What is your global story? Do you get the chance to share it?

We value our members and the unique insights, international experience, and sincere desire to understand the world they bring to the IRC network and the Kansas City community. Our members come from a wide range of backgrounds and include community leaders, international business people, university faculty, students, and other individuals interested in deepening their global awareness. We warmly welcome your interest and involvement.

Why join the International Relations Council?

Apolitical, nonpartisan organizations like the IRC are uniquely poised to temper the polarization and heal the divisions we see every day. We create opportunities for informed civil discourse. We foster skills like active listening, critical thinking, empathy, and media literacy. Skills that have the power to heal social fabric and our connections with each other. How can we do international relations, after all, if we can’t do interpersonal relations?

The IRC is unique among membership organizations. Our shared interest in and curiosity about the world brings us together. Where else can you find students alongside retirees, working professionals alongside gap-year travelers, community leaders alongside interested members of the community? At the IRC, you can find all of these, along with a place for you.

Individual & Family Membership: You Belong In Kansas City’s Global Community.

As an IRC member, you sustain global affairs education in our community. Membership is the lifeblood of the IRC, your dues help to ensure that these crucial conversations on global affairs continue to take place in our city. But there’s plenty in it for you, as well! Benefits to IRC membership include:

  • Member-rate or cost-free admission to engaging in-person and digital IRC programs with leading experts in diverse fields of global affairs

  • IRC Roundtables: A chance for IRC members to connect with other members, talk about current events in regions of interest to them, and help inform IRC programming.

  • A welcoming community with opportunities to strengthen your professional and personal network

  • Keen insights and meaningful conversations about international relations and today’s global landscape

  • Exclusive invitations to select IRC members-only programs throughout the year, such as visits from diplomats, tours of local cultural sites, and community gatherings.

  • Exclusive discounts on a variety of foreign-affairs publications, including the Great Decisions briefing book

  • The opportunity to learn more about the world around you through the comfort of your own home through our Virtual Speaker Programs, and our International Book Club.

  • Globally minded volunteer opportunities to meet others and get connected with the vibrant international community within Kansas City!

  • And more!

  • Click to Join as a Family or as an Individual

Organizational Membership connects your company to Kansas City’s global network:

Through executive speaking opportunities, access to international experts, employee development benefits, strategic networking, and community visibility, the IRC helps organizations strengthen their international engagement while building meaningful relationships across business, government, academia, and the nonprofit sector.

  • Organizational IRC membership includes access to all of the benefits of individual membership for the entirety of the staff of your organization, as well as the boards of nonprofit / university members and students of university members. Any individuals who fall under those categories can set up an account with us at no charge to them.

  • Share your company’s international work, global story, and employees’ international connections through participation in IRC Roundtables

  • The opportunity to discuss career paths at your company with students of member universities & young professional IRC members through our Beyond The Headlines interview series

  • Highlighting your organization and its work through our weekly newsletter, listing on our directory of organizational members, and promoting events on our community calendar.

  • Added contextualization of the international topics or components of your work through our companion programs.

  • And more!

  • Click to Join as a Business, Nonprofit, or University member!