 The Dialogue's research areas focus on the rule of law, education, migration, remittances, energy, climate change and extractive industries.The Dialogue originated from the efforts of Abraham F. Lowenthal, who in the late 1970s and early 1980s was the secretary of the Latin America program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.Together with Peter D. Bell, who at that time was engaged in The Latin America program at the Ford Foundation, he approached Sol M. Linowitz, former US Ambassador to the Organization of American States, with an idea to assemble citizens from throughout the hemisphere to set a new regional agenda.