Globalization of Craniofacial Plastic Surgery: Foreign Mission Programs for Cleft Lip and Palate

International Humanitarian Interchanges are a bona fide component of surgery and medicine. Additionally, these programs also provide substantial benefit both to the doers and the recipients. The foreign mission program is potentially a weapon of foreign policy which is underutilized and underestimated. Physician job dissatisfaction is increasing. However, the happiness and satisfaction of the participants in the short-term multidisciplinary trips, repeated, well-organized and respectful, with rather complete integration of the surgical system of the sister countries (“Plan B”), approaches 100%. The theory of the International Humanitarian Interchanges is based on substance, on medical theory. These trips are particularly successful in interchanges with medium-resourced countries. Furthermore, the academic visiting professor (“Plan A”: hi-resource place to hi-resource place), the One Man Can Save the World model (“Plan C”: to the low-resource place), and the intriguing Horton Peace Plan have possibilities for long-term benefit to the doer, recipient, the field of surgery, and the body of knowledge. In all of these, our country and the family of nations advance. The theoretical basis is not always religious nor the grand strategy plan; both have either proselytizing or political dominance as primary motives, and are mentioned as historically helpful.