According to Lionel Beechner, formerly a senior writer at the Council on Foreign Relations, "Americans today are embracing world affairs, and international news coverage is picking up and feeding on the trend—looking to broaden a growing audience" (USA Today, July 10, 2008).

From 2000 to 2006 there was a 200 percent increase in applications for foreign service in the United States . And from 1993 to the present, Americans have doubled their readership of The Economist, a British weekly newsmagazine covering international affairs. Beechner concludes: "It took a few wars and wobbly oil markets for us to learn that, as the song goes, it's a small world after all."

If you'd like to better understand what is happening around the world and why, request a free subscription to our sister magazine World News and Prophecy. (Source: USA Today.)