on the international stage, what nations don’t know can hurt them.
Whether the region is Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, Eastern
Europe and the former Soviet Union, or the Middle East, whether the issue
involves diplomacy, foreign affairs, national security, or commerce and
finance—what nations do not know exacts a heavy toll. The stakes
involved in study abroad are that simple, that straightforward, and that
important (Commission on the Abraham Lincoln Study Abroad
Fellowship, 2005, p. v).