations do not belong to IPSA can also be individual members of IPSA and many are.

At the Durban meeting, the entire program and all the panels were skillfully overseen or organized by Professors Paula D. McClain of Duke University and James L. Gibson of Washington University, St. Louis. Theirs was a monumental task and they did an outstanding job. They worked on the program for three years from 2000 to 2003, consulting with panel chairs and organizers in many nations of the world, in multiple time zones, and in multiple languages, to say nothing of the difficulties of putting on a conference in South Africa. Their hard work was evident in a series of fascinating panels of extremely high quality offered in one of two official conference languages: English or French. Panels were organized around 12 main themes, including but not limited to: “Parliaments, Parties and Elections,” “Terrorism, Conflict, and Human Rights,” “New Democracies: Colonial Past and Cultural Values,” “Courts and the Justice System,” and “Making and Implementing Public Policy.” General panels were also offered on “Mass Politics and Public Opinion,” “Methodologies and New Avenues of Political Research,” “Political Parties and Political Elites,” and “Political Economy and Public Policy.”

There was also a large number of panels, usually packed to standing room only, on the politics and current issues of contemporary South African politics. South African scholars from many of the nation's universities made a strong showing at the conference and presented excellent new research currently underway on post-apartheid progress. African scholars were also present from many other nations of Africa and there was a strong showing of political scientists who study Africa from many universities throughout the world.

One of the most fascinating sessions was a series of panels organized by French and Canadian scholars to promote a new book on the new, post-September 11 international order, entitled Et Puis Vint le 11 septembre… L'hypothese du Choc des Civilisations Remise en Question. This fascinating new book offers a notably non-United States perspective on September 11, the role of terrorism, war, the Arab world, Islam, and Samuel Huntington's thesis on the clash of civilizations. The book is an anthology, edited by Professors d'El-Mostafa Chadli of the Universite Mohamed V, in France, and Lise Garon of the Universite Laval, in Canada. Stretching across a series of panels, each of the authors contributing to this volume presented their work and received energetic commentary both from discussants and from the panel audiences. These panelists challenged Huntington's thesis from epistemological and cultural perspectives, raised questions about the relationship between Islam and democracy, considered war and terrorism from the perspective of multiple theories of international relations, and offered commentary on the role of norms in the new post-9/11 world order. The panel presentations themselves were more than enough to make the sessions worthwhile, but commentary from the audience was also thoughtful, courageous, original, and quite outside of what we normally hear within the academic world of the United States. The book is available for purchase from the University of Laval Press, Quebec, Canada. It is often the case that we learn more about ourselves by listening to others talk about us.

Like any organization, IPSA has governance issues and dilemmas with which it is currently struggling. Some of these are in tension with each other. On the one hand, IPSA seeks to increase its representation of nations, wanting, in particular, to have as members more associations from Latin America (which currently has only three associational memberships), from Asia, and from more African nations. IPSA was founded in 1949 by French political scientists and for many years held its tri-annual conferences in Western Europe or North America. Thus, the representation and visibility of European and North American political science associations and scholars is quite strong. But the organization is an international one and would like more participation from other areas of the world. On the other hand, the representation of women on the Council, on the Executive Committee of IPSA, and as participants on panel chairs is very low, much lower than the overall IPSA membership warrants. Thus, the organization would very much like to see greater representation among women in the organization's governance and leadership positions. Yet, new memberships from associations in Asia, Africa, or Latin America often bring with them only one Council delegate and that person is almost always a man. The delegations from North America and Western Europe, on the other hand, always have a stronger presence of women in leadership positions. How can IPSA increase national memberships and women's leadership in the organization at the same time? This is one of the dilemmas the organization confronts and no immediate solution has yet appeared.

Yet, there is a strong spirit of cooperation and mutual support within the organization, within its governance structures, and at the conference generally. Over time, the hope is that these issues and others will work themselves out. In the meantime, the American Political Science Association will be represented on the IPSA Executive Committee by our incoming President, Susanne Hoeber Rudolph. She was elected, along with 14 others, by the Council of the International Political Science Association. Rudolph will be the only U.S. citizen present on the IPSA Executive Committee. Professor Kim, of South Korea, steps aside now and a new IPSA President, Max Kasse of Germany, will lead the International Political Science Association for the next three years. The Japanese Political Science Association will be the proud host of the 20th Congress of the International Political Science Assocation. It will be held in July, 2006, in Fukuoka, Japan. Information on the International Political Science Assocation, membership, publications, and conferences is available at http://www.ipsa.ca.