| In the latter half of the twentieth century, international education in the United States has developed from a small, isolated enterprise at select universities to one that permeates most educational institutions around the country. The federal government and its national interest concerns played and continue to play a key role in this development. This study examines how and why, despite the vagaries of federal funding, this educational exception became the general rule within five decades after World War II. To accomplish this task, this study examines the National Defense Education Act of 1958 (NDEA), the International Education Act of 1966 (IEA), and the National Security Education Act of 1991 (NSEA), all of which represent significant federal efforts to promote, among other things, international education in furtherance of the national interest.;During World War II, federal authorities were confronted with a variety of difficult problems in the international arena, but had a pronounced shortage of people qualified to deal with these problems, and especially problems in non-Western areas of the world. In the post-war period, amid Cold War concerns and widespread criticism of education in general, large private foundations, in concert with the federal government, began to pay increasing attention to remedying this shortage of cultural and linguistic experts. These early efforts were given a tremendous boost during the Sputnik crisis, a crisis that prompted the first major federal educational initiative in the post-war period, the National Defense Education Act of 1958.;The massive influx of funding from these private and public sources allowed many American educational institutions, and particularly colleges and universities, to either enlarge or establish international studies centers, programs, and faculties. During the 1960s, Congress sought to expand upon these efforts and make international studies a part of the general undergraduate educational experience, as well as to incorporate international issues into the curriculum of primary and secondary schools. However, due to financial constraints and the Vietnam War, Congress never provided funding for the International Education Act of 1966.;After a period of isolationism in the post-Vietnam era, federal authorities again became concerned about the recurrent lack of qualified cultural and linguistic experts. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the Persian Gulf War acted as catalysts prompting Congress to revisit the need for federal intervention in educational matters. Congress then passed and funded the National Security Education Act of 1991, which reflected the NDEA's concern with providing the government with cultural and linguistic experts. |
