Poor international competence obstacle to global leadership/national securityThe United States has a “dangerous” shortage of experts in non-European cultures and languages, hampering the country’s response to 9-11, says the American Council on Education, the largest organization representing the nation’s colleges and universities. “On the whole, the quantity, level of expertise and availability of U.S. personnel with required skills do not now match the national strategic needs at home or abroad, as recently evidenced by the shortage of language experts in the war against terrorism,” the group says.
ACE is specifically asking schools to teach a wider array of languages—and to begin the instruction as early as kindergarten. Waiting until students are in college to begin instruction in more-obscure languages hinders the ability to create fluent speakers, the report argued. Without these changes, it says, the country could face “serious costs in terms of potential foreign-policy failures, military blunders, terrorism and a decline in U.S. competitiveness in the global marketplace... Our future success or failure in international endeavors will rely almost entirely on the global competence of our people.” The group is likely to find a positive response in Washington: just last month the Senate unanimously urged President George W. Bush to establish a comprehensive policy on international education.