HOW WE STARTED:

This umbrella organization was established in 1997 under the auspices of the University of New Mexico's Provost, the University of New Mexico's College of Arts and Sciences and affiliated departments, and the Division of Continuing Education.

Other colleges and agencies at the University of New Mexico (UNM), the community of New Mexico, educational and private organizations from other states, was well as countries and universities along the Camino Real in North and Latin America are cooperating in this intercontinental effort to bring programs and supporting academic, cultural and humanitarian ties to the other shores of the Atlantic.

The University of New Mexico has maintained international programs and services for many decades and has focused the task of research and learning in various specialized areas. Firstly, in the realm of Latin America, but also in Asia, Africa, Australia, and Oceania. Contact with Europe has been, more often than not, limited to single persons or small groups who had to pay the bulk of their travel expenses.

With the opening of the Iron Curtain, including the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, it became advisable for ALL societies of the world to adjust to the current political, cultural, economic and social concepts that should be reflected in current academic curricula. Welcomed by most on either side of the Atlantic and worldwide, these changes have also overwhelmed many countries by the accompanying speed required for their implementation. This phenomenon has not spared the academic community and its offerings; thus, many academic fields have not yet reacted fully to these new expectations. In addition, due to new technologies, such as the internet, the world has become more communicative and does not exclude even the most remote corner of the globe, let alone such vital areas as Europe and Africa.

In 1997, during the celebrations commemorating Fifty Years of the Marshall Plan, more public attention on both sides of the Atlantic was paid to transatlantic activities than previously recorded. The Marshall Plan mandated that an equal market to the United States be created in order for trade and commerce to flourish and prosper across the Atlantic. This noble, pragmatic plan required European recipients of American money to support democratic processes and eventually unite their states. In recent decades, Europe has indeed emerged as a continent of democracies, fifteen of which have joined state-like efforts to form the European Union. Now is truly a time to think globally.

During this last half-century, former European colonial powers have asked the members of the European Union to invite many of their former colonies as associate members to this union. Many African countries have become partners in this concept. Before long, the fifteen present members of the European Union, planned over the next few years, will move even more closely together as they have established a common currency and other joint regulations. Furthermore, additional European countries will receive membership within this commonwealth of Europe. The United States will not just be asked to bolster this new force; but, will be expected to do so. Yet, their response will go beyond the military purview of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) into the realm of economics, culture and, not least of all, academics and education.

In response to this European emergence, North America has attempted to form its own association within NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement. This recently formed association falls into step with New Mexico's own perception of strong Anglo-American and Latin-American ties, as documented by UNM's charta as the University for the Americas. Suitably, the new era calls for constant peaceful travel across the Atlantic and meaningfully demands the building of allegorical bridges by telephone, fax, e-mail and the internet.

The stimulating experience of personal travel must not be overlooked here. It would be wiser and more effective to pay attention to the development of all these options simultaneously for the benefits of students, faculty, administration and the community.