Washington

More than 8,000 educators from all corners of the globe gathered here last week in Washington for the 60th Annual Conference of NAFSA: Association of International Educators. The conference was punctuated by a plenary address by Yale University Law Professor Amy Chua, who delivered a riveting address focused on her premise that the few “hyperpowers” in world history were only able to rise to unmatched economic, cultural and military dominance when their societies were diverse and tolerant.

“For all their enormous differences, every hyperpower in history was strikingly tolerant and pluralistic during its rise to preeminence, at least judged by the standards of the time. Indeed, in every case, tolerance was indispensable to the achievement of global hegemony,” Chua said.

In making her case, Chua said the series of countries that rose above superpower status to achieve hyperpower status relied on a diverse population to maintain their dominance and thrive. Chua cited the political maneuverings of Mongol Empire ruler Genghis Kahn, who made sure to carefully utilize the technological sophistication of conquered nations to bring the Mongols, a nomadic people, to dominance.

To a greater extent, Chua said Rome took the concept of fully embracing the diversity of conquered people to a new level, placing an egalitarian stamp of the title of Roman citizen, allowing foreigners to hold high political office — even rising to emperor.

In explaining the general conclusion of her diversity/world dominance thesis, as express in her book titled, “Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance — and Why They Fall,” Chua added, “The decline of hyperpowers has repeatedly coincided with intolerance and xenophobia.”

Additionally, Iraq’s, National Security Advisor Mowaffak al-Rubaie unveiled a new Iraqi Education Initiative, which aims to bolster all levels of education in Iraq and send 7,000 Iraqi students each year for five years to study abroad.