As U.S. firms move more and more manufacturing, customer support, and now software development jobs to lower-cost countries, outsourcing has become one of today's most controversial business trends.

Lost in the debate is a related idea that could be far more vital to future competitiveness: insourcing. As I use the term, this is the practice of opening operations in foreign countries, not to do current jobs more cheaply, but to generate new products and services that spur growth and create jobs. I'm particularly interested in research-and-development insourcing where firms insource foreign talent by creating labs in other countries. And a prime example of how to do this effectively can be found in this month's cover story, "The World's Hottest Computer Lab," about Microsoft's fast-growing Beijing research center.