Presidential campaigns are usually eager to provide mind-numbingly detailed domestic-policy proposals. When it comes to foreign policy, however, campaigns often prefer to operate on the plane of generality and gesture. In the absence of blueprints, journalists and tea-leaf readers scrutinize the foreign-policy advisers attached to each candidate:…

This article reports that American visa procedures have prevented graduate students from taking advantage of the Iraqi government's program to study in the United States. Iraqi students seeking to come to American colleges on full scholarships from the Iraqi government face so many hurdles in obtaining a visa that few are able to enter the…

When President Obama dreams out loud, as he did in a speech last week, of a future when solar panels are as "cheap as paint" and buildings produce their own energy, researchers like the physicist Yang Yang are dreaming right along with him. Mr. Yang's laboratory is among hundreds at colleges around the country that stand to benefit from a new…

In the summer of 2003, the "Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists" published an essay warning that the United States was on the verge of losing the peace. Dozens of similar arguments appeared that year, but this one, written by Michael V. Bhatia, a 26-year-old graduate student, was as devastating as any of them. In 2007, to the surprise of…

Educational exchanges and fellowships are not new; the best known, the Fulbright Program, is more than 60 years old. But the Community College Summit Initiative Program, as this fledgling effort is known, reflects a growing recognition among American government officials that the United States must do a better job in its public-diplomacy outreach…

This article describes how Bruce Hoffman and Marc Sageman, two prominent scholars of terrorism, square off over whether Al Qaeda remains the primary global terrorist threat. The dispute began in the pages of "Foreign Affairs," where Hoffman, a professor in the security-studies program at Georgetown University, wrote a withering review of…

The important contributions that community colleges make to American society are well known and documented, but many people may not be aware of the huge influence that community colleges are having overseas. The U.S. model of the two-year college with a vocational emphasis is being exported, and foreign institutions that focus on career education…

The frosty relationship between the United States and Iran has created a chill in many areas of scholarly endeavor. One resulting battle, over whether Iranian scholars can belong to the American Chemical Society, has been largely resolved. But a new imbroglio looms with the arrest of a prominent U.S.-Iranian scholar who was visiting Tehran. The…

According to a recent report of scenarios prepared by the National Intelligence Council, the next 15 years will bring significant global changes, including the transformation of the international political system built after World War II, a transfer of wealth from the West to the East, pressure on natural resources resulting from continuing…

This article presents an excerpt from the interview of Karen Hughes, under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs. Hughes discusses the Bush administration's effort to attract foreign students to the United States and to send American students overseas. She also talks about what American colleges and universities can do to help.

In this article, the author talks about the situation of Muslims in Western countries such as the United States. Here, the author talks about his experience wherein his visa was being revoked in late July 2004. The reason is that he made donations totaling approximately $900 to a Swiss Palestinian-support group that is now on the American…

Internationalization is nothing new in higher education, but its meaning has expanded over the years. Three generations ago, it referred simply to sending students overseas for a few months to expose them to other cultures. In the 1960s, international education took on a public-service and research dimension. Today it refers to a complex set of…

Historian Robin W. Winks'"Clock and Gown" recounts the Yale Library Project of 1942 and the prominent roles Yale University scholars have played in United States intelligence efforts since World War II. (MSE)

Japanese universities are encouraging their students to study in the United States. Tokyo International University's campus in Oregon has links to Willamette University. The goal is to form a kind of global university with students spending three years overseas, and then completing their degrees in Tokyo. (MLW)

A plan supported by American and Japanese legislators would provide free or inexpensive land and other financial incentives to entice American institutions to set up major academic programs in Japan. Four-year branch campuses enrolling students from the U.S., Japan, and other Pacific nations are envisioned.