Indiana University President Michael A. McRobbie explained what makes IU a global university in his remarks at the third annual America's Role in the World Conference.

"We live, as all of you are acutely aware, in increasingly difficult times, when strident voices would shut us off from the rest of the world just at a time when the need to understand it, engage with it, is at its most acute and urgent," McRobbie said. "American universities must play a central role in combatting xenophobic stereotypes, willful ignorance about the broader world, and calls for isolationism—all of which can result in dire consequences."

McRobbie's remarks opened the "Indiana in the World" panel, which was moderated by IU Bloomington Provost and Executive Vice President Lauren Robel and featured Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson of Gary, Indiana; Blair Milo, secretary of Indiana Career Connections and Talent; Pacers Sports and Entertainment Vice Chairman James T. Morris; and Lumina Foundation President and CEO Jamie Merisotis.

"At Indiana University, we are proud of the leading role we play in the state’s and America’s international engagement," McRobbie said.

Taking the lead in an effort to bring the international community together was a perspective shared by the conference's keynote speaker Samantha Power, former U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations and a Pulitzer Prize winner.

In her talk, Power said the international community can work together to accomplish common goals, but only if countries step forward to lead. 

The America's Role in the World conference is sponsored by the IU School of Global and International Studies and co-convened by two of America's most esteemed voices in foreign policy, former Sen. Dick Lugar and former Rep. Lee Hamilton, both distinguished scholars at the School of Global and International Studies and Presidential Medal of Freedom winners.

Read IU President McRobbie's speech