Currently, there are about 400,000 international students in American universities. The United States continues to welcome and open the door to more and more international students than any other developed country in the world today. Why? What benefits do international students offer to the United States? And what role would they play in the international competitiveness race?

Throughout the years, international students were the link between what is happening in other countries and what is happening in the United States. American students have learned from their culture, way of thinking, political problems, and the way they see the United States and its people. Senator J. William Fulbright has said: "The essence of intercultural education is the acquisition of empathy -- the ability to see the world as others see it, and to allow the possibility that others may see it more accurately. That, I should think is the most pressing necessity in superpower relations."

This interaction between the international students and their fellow Americans is of a two-way nature. As American students learn from international students, so do the latter. Then, international students carry with them what they have chosen to take from the American culture to their homes where others learn from them also. Those students going back to their homes will also play a crucial part in the American international market. As, for example, a civil engineering graduate would tend to specify the steel to be used in a particular building according to the American Institute of Steel Construction Manual and thus specify American manufactured steel. This would further attract U.S. contractors and consultants to that country too.

On the other hand, as technological advances get more and more complicated and interdisciplinary, it will become very difficult to centralize the effort of building a product not only in one company, but also in one country. Therefore, more cooperative effort will take place between different companies and different countries. This is evident in the recent cooperation of the lighting product department of the General Electric and the Hungarian lighting company, Tungsram, and from the establishment of major consortia to develop ocean mining systems, production and sales, which involve giant United States, European, Canadian and Japanese companies. Just try to open your personal computer which has a "Made in the U.S." tag on it and you will see chips made in countries such as Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, China and of course the United States of America! From that perspective, international students will play a key role in American competitiveness by being the link between U.S. and other international companies.

But not all international students go back to their home. Some of them might get a much better offer from an American company or university so they decide to stay around. This part usually fills the gap, especially in case of college professors, created by not enough U.S. citizens going into graduate school. Eventually, they become loyal U.S. citizens contributing to the advancement of research and teaching.

In the year 2000, we will see more and more cooperation between individuals, companies, and countries. Our objectives would be to offer the best for humanity, by creating a world in which people from different cultures would live happily together. The edge will be to the United States, as it hosts the largest international students body in the world today.