15 FEBRUARY 2011

The InterDependent was founded in 1973 by Fred Eckhard, an editor at UNA-USA who moved on to become spokesman for Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General. From the start, the magazine kept members of UNA-USA, a nationwide grass-roots organization, informed about the comings and goings of the United Nations. Today, theinterdependent.com, making its online debut on July 21, 2010, continues that tradition. In fact, no other media organization -- online, print, nonprofit or commercial -- has ever fully devoted itself to the issues that The InterDependent has always covered. We stand proud in a niche that we created, pouring out objectively reported articles and op-eds on the UN for more than 40 years. From the beginning, the magazine took on the major issues at the world body while closely following important matters in the global community and offering behind-the-scenes looks on UN personnel changes and feature stories.

The ID, as we call it, has provided readers such exclusive interviews as those with Secretary-General Annan and current Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Another exclusive featured an interview with the Brazilian diplomat Sergio Vieira de Mello -- mere weeks before he was killed in a suicide bombing attack at the UN headquarters in Iraq. The ID has also published interviews with Ted Turner, Hans Blix, Richard C. Holbrooke, Senator Richard Lugar and Pope John Paul IV. Its last print issue, Fall 2009, profiled Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN.

Since 2003, when it was redesigned after almost 30 years, it began to feature more domestic and international issues and was the start of a brilliant long-term relationship -- that continues today -- with Barbara Crossette, a former New York Times foreign correspondent who also ran the UN bureau for the paper for seven years. Her extensive knowledge of the UN translates into both insightful articles about all aspects of the world body as well as our new feature, BC on the UN, our home-page blog on the ID site.

Dulcie Leimbach, also formerly of The New York Times, became the editor of The ID in 2008, shepherding the print version on to the Web with the assistance of Sarah Trefethen, a freelance writer who graduated from the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. Leimbach wrote and edited for The Times for more than two decades, working with such prize-winning columnists as Maureen Dowd, Nick Kristof and Paul Krugman and writing for most sections of the paper. In addition, she worked as an editor on the paper's Pulitzer Prize submissions panel; taught journalism at Hofstra University; and was a guest lecturer at the Bronx High School of Science.

We hope you continue to enjoy reading The ID in its new iteration, and we welcome your thoughts and views, which you can send to dleimbach@unausa.org. We also encourage you to visit UNA-USA's main Web site, www.unausa.org, to learn about all the incredible activities of the organization, from running Global Classrooms, a Model UN program, to providing policy and advocacy information to our 12,000 members nationwide and the 120 chapters and divisions. UNA, which recently merged with the United Nations Foundation, is a nonprofit organization that supports the work of the UN and encourages civic participation in social and economic issues affecting all Americans and abroad. Founded by Eleanor Roosevelt in 1943, with the establishment of the American Association for the United Nations, it merged with the US Committee for the United Nations in 1964, creating UNA-USA. It is also a members of the World Federation of United Nations Associations.

Now is the time to join UNA as it continues its work connecting the American public to the UN.

Consulting Editors: Barbara Crossette, Ed Elmendorf
Editor: Dulcie Leimbach
Contributing Writers: Irwin Arieff, Steven Dimoff, Helmut Volger
Online Editor: Stephanie Rossi