Our world grows smaller and more interdependent daily. Advances in communications are transforming our lives and relationships at all levels. An economic decision in Japan today touches us tomorrow. Political decisions in Washington affect the well-being of people throughout the world. Oil spills and polluted air respect no borders.

The better we understand these realities, the better we can exercise our rights and responsibilities as world citizens and make a brighter future.

At a time when our businesses are losing international markets to competitors who have studied the peoples and places of markets, we cannot afford to be unaware of the world. Nor can we afford to make foreign policy decisions-or moral judgments-concerning peoples and governments without understanding their hopes, needs and viewpoints.