Foreword

• Author: Hertha Kraus
• Published date: 01 May 1960
• Date: 01 May 1960
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/000271626032900101
• Subject Matter: Articles

FOREWORD
This volume of THE ANNALS * was planned to inform interested readers about
the current expansion of an area in international co-operation, as yet little known,
and quite often seen in a rather limited perspective. American and international
agencies have often solicited financial contributions so that they might provide
help for victims of war, persecution, famine, and other catastrophes. We have
thus become familiar with international relief activities designed to meet the mini-
mum
necessities for sheer survival. In a deeply disturbed world, harboring many
pockets of intense human suffering, the need for such aid created by local emer-
gency conditions and special pressures still exists.
In recent years, however, extending beyond this limited concept and traditional
administration of international aid, there has developed an increasingly vigorous
and inspired international movement-a beginning of concerted social action to-
ward new long-range goals: a higher level of human welfare, a lesser degree of
human wastage.
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Across cultural, economic, and political boundaries, we have started to build
a new pattern of sustained interaction, involving many levels of government, many
types of agencies both national and international, and focusing on major social
problems as they affect the common man. Thus, in an era of great instability and
serious tensions, we also witness the slow unfolding of a new ethic of mutual aid
expressed in a truly international exploration of policies and the development of
programs which may eventually produce a higher level of living, more human
satisfactions, and greater human opportunity everywhere.
Many different channels and relationships have been built to translate such novel
objectives into operational programs. A wide range of methods and techniques
are being tested: Civic participation technical competence; development of leader-
ship on the grass roots level at every level in co-operative undertakings; fitting na-
...