The Global Village Green affords University of Iowa students and faculty an efficient and continuing vehicle for cooperative research with peers in other countries. The project takes the concept of internationalization beyond abstract and artificial discussion and seeks to engage students in live embodiments of the global exchange. 

Using e-mail, the web, and teleconferencing, repeated topics, such as capital punishment, and emerging world issues, such as church/state relations, privacy from governmental surveillance, and international security, are investigated at several sites, with results presented and discussed in a form of global commons.  Past waves of research among Icelandic, Romanian, and University of Iowa collaborators have displayed stark differences among countries in views on punishment of crime, safety of financial records, and perceptions of security in the current world order.  For example, Icelanders presently feel the least national and international threats to their security, Romanians second, and U.S. students the most. 

Such research and the provocative exchanges over the results will be extended in an enlarged network with students and faculty from Kenya, Turkey, and China.  The network exposes University of Iowa students to diverse cultures; and the project allows unusual and precious international contacts to our global partners and interlocutors.