Larry D. Lauer

Off and on for the last 50 years Washington has been a home away from home for me. From my earliest days at American University to the last years of my work at TCU, I found many of my Washington experiences to be exciting intellectual adventures.

Of course, the exception was the legislature where intense partisan polarization based on extremist ideology gradually prevented anything from getting done. And now those elected officials who would rather shut down government than behave like statesmen have finally undermined our nation’s respect as a global leader. This is tragic.

But the good news is that some of the smartest thinkers I ever met are in Washington think-tanks, associations, NGO’s, and even civil service leadership positions. The city is filled with them if you know where to look.

For example, many of those currently in think tanks were previously in highly placed government positions and accomplished what they could. But there are limits to what can get done when complex problem-solving collides with mean-spirited political obstruction.

I believe, however, if more of the top experts currently in think tanks and elsewhere in Washington would connect and work with more of the top scholars in universities an enormous potential for world problem-solving would result. There are experts in all of these places with smart ideas for making foreign trade more fair, implementing sensible monetary policies, championing human rights, slowing climate change, ending hunger, eliminating poverty, producing clean energy, improving public health, promoting cross-cultural understanding, and even rebuilding nations and institutions destroyed by terrorists.

My question therefore is: When higher education becomes a truly global industry will enough universities be encouraged to facilitate more of this integrated approach to world problem solving?