American education faces two long-term, formidable imperatives. The first is to invest a population with the skills to compete in a global economy and to apply these skills to solve the many and multiplying problems confronting the nation and the peoples of the globe. We expect our schools to furnish these skills and understanding of the world. So far reports on this front have been disappointing. Successive national surveys reveal that K-12 students lack the basics of history, geography, economics, mathematics and science. They are falling behind their peers in other countries around the globe.

The emerging political economy of global science is a significant factor influencing economic, social and cultural development, building national systems of innovation, and the rise of new multinational corporate, private/public and community involvement. It is only since the 1960s with the development of research evaluation and increasing sophistication of bibliometrics that it has been possible to map this emerging economy of global science on a comparative national and continental basis.

Professor Hadi Salehi Esfahani reveals a curious correlation between the price of oil and dynamical U.S.-Iran relations, explaining economic consequences of ongoing political tension while offering practical approaches to abatement as well.

Professor Michael Schlesinger presents a case for further action on the part of the international community to monitor the effects of human activity upon the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere.