There can be no doubt about the increased attention focused on international relations. There is a need for, and interest in, undergraduate programs of instruction in the subject. Such initiatives are important to enable the U.S. to compete in the increasingly interdependent world of the 21st century. In the last few years, there have been a number of reports by various educational associations, task forces, panels and commissions all underscoring the need to do more in international studies and foreign language instruction. A number of colleges and universities have responded by changing curricula, starting new programs, and expanding existing ones. All this is admirable.

Yet, it is possible to graduate from most colleges and universities in the country and know nothing about international relations. Students are woefully ignorant of world geography, recent world history, the importance of international economics in our daily lives, the circumstances in which the rest of the world lives, and how to communicate in another language. This situation is compounded by their lack of knowledge about different political systems and how they operate as well as the significance of many important political issues in the world today. We are in our education, if not our circumstances as a nation, essentially uninformed and isolationist towards other nations. Certainly this is a challenge to American undergraduate education.