Cultural Communication and New Imperatives

Abstract

Cultural communication, international exchange based essentially upon education, is a prime instrument of mid-twentieth-century foreign policy. Legislated a decade and a half ago, our exchange programs are in danger of be coming anachronistic. Our foreign policy assumptions and the problems to which our exchanges were addressed after World War II have changed strikingly. We must reappraise our cultural communications to make the techniques apposite to current, rather than past, problems. It is possible so to redefine our exchanges and so to revamp their legislative and administrative bases as to make them a prime and relevant instrument of national interest overseas. It is possible, in so doing, to provide for the co-ordinated use of resources avail able both in the public and private sectors of our society. Per haps the single most difficult problem in redirecting our ex change efforts arises from the political immediacy of issues to which exchanges must be related. Ways must be found to apply long-range educational instruments to urgent and explo sive national crises in major areas of the world.