Robert Putnam first called attention to the importance of civic community in Making Democracy Work.1 Although not the first to recognize the importance of civic engagement in the functioning of a healthy democracy (perhaps Tocqueville wins that accolade), by coining the term "social capital", he gave scholars from multiple disciplinary fields a common linguistic hook on which to hang their research. Today, the importance of social capital is broadly recognized and both academics and policymakers alike have begun turning their attention to how it can be fostered and strengthened. In his essay Dr. James Hunt argues that travel and service have a transformative impact on young people that helps shape them for civic leadership by developing within them perspective, adaptability and credibility. Dr. Hunt builds his case around a number of case studies of important American leaders including Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Jane Addams, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Other research supports his argument. An ongoing study2 of the long-term impact of serving with AmeriCorps shows a significant increase in the types of civic engagement that Putnam would associate with social capital, including the ability to identify community problems and a sense of civic obligation and connection with their community.
If travel and service are important to the development of leaders who engage society with a sense of civic responsibility, and this in turn helps to build the social capital required for healthy democratic governance and for societies to function well, then the Krista Foundation is doing very well to support young adults who commit themselves to signifi cant periods of travel and service. This edition of the Global Citizen contains eight articles written by "Krista Colleagues" - service volunteers who have received support from the foundation. Their topics range widely, but each article provides a window into the transformative process of which Dr. Hunt writes. Each author grapples with a unique set of issues brought to the surface as they served others in a new place. For example, Nathan Brouwer, now serving in The Gambia, writes powerfully of service needing a place and the irony of becoming irrelevant and provincial in the quest of the global citizen ideal. He writes, "This is our divine model: a God who is working out the salvation of the cosmos by residing in a particular place, at a particular time, and offering aid to a small group of common people."
New to this issue is the conscious bundling of a set of articles to bring a variety of perspectives around a single issue, in this case, the war in Iraq. Matthew J. Goering leads off with an essay that follows his sister and brother-in-law, both Krista Colleagues, to Baghdad as part of a Christian Peacemaker Team. He focuses on a visit with a woman whose son was killed when a stray U.S. bomb destroyed his home. The stoic, yet heartbroken matriarch, reminds us that "collateral damage" is not an abstract factor in the high cost of war, but people whose lives have been irrevocably altered or destroyed. Christie Schmid, the peacemaking sister of Mr. Goering, makes a very challenging case for active nonviolent resistance which "heeds the call to action while maintaining a posture of peace, thus fundamentally putting its faith in the strength of love." In the third essay of the bundle, Donald E. Spencer brings us the perspective of a father with a son serving in Iraq with the U.S. Army. He reminds us that global civic responsibility includes resisting those that subjugate and protecting the weak. "Should a global citizen not stand up for the oppressed, for the tortured, for those who are being systematically murdered?" In all, we have brought together nearly a dozen writers with perspectives on themes as diverse as fair trade and the Smithsonian's new National Museum of the American Indian. We hope that this, our second issue of the Global Citizen, contributes to the understanding of global citizenship and brings encouragement and intellectual stimulus to all who engage the world through service.
Aaron Ausland Jack Brace
Senior Editor Managing Editor
1Putnam, Robert D., Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy. Princeton N.J. Princeton University Press. 1993.
2Abt Associates, Inc. "Serving Country and Community: A Longitudinal Study of Service in AmeriCorps" Early Findings Executive Summary, Dec. 2004
