1603 



The profound influence that technological change has had in the past, and 

 promises to have for the future, implies the need for a strong corps of diplomats 

 trained to anticipate and prepare for the direct and indirect impacts of technology 

 on diplomatic concerns . . . " '°^ 



Diplomacy, the study continued, deals with problems between 

 sovereign nations and with the common concerns of members of the 

 world community of nations. "The objective of diplomacy is to re- 

 concile or resolve issues and establish agreements to advance the 

 national interest in a constantly changing world. Changes within the 

 jurisdiction of each member of the world community alter its relations 

 with others. No source of change is more potent than an alteration 

 in a nation's technological condition." 



It produces changes of many kinds at many levels of impacts and interactions: 

 military, commercial, cultural, political, and scientific; these changes involve 

 many agencies of government, the academic world, private business, and the 

 public at large. Familiarity with technology, and with the nature of its impacts, 

 is thus an indispensable tool of the diplomat. Moreover, the skill with which a 

 nation manages and advances its own technology contributes to the status of its 

 diplomats, and to the options with which they can negotiate. In both senses, 

 national technology confers diplomatic power.^"' 



TECHNOLOGY AS A PRIMARY SOURCE OF NATIONAL POWER 



But the point can be made even more strongly: ". . . technology 

 is a 'primary source of national power and diplomatic influence." "° 

 (Emphasis added.) 



The story of how technology has progressively aflfected human 

 civilization is too long, and too familiar, to be retold here. The reader 

 interested in detail is referred to The Evolution of International Tech- 

 nology or — since even this is a highly abbreviated account — to the 

 definitive treatment contained in the five-volume work, A History of 

 Technology }^^ The following account is limited to a few reminders of 

 the history of the past century: 



"Early in the industrial revolution, a race began for both overseas markets 

 for manufactured goods and supplies of needed raw materiaLs. In this race the 

 process was one of commercial penetration, followed by military enforcement 

 of commercial rights." "' 



From the close of the Napoleonic Wars to the latter part of the 19th 

 century, England was technologically and industrially the dominant 

 nation of the world. Between 1870 and 1895, Germany surpassed 

 England and assumed world technological leadership. "On the eve of 

 World War I, Germany's energy showed itself in many ways: in 

 ambitious plans for a railroad line to the Middle East, construction 

 of a modern war fleet, development of African colonies, and the 

 prospect of hegemony over the European continent. When the war 

 broke out, Germany's superior technology very nearly enabled her to 

 overmatch the combination of England, France, Italy, and Russia." "^ 



So strong was the emphasis in German education on technological 

 skills and innovation that even after defeat in 1918, followed by two 

 decades of social upheavals, inflation, political instability, and finally 

 "a dictatorship too erratic in its concepts to exploit systematically the 



m* Huddle, The J-Joliilion of Intirnalional T<ckiH)lo<m. vol. il, p. lill. 

 ■09 Ibid., p. t)12. 

 im Hiid.. J). (il!i. 



"1 Chaiifs SiiiRcr, E. .7. Ilolmyard, A. U. Hall, and Trevor J. Williams, eds., A History of T(Chnolo(jij, 

 Now York, Oxford I'nivcrsity Press. I'.i.'iS, 1011 i)apes, L'lO plalcs. 

 "-'Huddle, 'I'ht l-joliilion ol luUnintioiinl 'l'(cliiiolo(nj. vol. II, p. (i2(). 

 "3 /(yid., pp. (■,20-(i21. 



