1680 



Inasmuch as technological problems which resist ready resolution tend to lurk 

 rather than loom and, as the example of the auto testifies, often make deferred 

 rather than early debuts, the alarm is seldom sounded before the crisis [reaches a] 

 climax. There is no evidence that the psychology residing [in the State Depart- 

 ment] departs the norm. Secondly, where "State" is concerned, there seems to 

 be a concerted psychology which treats science and technology more as incidental 

 or adjunctive to diplomacy than as frequently a decisive factor. . . . 



Not even the oil situation has overpowered the regnant myth that technological 

 traumas of international magnitude are basically political. . . . [Diplomats] seem 

 not as yet to have begun to apprehend the extent to which the techno-tail wags 

 the diplo-dog. 



Robinson concludes that any restructuring of the State Department 

 to accommodate science and technology will be superficial without a 

 fundamental change in this entrenched attitude: science and tech- 

 nology have been, as he expresses it, "ushered into discreet quarantine 

 in a nursery soothingly tagged 'The Bureau of Oceans and Inter- 

 national Environmental and Scientific Affairs.' " "^ 



Importance oj the Issue 



It is a matter of stark reality that success in managing the inter- 

 action among science, technology, and diplomacy may spell the 

 difference between peace and war. "The conduct of diplomacy involves 

 a balancing of competition and cooperation, of competing national 

 aspirations and shared international concerns. To the extent that the 

 balance tilts toward international cooperation the prospect is one of 

 peace; a tilt in the other direction leads to the prospect of tension 

 and conflict." ^*° Although, as the study notes, this statement is an 

 oversimplification of a complex process — competition in many areas 

 of human activity, like trade, athletics, and even scientific or other 

 scholarly achievement, implies a larger context of cooperation and 

 agreed rules of the game among competitors — it remains essentially 

 valid. 



It is common knowledge today, a generation after the first unleash- 

 ing of nuclear power, that effective international control of nuclear 

 technology in its peaceful as well as its military applications may be 

 central to human survival. But the impacts of science and technology 

 are not limited to the growing business of avoiding holocaust; they 

 extend pervasively and often constructively into many areas of every- 

 day experience. The study lists a few of the functions or fields m 

 which they have begun to affect people in all parts of the world and 

 have brought about many changes in relationships among States: 



— Instant communication and visual reports at great distances; 

 — Unlimited recording and rapid manipulation of data; 

 — Photographic surveys of the total area of the Earth; 



" " 9 



• • • • • • • 



— Global weather prediction; 



— Cheap synthetic substitutes for many cash crops; 



— Chemicals and drugs with global social and environmental impacts; and 



— Massive and rapid air transportation.^" 



2" Edgar S. Robinson, Professor of Government, American University, to Franklin P. Huddle, July 25, 

 1975: "Notes on Science and Technology in the DepaHrnent of State." 

 2*0 Huddle, SciLjice and Technology in the Department of State, Vol. II, p. 1326. 

 2" Ibid., p. 1325. 



