Many in the U.S. (including, alas, some in higher education) assume that the growing importance of the English language means that we can afford to neglect the study of foreign languages. Even if this has some truth at the economic level, arrogance about language is not a useful attribute. U.S. ignorance of foreign languages has become so profound that any effort to use another language is likely to be appreciated abroad. The meta-search engine Foreign Word provides a useful step in the right direction by performing searches of online dictionaries in many languages.

I began my MaCIE presentation with Bruce Springsteen's song "War," because it asks the question, "What is it good for?" Although the Boss answers "ABSOLUTELY NOTHING," I point out that it does, at least, provide rare geography lessons for North Americans. Bergstein's article was published in 2000, foreshadowing Springsteen's opposition to the Iraq war, and the ensuing backlash.

This online community of world history buffs features both interesting conversation and an amazing chronological Chart of Empires, which depicts all of the world's empires over the past several millenia. The United States is not the first nation to face the challenge of hegemony.

In 1990, Eclipse Enterprises published a set of 36 trading cards, which depicted many of the strange and deranged allies that the United States had acquired over the previous several decades, mostly in pursuit of the Cold War. Each card features a caricature of an important U.S.-allied tyrant on one side, and a description of his misdeeds on the back. This web site provides the images and text of these hard-to-find cards. The importance of the cards today is that they can help U.S. citizens to understand why residents of some countries might sometimes be reluctant to trust U.S. motives.

After you have explored the site, test your knowledge of dictator allies with two crossword puzzles from Pax Mundo:

• Dictators of Latin America and the Caribbean
• Dictators of Asia, Africa and Europe
  

This dynamic site allows users instantly to generate maps, graphs, and charts that compare any or all of the world's nations on a wide variety of measures. Some of the results might be surprising, and should lead to further thought. For example, the United States and the Dominican Republic have exactly the same percentage of primary-school students (11.6 percent) enrolled in private schools.

This study by National Geographic and Roper documents global disparities in geographic literacy. The results are as discouraging as they are unsurprising, with 30 percent of U.S. young adults unable to find the Pacific Ocean on a map.

Oddly enough, maps can actually foster geographic ignorance, or at least reinforce misimpressions about the world. This site provides alternative ways of looking at the world, simply by reorienting the compass directions on some world maps.

In an August 2000 article, Harper's editor Lewis Lapham argues that contemporary politicians are dependent on apathy and ignorance in the population at large. Let us hope he is not correct, but he makes rather a strong case!

This international effort at improved understanding includes both constructive thinking and interesting learning resources. It includes a link to a Japanese site that teaches how to wish peace to the people of all nations -- in their own languages.

The Resource Center of the Americas provides detailed, sustained, and thoughtful coverage of developments that affect human rights throughout Latin America.

The Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University has worked for over a decade to support scholarship and other exchanges that emphasize and promote the commonalities between two of the world's great religious traditions. It seeks to dispel misconceptions and to counter the notion that a clash between cultures is inevitable.

Human Rights Watch provides non-partisan documentation and analysis of human rights conditions in every country of the world.

This site remains the authoritative source for U.S. government data on the boundaries of countries and basic demographic and other data. Unfortunately, a December 2003 overhaul of the site significantly politicized it, removing most references to U.S. interventions in other countries and adding needlessly pejorative descriptions of foreign governments.

Similar in scope and breadth to the CIA Factbook, but more ideologically balanced is this site from New Internationalist magazine. It also includes a number of interesting means of comparing countries, such as literacy, status of women, and environmental protection.

BBC profiles provide a quick guide to history, politics and economic background of countries throughout the world. They also include audio and video clips from the BBC archives.

This special collection at the University of Texas is a repository for CIA and other government maps, many of which it makes available via the web. When I was in graduate school (before the web), I actually drove several hundred miles to Austin, just to look at this map collection!

For twenty years, I have found this to be the very most reliable source of information about U.S. military spending, programs, and practices. It is both critical and credible, operated by those who know best -- retired officers of the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines.

Geographic education is slowly recovering from decades of neglect in the United States. The standards described by the National Council on Geographic Education provide guidance for educators who are fostering the recovery. The result of these efforts could well be a better-informed citizenry in the world's most powerful democracy. Locally, the Massachusetts Geographic Alliance is leading the way.

Matt Rosenberg’s meta-geography site on About.com is a portal for the discipline of geography.

NASA provides high-quality satellite imagery organized by topic and searchable by keyword. What does this have to do with world peace? The fact is that looking at imagery of the earth tends to build appreciation for this home we share.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are used by professional geographers to present and analyze spatial data. The Geography Network provides free software and data that enable non-professionals to use simplified GIS tools to learn more about the earth.

Perhaps the most encouraging site on the entire Web is Barbara Petchenik's collection of maps drawn by children. My favorite map , by Sergio Castany de Fiori of Sao Paulo, Brazil, reminds me of my daughter Paloma (the dove).

When making presentations, it is often convenient to have a map or flag. This is the best site for finding reproducible maps and flags. If you use these materials in your own work, please be sure to read the guidelines and give appropriate credit.

If you think of Rotary as just another fraternal organization, think again. It is a real instrument for global understanding. Rotary is a worldwide organization of business and professional leaders that provides humanitarian service, encourages high ethical standards in all vocations, and helps build goodwill and peace in the world. Approximately 1.2 million Rotarians belong to more than 31,000 Rotary clubs located in 166 countries. Wherever you are in the world, you are probably near a chapter, and wherever you are going in the world, you can probably find a Rotary chapter there.

A new book by social researcher, author Sam Sieber presents conclusions that overturn our most cherished ideas about the exceptional nature of the United States. The title should provoke careful self-examination by those who assume -- as many of us often do -- that the U.S. is objectively the best in every way

The Google Directory lists a number of creative and interesting web sites devoted to global peace.

Libertarian author Laurence Vance has exhaustively researched the size and scope of U.S. military presence around the world, and offers interesting ideas about this modern empire. You can also view updated statistics at the Department of Defense's Military Personnel Statistics page.