The growing participation of the United States in international affairs has not been accompanied by a proportionate increase in the number of American foreign-area specialists and has revealed serious gaps in America's store of knowledge about many regions of the world. The Foundation's Overseas Training and Research Program is aimed at reducing these deficiencies through fellowships and by grants in support of foreign-area research projects and institutions. The program, on which the Foundation has been advised by its Board on Overseas Training and Research, includes African and Slavic as well as Asian and Near Eastern countries.

In 1953, fellowships were granted by the Foundation to 104 young Americans for studies, at home or abroad, relating to countries in Asia and the Near East. Twenty-five fellowships were for studies on the Far East; fifty-one on South and Southeast Asia, and twenty-eight on the Near and