The globalization trend has brought forth a highly interdependent and interconnected world, in which face to face or via Internet interactions for people from different cultural backgrounds have become a norm of daily life. Intercultural communication competence, or the ability to interact appropriately and effectively with people of differing cultures in order to achieve communication goals, therefore becomes a prerequisite for people in the 21st century to live successfully and productively and further establish a peaceful and harmonious global community. This book is about intercultural communication competence. 

　The first part of this book is my doctoral dissertation, entitled "Dimensions of Intercultural Communication Competence," which received the 1987 outstanding dissertation award from the International and Intercultural Communication Division of Speech Communication Association (now the National Communication Association). Although the dissertation was published more than two decades ago, it is still worth publishing because the problems raised in the study are still unresolved and demand even more attention due to the impact of globalization on human society.

　The second part of this book includes three chapters. The first chapter reflects the major part of the dissertation in the first part. The second chapter attempts to integrate the studies of intercultural communication competence into a more systemic picture ten years after the publication of the dissertation. The third chapter represents the author's endeavor to apply the concept of intercultural communication competence into the global context 20 years after the dissertation was published. The three chapters together illustrate the historical or vertical development and contextual or horizontal expansion of the study of intercultural communication competence. 

　Finally, I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to my advisor, Dr. Rebecca B. Rubin, for all her help throughout the development and completion of the dissertation. I would also like to express my appreciation to the members of the dissertation committee, Drs. Gerard Kennedy, D. Ray Heisey, and Dominic Infante, for their valuable contributions to this study. I dedicate the dissertation to my parents and my wife. Their unswerving and boundless support helped me to make it happen. Lastly, my gratitude is extended to my coauthor, Professor William J. Starosta, of the second chapter in Part II. 

GuoMing Chen
March, 2010
University of Rhode Island & 
South China University of Technology