D. Smirnova
Yekaterinburg

DEVELOPMENT OF RUSSIAN AND AMERICAN COOPERATION THROUGH INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE PROGRAMS

    "Globalization" is rapidly shrinking the differences between foreign and domestic concerns in areas such as business, environmental protection, health, education and other fields. It is highly important for any nation to function successfully in and be able to meet the challenge of an increasingly interdependent world.
    The leadership positions and roles of the country also depend on building ties with those who will guide the political, cultural and economic development of their countries in the future. The increasing engagement with other counties and nationalities requires a greater awareness and broad understanding of cultural diversity and recognition of shared values and challenges as well as the differences between nations and peoples.
    Increasingly, the achievement of educational, economic, political, scientific, and cultural goals requires that efforts be collaborative, crossing national borders and involving broad networks of partners and variety of international expertise.
    To start to compete successfully in the global economy and be able to maintain and sustain national security, it is important:

• To encourage students from other countries to study in Russia and NIS countries and have access to research and instructional materials and other resources on foreign nations and collaborate regularly with Russian experts, as well as Russian students and other professionals gain in-depth knowledge and experience in the U.S and other countries.
• To support the exchange of teachers, scholars, and citizens at all levels of society in order to build lasting cross-national partnerships and expertise among educational and other institutions with common interests and complementary objectives.
• To expand high-quality foreign language learning and in-depth knowledge of other countries and cultures.
• To help teachers acquire the skills needed to understand and interpret other countries and cultures for their students; to prepare and educate interest in international and area studies in young people; to increase opportunities for the exchange of faculty, administrators, and students, educational institutions to strengthen their teaching of foreign languages and country studies.

    The necessity to develop and recognize the need to see the world through another person's eyes and to understand the international dimensions of the problems most countries confront is evident. Hence western governments, foundations and non-profit organizations over the last 10-15 year have been flooding the universities and institutions of the former soviet countries with recourses, both material and human and the United States are among those countries with Agency for International Development (USAID); Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (BECA); Department of Education and Department of Defense Programs as four leading federal agencies which have had and continue to have significant sponsored educational and cultural exchanges. Because international exchange and training are critical to all sectors of society, above twenty federal departments and agencies administer over sixty specialized programs besides those mentioned above.
    Thus, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State funds different exchange programs and training for American and international students, scholars, and businessmen to study and do research in different countries and the United States. They are administered by well-known organizations such as ACTR/ACCELS, IREX, OSI and others. During its 21 year Bureau (former USIA) has aimed to promote the international interest of/to the United States through understanding, informing, and influencing foreign publics and broadening the dialogue between different countries.
    Overall U.S. government funding for international exchanges has shrunk over the past few years. For example, in constant dollars, State Department program funding for exchanges has declined 31% since 1993, from $243.3 million to $166.6 million in 2000.
    While the budget for the some programs was decreased (i.e. Fulbright program), federal funds have been invested in several new initiatives that are largely oriented to the former Soviet Union and the New Independent States. The Regional Scholars Exchange Program selects scholars and university faculty in the social sciences and the humanities from all NIS countries and Ph.D. candidates and scholars in the U.S and matches them with the host institutions in the U.S and NIS. A similar set of Freedom Support Act Fellowships in Contemporary Issues allows government officials, leaders of nongovernmental organizations, and other professionals to receive fellowships in the U.S Universities and other organizations. More than half a dozen of other acts, including Edmund S. Muskie Graduate and Edmund S. Muskie Ph.D. fellowship programs, extend higher educational opportunities to students and scholars from former Soviet Union and eastern and central Europe.
    The proliferation of such programs, when other exchange funds have fallen off, signals the change in global focus that has occurred with the ending of the Cold War. Now, in a changed world, people have the opportunity to take a new look at the history and just those years that had put both Russia and the United States as enemies and total allies. Now, as a new Administration has just taken office in the U.S and they have its own priorities and policy toward the NIS but hopefully there is a reason to believe that the research, scientific, cultural and educational programs sponsored by the U.S State Department and other private funds will not be any less important for shaping policy under the new Administration than under the past one.