The Aspen Institute formed a National Commission on Coping with Interdependence to investigate the capacity of Americans to cope with interdependence and consider how that capacity can be enhanced. This paper responds to two questions: to what extent do our existing institutions perceive the predicament, analyze its implications, and act in accordance with that analysis; and what new attitudes and arrangements may be required to enhance the capacity of Americans to cope with interdependence. It was found that the capacity of American education is limited by a lack of political consensus, the complex character of many interdependence issues, and the nature of the educational enterprise. Other problems are the constitutional incongruity that public education is a state and local responsibility while most interdependence issues are perceived as national concerns, decentralization of education makes educational change difficult to introduce, education is only one of many means to inform the public, and some embedded cultural views exist that inhibit efforts. Thus, a sustained effort to bring about a new and expanded civic literacy on interdependence issues is required. This effort involves strategy development, policy support, development of a stronger knowledge base, analysis of embedded cultural views, strengthening of existing cooperation activities, and assistance from the educational community for the mass media. (ND)