Bhutan is a "small state" according to the World Bank, and therefore categorized as fragile and vulnerable to local and global challenges. However, since the 1960s, when the country first engaged in "modernization" development and global politics, Bhutan has been anything but fragile and helpless. The Royal Government's focus…

Sustainability strategies are closely tied to the logic of the donor in every institution. Philanthropies that are set up with a limited time-span tend to scale up their impact differently. The educational programs of the Open Society Institute, for example, prioritize institutionalization over any other sustainability strategy. This is how it…

The NGO boom of the 1990s was matched by mounting literature on the influence of NGOs on world politics. The 1998 inaugural issue of "Current Issues in Comparative Education" ("CICE")--"Are NGOs Overrated?"--brought these debates into the very center of international and comparative education. The journal issue inspired a fascinating conversation…

This article provides a brief history of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES). The CIES, initially the Comparative Education Society (CES), evolved from annual conferences at New York University begun in 1954 by William W. Brickman. CES was founded at the close of a subsequent conference (April 27, 1956), with Brickman as…

UNESCO defines education for sustainable development (ESD) as covering a broad range of issues from natural resources and HIV/AIDS to poverty reduction. ESD thus becomes a term that must be subtle yet clear, holistic yet tangible. One option for ESD, in dealing with this complexity, is to simplify its content and narrow the issues it addresses.…

The Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) has, throughout its 50 years of existence, exercised leadership in the field of comparative education. It was one of the five societies that founded the World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES) in 1970, an umbrella body that by 2006 brought together 35 national,…

The authors contend that the impact of the Cold War on multilateral organizations (especially UNESCO) as well as on the academic programs in Comparative and International Education or Development Studies in Education has been largely understudied. Both world-systems (USA and its allies, Soviet Union and its allies) laid claim on the project of…