1812 



ceptive analj^sis but also for the fact that (while not an official view) 

 it resulted from a State Department initiative was Prof. Lincoln R. 

 Bloomfield's article, "Toward a Strategy of Interdependence," 

 published by the State Department Bureau of Public Affairs as a 30- 

 page Special Report (No. 17, July lOTS).*^^ 



A wider selection of recent statements on the theme of interdepend- 

 ence might include such examples as the following: 



— President Gerald R. Ford's nationally televised "State of the 

 World" address of April 10, 1975, in which he characterized 

 technology as presenting "a vast new agenda of issues in an 

 interdependent world." 



— Numerous references in the press. On September 3, 1975, for 

 instance, the Washington Post observed editorially that "It is 

 comforting to think of a world in which all nations recognize that 

 both necessity and civility commit them to policies of interde- 

 pendence. But domestic political considerations and national 

 economic and political interests regularly cut across the impera- 

 tives of interdependence." *^^ (In another editorial, 4 days 

 later, the Post referred to "the new interdependence that the IMF 

 [the International Monetary Fund, meeting. in Washington the 

 previous weekl convened here to discuss.") **^ On July 3, 1975, the 

 Grinnell [Iowa] Herald-Register printed a report by its managing 

 editor on a conference on international problems he had attended 

 in June, in which a Canadian participant had said that "the U.S. 

 needs to refresh its views of other countries' views . . . interde- 

 pendence does not necessarily lead to cooperation." *^* 



— The statement by Dr. Edmundo de Alba, Scientific Coun- 

 selor, Mexican Embass}^ at the August 1974 conference at 

 Henniker, New Hampshire, on National Materials Policy Re- 

 quirements: "No country in the complex technological world of 

 the present day is completely self-sufficient in the raw materials 

 consumed by its people. Even the so-called 'supplier' countries 

 in their turn need materials from other countries. This interlinking 

 of availabilities and necessities is the most profound reason to 

 mount an effort to resolve the problem of world materials supply 

 by interdependence within international justice." *^^ 



<5i The article summarized portions of a 4-volume study. Analyzing Global Interdependence. The study 

 was the product of a year-long inquiry that the State Department, through its external research program, 

 had cominissiop.ed the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to conduct. It was prepared by Professors 

 Ilaj^-ard R. Alker, Jr., Lincoln P. Bloomfield. and Nazli Chbucri. In "Toward a Strategy of Interdepend- 

 ence" Blooiafield distinguishes among the main kinds of interdependence {environmental, security, and 

 econoiTiic) and examines interdependence separately as "fact," as "good," as "bad," as determined partly 

 by how it is perceived, and as balanced or unbalanced. Unbalanced or asymmetrical interdependence, he 

 emphiisizfis, is dysfunctional — the more so as it is perceived to be unbalanced. Bloomfield goes on to discuss 

 the requirements and implications of a U.S. "interdepeudence strategy." The first element in an effective 

 interd'pendence strategy for the United States, he contends, is "a program of modest 'decoupling' of tiiose 

 interdependent liiiks which threaten to create excessive strain through excessive 'presence' " — economic, 

 both governmental and commercial, as well as military. A second element is increasing as rapidly as possible 

 the number and complexity of links between the United States and the principal oil-producing exporters. 

 A third involves applying to alliance relationships "the insights gained from analyzhig the psychological 

 aspects of dependencies." Finally, many security, economic, and environmental functions traditionally 

 man;iged on a national ba.sis can no longer lie confined by national boundaries; collective management is 

 inescapable. Bloomfield adds that all contemporary governments are inadequately organized to deal effec- 

 tively with contemporary problems, and that, in the case of the United States, "there should be a strongly 

 enhanced capacity to perform 'cross-sector' analysis of interdependence issues; this entails . . . fadding] an 

 improved capabilit\' to the Department of State, and the Executive Branch generally, for anticipating 

 crises and insurinsr that the foreign i)oli'-v system is better organized for the loug pull." 



<« Waslihinton Pout eflitoria', "A World Economic Order." Sept. 3, 197.5. 



«i Waf'iUustoi) Po.1t editorial, "A Recession Abroad," Sept. 7, 1075. 



«■< Pinrier, A. .1. Report on Wilton Park I\' Conference, sponson d by the American Friends of Wilton 

 Park and held at.the Wingsiiread conference center, Racine, Wisconsin. 



*''■'' U.S. Congress. Oflice of Technology Assessment, ReiiuircmtulH for Fulfilling a National Materials 

 Policii: Procceiina^ofa Conference OrQani:eihij the Federations of Matcriah Societio' for t tie Oifice of Technology 

 As.ies.iiiii7}t, Ancust 11-16, l!)7t. Edited bv Franklin I'. Huddle, Congressional Research Service, Library 

 of Congress; Foreword by Kmilio Q. Daddario, Director, OlRce of Technology Assessment. Published by 

 arrangement of the American Society for Metals, 1975, 194 pp. (p. 84.) 



