Utreiseseminar2012

J. William Fulbright, 1905-1995

Biography and Influences

Born into a southern patrician familyGraduate of University of Arkansas (political

science major; halfback for the Razorbacks)Rhodes Scholar (Oxford): 1924-28 6 months in Vienna

Education and Political Office

Oxford, Pembroke College, 1924-1928Vienna (6 months)JD, George Washington U Law School, 1934Adjunct, U of Arkansas, 1936-39President of U of Arkansas, 1939-41

JWF (l.) as halfback: Arkansas Razorbacks

JWF (center, first row) with mother (r.) and friends

as a Rhodes scholar in Oxford

JWF, President of University of Arkansas, 1940

Fulbright and Foreign RelationsU.S. House of Representatives (1942-44) -

Fulbright Resolution 1943U.S. Senate (1945-75) – Fulbright Act 1946On Senate Foreign Relations Committee as of 1949Chair of Senate Foreign Relations Committee,

1959-1974 (longest serving chair)Fulbright-Hays Act, 1961 “Internationalist” (= Wilsonian tradition) and

“Southern Democrat” (= segregationist)Proponent then opponent of Vietnam War

(Arrogance of Power, 1966)

What event inspired Fulbright to come up with the idea of a

cultural and educational exchange program?

Hiroshima: August 6, 1945

Fulbright Act, August 1, 1946Amendment of a piece of legislation that

had nothing to do with educational exchange: Surplus Property Act of 1944

„ . . . the Department of State may dispose of surplus property located outside of the continental United States for foreign currencies or credits . . . „ AND

„ . . . enter executive agreements with foreign goverments for the use of these currrencies . . . „ (Fulbright commissions)

U.S. President Harry Truman signing the initial Fulbright Act, 1946

“for the purpose of providing . . . for financing studies, research, instruction, and other educational activities of or for American citizens . . . . in such foreign country, . . . ”

(travel and maintenance awards)“furnishing transportation for citizens of

such foreign country who desire to attend American schools and institutions of higher learning. . .”

(travel grants only)

Historical Structure of the Program IOversight by Department of State (DOS): United

States Information Agency (USIA or E-Bureau), 1953-1999

Establishes Board of Foreign Scholarships (= FSB)Contracts with Institute of International Education

(IIE) to manage student program: recruit U.S. grantees; orientation and placement for foreign students (with NAFSA founded 1948)

Leads to the establishment of CIES to manage the Scholars Program

Leads to the conclusion of „executive agreements“ with foreign states and the establishment of „U.S. Educational Commissions“ with binational boards

Historical Structure IIThe Fulbright Program did not cost the U.S.

taxpayers a penny Funded abroad with foreign currencies acquired

by the sale of wartime surplus overseas to fund travel grants (both ways) and maintenance grants for U.S. citizens abroad

Funded in the U.S. by institutions of higher education that waived all tuition and fees and provided grants – along with other organizations of American civil society (foundations, associations, clubs, fraternities, etc.) – to cover maintenance costs

Limited funding (authorized up to $ 20 M per country and $ 1 M per year)

Historical Context of the Program I

Related to the great phase of U.S. internationalism at the end of WW II: United Nations, Bretton Woods -International Monetary Fund, World Bank

Antedates the beginning of the Cold War = Truman Doctrine and „containment“ (1947); Marshall Plan (European Recovery Program) (1948); North Atlantic Treaty Organization (1949)

Becomes an important part of the cultural and information policy of the USG (United States Information Agency, 1953-1999, as an independent executive agency)

Historical Context of the Program II1st = Burma on Dec. 22, 1947; 17th = U.S.

Educational Commission for Austria on June 6, 1950

Post WW II context: Austria (1950), Germany (1952), and Japane (1951): „education“ was part of the US policy of „re-education“: identifying future elites, understanding U.S. institutions (democracy plus market capitalism), (re)building nations

Post-1989: Fulbright as a post (cold) war program in (former) Eastern Europe

Post-9/11: NEA, Afghanistan, Iraq („critical languages“)

If you needed to identify one individual responsible for

influencing USG spending on higher education, research, and

technology since the end of World War II,

who would that be?

Nikita Khrushcev: ”We will bury you!" (1956)

Space (& Arms) Race

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) (DoD)

National Defense Education Act (NDEA)DoD “exchange programs”

Sputnik 1: October 4, 1957

Objective of the Fulbright ProgramPublic Law 87-256, 1961 “ increase mutual understanding

between the people of the United States and the people of other countries by means of educational and cultural exchange; to strengthen the ties which unite us with other nations,…… and thus to assist in the development of friendly, sympathetic, and peaceful relations, . . . ”

Fulbright-Hays Act, Sept. 21, 1961Pulls together various pieces of educational and

exchange legislationProvides for „the creation or continuation of

binational or multinational educational and cultural foundations and commissions“ (second generation = Austrian-American Educational Commission)

„ . . . may provide for equitable U.S. participation in and support for, including a reasonable share of the cost of, educational and cultural programs to be administered by such organizations, . . . .“

Funding Fulbright becomes a line item in the US Federal Budget

JWF (far left): U.S. President John F. Kennedy signs the Fulbright-Hays Act, 1961

Fulbright-Hays II„Foreign governments, international organizations

and private firms, associations, agencies, and other groups shall be encouraged to particpate to the maximum extent feasible in carrying out this Act and to make contributions of funds, properties, and services, which the President is hereby authorized to accept, to carry out the purpose of this Act.“

Annual reporting requirements and two-year home residency requirement for Fulbright Program grantees on J-1 exchange visas

U.S. federal funding is subject to U.S. federal regulations = Office of Budget and Management (OMB) and U.S. Inspector General (auditor for waste, fraud, or abuse). See Manual for Binatioanal Commissions.

Institutional FrameworkU.S. Federal legislation and regulationsUSG funding for Fulbright ProgramManaged by binational commissionsBased on „executive agreements“ (legal status

different = foundations, associations, extraterritorial enties) . . .

that may (or may not) entail details on the funding commitments of Parter Governments;

outline the structure and reporting requirements of the commission, whose operations . . .

. . . may be subject to national reporting and accounting standards, too.

"Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth into battle -- be Thou near them! With them -- in spirit -- we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended in the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames in summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it -- For our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimmage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.

unseen women and children with napalm as valiant fighters for freedom.”

Breakdown of direct funding for Norwegian Fulbright program is app. 30/70 U.S./Norway

U.S. Fulbright grantees arriving in Vienna at the (bombed-out) Westbahnhof, September 1951

U.S. Fulbright orientation in Vienna, 1952: “This conference is UNCLASSIFIED”

Recent History: 11/9 to 9/11Berlin Wall goes down on November 11,

1989 = End of Cold WarFY 1996 = 18% cut in Fulbright funding

for old EUR (mid-term elections: Newt Gingrich)

Establishment of new “Eastern European” commissions: NATO & EU enlargement

1999 = “consolidation” of USIA into State: changes in public information posture of US (e.g. closing of “America Houses,” shift from print to e-format, “virtual” PD)

September 11, 2001 = GWOT

11/9/1989

9/11/2001

Sen. Fulbright (r.) with a talented and aspiring junior in high school from Arkansas: Bill Clinton in an American Legion „Boys

Nation“ T-shirt (1963) . . .

. . . who also subsequently interned on Fulbright‘s staff as an undergraduate student from Georgetown University in the summer

of 1967 and was a Rhodes Scholar from Arkansas in 1969, too.

JWF.staff late 60s.jpg