The level of international awareness
in American students has been collapsing
in a dangerous manner throughout
the last two decades.
This
situation has deteriorated in
the past 10 years due to the
gradual decline in the US military
presence in Europe which in fact
played the role of a large-scale "youth
exchange programme" (each
year thousands of young Americans
from all social origins were able
to discover the 'outer world').
In addition, the exposure of young
Americans to international topics
in primary and secondary education
has practically disappeared, resulting
in the emergence of entire generations
of US citizens totally unaware
of the rest of the world.
This trend is strengthened by
the parochialism of the US media.
Such trends affect American relations
with all other continents; but
it particularly affects transatlantic
relations that used to be based
upon large-scale population exchanges
between the two shores of the ocean,
enabling our visions of the world
and of the future to be shared.
In brief, we need to 'save student
Ryan' before he becomes lost in
his North-American maze.
Having had the opportunity to
analyse this trend since 1991,
I have noticed year after year
the damage to the younger generations
of Americans who no longer have,
so to speak, the intellectual tools
to understand the outer world.
This
tendency was reinforced during
George W. Bush’s first mandate,
which de facto advocated total
disregard for opinions from the
rest of the world, triggering strong
anti-American feelings worldwide,
which in turn resulted in reducing
significantly the amount of foreign
students in American universities.
This simply results in cutting
US new generations from any external
influence.
Europe needs to act to increase
significantly the amount of US
students visiting Europe.
The European Union provides a
unique academic framework which
would enable US students to spend
two semesters in two different
European universities, companies
or regions, to discover what diversity
means.
The common transatlantic interest,
the need to increase EU understanding
for the new US generations and
the urge to avoid the intellectual
inward-looking trends among US
youth, are all reasons for the
EU to launch such an initiative.
Fifty
years ago, the US pioneered large-scale
exchange programmes
designed to open young generations’ and
future elites’ minds (in
particular those of post-war Europeans)
and to promote the US image among
these categories of age.
Today
it is the Europeans’ turn
to 'return the favour' and launch
the 'Jean Monnet Transatlantic
Grants' programme.
This grant programme should be
ambitious: on the one hand because
it is an emergency situation, and
on the other hand because we are
talking about a country with 300
million inhabitants.
Taking
advantage of President Bush’s visit to Europe next
month, and knowing that there won’t
be much for European (and US) leaders
to offer during their vibrant speeches
on the importance of the Transatlantic
relation, it would be sensible
to announce the launching of such
large-scale project by the EU.
The programme should reach 20,000
young Americans per year for at
least five years (i.e. 100,000
by the end of the decade) for a
significant generational impact;
this would imply a 50 million euro
budget per year.
It could be announced by the Luxembourg
presidency in February after a
meeting with President Bush, approved
by the European Parliament before
summer, and implemented by the
Commission for a full launch at
the beginning of 2006.
This would be a two-fold demonstration
of transatlantic seriousness and
of European efficiency.
Let’s
be aware of the fact that, in
the US, such a decision
coming from the EU would raise
some very positive reactions among
the academic and diplomatic spheres,
students, multinational companies,
and citizen networks, who are trying
to fight against the decline of
international education.
And for President George W. Bush,
it would be a very tangible sign
that Europeans and Americans are
still ready to look to the future
together and in the same direction.
So why are we waiting. Let's 'Save
Student Ryan' now?
Send
your answers/comments to Franck
Biancheri, contact@newropeans.org
