INTERNATIONALIZING GRADUATE STUDENT PROGRAMS: THE GLOBAL CONSORTIUM FOR INTERNATIONAL FAMILY STUDIES Yan Ruth Xia, John DeFrain, Sylvia M. Asay, Richard Bischoff, Penny Crofts, Neela Dabir, Xiaoyan Han, Deborah Hartman, Julie Johnson, Lina Kashyap, Eleni Kassapi, Theodora Kaldi-Koulikidou, Marjorie Kostelnik, Sun Wha Ok, Devi Prasad, Magda Tsolaki, Anqi Xu, Fuming Zheng Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies College of Education and Human Sciences University of Nebraska-Lincoln, NE 68588-0236, U.S.A. Today there is great hope that international efforts will prove to be fruitful and bring together a divided and conflicted world. <...> Simultaneously, there also is genuine fear — based on a global history of seemingly interminable conflict among disparate peoples — that we will never be able to bridge the significant cultural divisions that remain. <...> More than 27,000 family members in 38 countries have participated in these studies. <...> We will also show how these efforts have culminated in a study that uncovered not only family strengths but also community strengths and cultural strengths from a global perspective. <...> The most remarkable finding from this global study uniting researchers in 18 countries in all 7 of the world’s most prominent geocultural areas is the finding that family strengths, community strengths, and cultural strengths are remarkably similar from culture to culture (DeFrain & Asay, 2007). <...> And, families sometimes have the problems of the world — war, 171 Вестник РУДН, серия Философия, 2013, № 3 environmental disaster, civil disorder and collapse — the problems of the world sometimes thrust themselves upon families. <...> Finally, we believe that strong families help to create strong communities and nations; and that strong nations and communities help to build strong families. <...> The similarities that are found in research with families globally point to a set of qualities that describe the characteristics of strong families. <...> Family Studies Family Studies is a recognised field of study in ‘applied issues related to relationships’ and the integration of ‘theory, research and practice’ (Olson & DeFrain, 2003, p. 69). <...> Intercultural curriculum is a component of a broader trend towards internationalization <...>