2019 is the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Institute of International Education (IIE), a well-known US-based private nonprofit that focuses on international student exchange and aid, foreign affairs, and international peace and security. IIE refers to itself as “a world leader in the international exchange of people and ideas.”

While IIE has numerous achievements to its credit, there are also many missed opportunities and built-in constraints that are the result of its status as a quasi-US governmental organization. It describes itself as “an independent, nonprofit” but the former adjective is in name only.

I think the title and above excerpt from my essay about the Institute of International Education (IIE) pretty much sums it up.  Follow this link to read the article in its entirety.  Full disclosure:  I served as country director of IIE-Vietnam from 2005-09.  I therefore know whereof I speak.  

Here is a Vietnamese translation.

Shalom (שלום), MAA

Postscript:  It will not surprise some of you to learn that the major US higher education digital media outlets would not touch this piece with a ten foot pole.  Why?  Because it’s too hot to handle.  Read the article to find out why.  “Freedom of the press is limited to those who own one.” ―A.J. Liebling