By Gary Bertsch
The Cold War was a terrible time when arms racing and misperception prevailed over social progress and understanding. Suddenly, at the beginning of this decade, East European Communism collapsed and the Cold War ended. This was an historic event that opened new possibilities. Are we Americans doing enough to take advantage of these opportunities?
After paying trillions to wage the Cold War, most Americans are reluctant to invest good money in the rebuilding of the post-Communist East. There are many understandable reasons for this reluctance. Clearly, U.S. tax dollars and private investment can go elsewhere. But there are many other ways we can help.
The formerly Communist countries of Eastern Europe and the U.S.S.R. need our attention, and we have a responsibility to provide it in several ways. We need to learn more about these peoples, their cultures and history, their politics and economics, their current problems and opportunities. As a society we are poorly informed about the world, and our understanding of the post-Communist East is no exception.
Our relations with these peoples and countries cannot afford to rest on the stereotypes and misperceptions of the past. We have to marshal the best information and determine what the facts tell us. It is part of our responsibility as scholars and educators at the University of Georgia.
On Feb. 3--5, the Center for Humanities and Arts will be offering a symposium on “Europe’s East Enters the 21st Century.” Ambassadors from Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovenia will come to our campus to share their hopes and concerns about the future. We will also have leading experts from the United States and East Europe discussing issues of image and reality, peace and cooperation, and current problems in the region. We will be discussing the role of the United States and American universities in these important issues, the topics of democratization, economic and cultural change, and many other significant issues.
Please bring your students to at least one of these sessions. Our UGA students need to hear more about the problems and opportunities of post-Communism. Can we allow these bright young students to graduate from the University of Georgia with so little understanding of such important issues?
Many of them will benefit. There may be a future president, secretary of state or senator in our student body. There are certainly future scientists, diplomats, business people and educators among them who may be inspired to pursue careers that will lend a hand to our friends and neighbors in the post-Communist East. Please help provide them this opportunity.
I often feel we do not demand enough of our students to take advantage of the rich programs across our campus. Please encourage your students to attend the Feb. 3--5 symposium, or, better yet, bring them with you. I hope to see you and many of our students and university community there.
Gary Bertsch is director of the Center for International Trade and Security at UGA. This essay is reprinted from the newsletter of the Center for Humanities and Arts.
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FORUM GUIDELINES
To encourage discussion on issues affecting the university and higher education in general, the Forum section appears periodically in Columns. Faculty, staff, administrators and researchers associated with the university are invited to submit essays and respond to previous essays.
A committee appointed by University Council and Staff Council reviews submissions to determine which are of greatest interest to the university community.
Faculty members of the Forum review committee for 1998-99 are Laura Mason, history; Kathleen Parker, geography; and Francis Assaf, Romance languages. The staff representative is Brenda Keen of the Institute of Government.
Opinions expressed on these pages do not necessarily reflect the views of the administration of the University of Georgia or the review committee.
Articles will be edited to conform with the Associated Press stylebook.
Guidelines for submissions
• Topics should be related to issues in higher education.
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university community.
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• Send essays to Beth Roberts, Alumni House (e-mail: columns@novell.alumni.uga.edu).
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