The twentieth century has certainly been among the most--if not the
most--grand and dramatic centuries in the history of international
relations. In the military sphere, there was the First World War, the
Second World War, and the Cold War (really a third world war). In the
economic sphere, there was the Great Depression of the 1930s, the
long boom of the 1950s-60s, and the oil shocks and world inflation of
the 1970s. History doesn't get any more grand and dramatic than this.
And at the end of the story comes the triumphal conclusion: the
United States as the sole superpower, as the hegemon of the global
economy, and as the first universal nation--bestriding the world more
grandly than any empire since that of Rome.
In the same century, the universities of the United States have
become the greatest and richest academic institutions in the history
of intellectual life. Part of this is the result of the numerous
services that the universities performed for the U.S. government
during the Cold War. Part of it is the result of great national
wealth. And part of it is due to the numerous scholars that have
flocked to the universal nation--the nation made up of peoples from
everywhere and representing every culture--from all over the world.
