As the nation enters its third cenury and as the 20th century draws to a close, Americans find themselves facing problems of unprecedented complexity and magnitude—critically short supplies of energy, the population explosion, the clash between the developed and undeveloped nations, and, most of all, the proliferation of atomic weapons which could destroy the civilization man has worked so long to build. The place of a university in resolving these problems is paramount, as J. Harvie Wilkinson III concludes with convincing clarity. Thus, at least with respect to universities, the future requires something very different from the years of turmoil from which campus life has only recently emerged. An Associate Professor of Law at the University of Virginia, Mr. Wilkinson was appointed to the Board of Visitors of that institution while still in its law school, becoming the youngest member ever to serve on this group. Last year he was recipient of the first annual Alumni Board of Trustees Teaching Award as the outstanding young classroom teacher at Virginia. The author of two books and numerous articles, primarily on constitutional law, Mr. Wilkinson began pondering the future role of the American university while "having to make a career decision whether to teach or practice law." A native of Richmond, Va., he received his under-graduate degree from Yale University, where, under the direction of noted historian C. Vann Woodward, he wrote a thesis that subsequently became his first book, Harry Byrd and the Changing Face of Virginia Politics, 1945—1966.

An important aspect of a university's role—the teaching of international relations—is examined by diplomat and scholar Louis J. Halle. As a practitioner of international relations, Mr. Halle spent many years in the U. S. State Department. Since 1956 he has been professor at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland. He has written a number of books of political philosophy and history, but his principal work is the large philosophical study called Out of Chaps that Houghton Mifflin is publishing this spring. He says of his article in the present issue that it represents one of the rare occasions on which he has written anything with a message. The message arises out of his belief that the academic world is failing to provide such understanding of international relations as society needs if disaster is to be avoided.