Despite the generally bad global news presented by major media, hopeful trends are brewing.  A new global awareness is summoning forth an unprecedented response to human need and suffering.  Twenty-five years ago, government aid accounted for 70 percent of all American outflows; today 85 percent of all outflows of resources come from private individuals, businesses, religious congregations, universities, and immigrant communities.

In his new book, The Rise of Global Civil Society, Don Eberly presents an overview of these forces now shaping the global debate.  He predicts that the twenty-first century will see more social entrepreneurship, private philanthropy, public-private partnerships, and grass-roots linkages involving religious and civic communities.  The key to meeting development challenges in the future will be to harness the best of both the public and the private sector so as to foster experimentation with approaches that rely on markets and on civil society, and that engage the poor as partners.

Compassion is America's most consequential export, argues Eberly.  Civil society, once the distinctive characteristic of American democracy, is now advancing across the globe, carrying with it new forms of philanthropy, citizenship, and volunteerism - forming the seedbed for a long-term cultivation of democratic norms.

Don Eberly is a former White House advisor with over 25 years combined experience in public policy and government service.  He has served in senior positions at the United States Agency for International Development and State Department, including a term as a senior advisor in Baghdad.