The Future of the Peace Corps

In: The annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Band 365, Heft 1, S. 129-146

Abstract

Beginning as a quantum jump, the Peace Corps faces a crisis of growth. Will it choose consolidation or another quantum jump? It also faces a crisis of skills. Will it be able to recruit the more experienced, higher-skilled personnel needed by the host countries? Starting as a token venture, which few took seriously, the Peace Corps now faces large responsibilities. It is participating in institution—building—in nation-building— on a large scale. It needs to become more professional and more effective, to be seen as a central part of America's over seas education and development programs, and to be integrated with those programs. It needs to find its context in the larger systems it serves: American education and politics, overseas governments and peoples, and international education and de velopment. A 1970 Peace Corps is described—doubled in size and improved in quality: Volunteering is part of a new defini tion of citizenship; Peace Corps service is an integral part of higher education. The flow of Volunteers begins in high school, widens in our colleges and universities, and extends beyond the Peace Corps into new overseas careers. The Peace Corps itself is a kind of university in dispersion.