Michael Stopford, Senior Assistant to the President for International Affairs,
American University
It is an honor to join you all today at this both International and American
gathering. Having grown up just 20 miles from where you are today, but not
having been here for 25 years, it is especially interesting to be back.
Let me congratulate this ACS International Schools system as so many others
have done. You are clearly meeting the challenge of globalization and the creation
of the International Peace Prize, which I understand was your personal concept,
exemplifies the commitment here to empowering students to succeed in the global
era. There has been a lot of talk of empowerment today. Empowering students
clearly is the main focus of everything that you are doing here.
I may say to Terah, who I will come to in a second, that I am very glad I
noticed we have something in common, and it is not the United Nation's Peace
movement. It is decorating cows! I also spent a while decorating cows when
I lived in Switzerland and got up at 3:00 am to decorate the cows as they went
up the pastures to the mountains in Spring. Everyone gets up in the morning
and covers these lovely animals with flowers and up the hills they go. So you
see, from shared interests like these, clearly all the rest flows pretty freely.
I just mention, very briefly, something about this theme of globalization
which underlines alot of what we are talking about today when we talk about
the globalization of economies, cultures, societies, and politics. This morning
you have heard about the importance of individuals and people like all of us
here today, who are with the right values and the right dynamism, and obviously
the right imaginations (especially looking at your Peace Prize winners) getting
alot done. Although, as you have heard, I am a former United Nations and World
Bank person, sometimes I think that these large bureaucracies are not the best
at getting things done. I detect a little bit of that same feeling from Dr.
Lefkoff's remarks as well.
Interestingly enough, it is actually the private sector that leads the way
in a lot of globalization. It is the economic forces, it is global capitalism,
one way or another, that is in fact setting the trend. You have only got to
listen to these captains of industry around the world to hear that when it
comes to international globalization they're really in the forefront.
I was just reading in the Financial Times recently that organizations all
like to think of themselves, whether they are American or European, as truly
international, global organizations. Boeing company, for example, decided it
is no longer an American company but an international company with its headquarters
in Washington State. There is the CEO of General Electric who says a global
business has a huge intellectual advantage and that the aim in a global business
is to get the best ideas from everywhere.
If you think this is a little bit far away from the themes that we are looking
at today, I also want to make you think, especially the students or the younger
ones here, that there is a very practical side to all this international
involvement. I think it is not that difficult today, or perhaps thanks to
the Internet and thanks to the ideas of Terah and others, to reconcile this
kind of commitment to globalism, to globalization, to international understanding
of ideas to where the economy as a whole is going. You may well find that
there are exciting things which you can do that will help you get ahead in
your work and your careers- international jobs and positions and that type
of thing.
I think it is possible to reconcile some idealism and some practical advantage
too. Our university, my university, (its funny when you hear a Brit talking
about an American university), has as its main mission to educate citizens
with a global perspective. That is what we are all about. It is very much something
that I, who came round late to education, after working at the United Nations,
World Bank, and Foreign Service, but I found that especially during my last
few years with the World Bank that there was so much interest in education
and pouring resources into education. Education was almost taking over as the
main national development priority.
It was actually as part of an organization called the International Finance
Corporation, which is the private sector part of the World Bank, that we used
to go into these meetings in Brazil, Argentina, Korea, and China and ask leading
investors there (whether they were private or even public sector) "What
can we do for you?" and "Where would you like us to invest?" All
my colleagues, myself included, were thinking "we're going to be talking
about water dams, hydro-electric, agri-business, construction, hotels, building
roads--all the kinds of things one thinks the World Bank and development agencies
support. However, time and time again, the reply from all these people was, "if
you want to do something for each country, if you want to do something for
national development, invest in education!"
So, we ended up building universities. We ended up investing in schools. We
ended up supporting the private sector in education which interestingly enough
brings us back to where we are here. Now I didn't want us to overlook the economic
impetus to all this and the private sector because I think, in a way, they
are leading the way to a global society. As you have heard from Dr. Lefkoff
and from our winner this morning, it is governments and political institutions
that have got the most to gain from taking the same route.
I came through after my university time at the end of the Cold War with this
feeling that the Cold War was finally over and that this was truly the time
for a new beginning. However, you have heard today about religious, cultural,
and ethnic-based wars that continue to plague the global community today and
of the problems of separatism and nationalism. But, you have also heard the
answer to some of these problems from what your speaker was saying this morning
in quoting President Havel and what Terah was saying about working in the cow
shed with someone from a different culture.
It is a question of accommodating differences, of being able to celebrate
difference without resorting to some kind of exaggerated nationalism or exaggerated
ethnic identity! This brings us back to education and to my last point--namely,
that the essence of what we in the U.S. call a liberal education, an education
that celebrates growing individual development and, at the same time, trains
the empathy with others because the more you understand about yourself and
what you want, the more you will understand what others want, is so crucial
in this age with its many dehumanising influences. I think that is clearly
what the winners of this prize, both the Namibia group and Terah behind me,
have demonstrated today.
My university is particularly committed to pursuing this type of global agenda.
Our vision is quite simply building a global university. We're still rather
bricks and mortar, Terah, so you are a little bit in advance of us, but we
are very much on the same wavelength.
We have a very diverse faculty and the most diverse student body, percentage-wise,
of any institution in the U.S. Most of our programs have an international focus.
Many of you here will know about the centers on global peace we have - that
was last year's speaker - and about the conflict resolution courses. Some of
you have even taken those courses. So, we cherish this connection between the
ACS system and our American University, this connection which is just beginning
and which owes a great deal to Andrew Kittell from the American office of ACS
and Judson Scuton here. We are delighted to both congratulate Terah and, in
a way, to cement a relationship between our two communities by awarding a Washington
Semester Scholarship to Terah. In conclusion, I am just going to read out the
paragraph from my colleague who is in charge of this Washington Semester which
is the award of the Scholarship.
The Washington Semester Program of American University is honored to recognize
you, Mr Terah DeJong, as the 1999 recipient of the ACS International Schools
Foundation International Peace Prize. Your singular achievement establishes
you as a future leader in cross-cultural understanding and co-operation. You
and your family can be justly proud of your accomplishment. I am pleased to
award you one semester full tuition scholarship for study through American
University 's Semester Program. The Semester is America's oldest and largest
academic learning program serving over 240 colleges and universities throughout
the world.
The letter proceeds to list the subjects which are:-
American Politics
Foreign Politics
Justice and Law
International Business and Economic Policy
Arts
Journalism
Education Policy
International Environment Development
Peace and Conflict Resolution
As the recipient of this scholarship, you are eligible to participate in any
of these programs at an appropriate time during your university education.
Maybe you could be a mature student and come back when you're 50 and do it!
Congratulations. All of us are looking forward to welcoming you to Washington
and American University.
