1767 



were well advanced would have been less injurious than its ur^e to ter- 

 minate a war already drawing to a close. Certainly the achievement 

 of effective and acceptable control of this weapon, now in the hands 

 of six or more countries and threatening to diffuse still further, has 

 become a foremost task of 20th century diplomacy. The basic point 

 is that high technology has the potential for vastly disruptive conse- 

 quences in the relations among nations. If these are not assessed at the 

 outset, they become progressively more intractable. 



CASE two: commercial nuclear power in EUROPE 



How intractable the diplomatic complications of atomic applications 

 have bfconie — even in the peaceful uses of the technology — is demon- 

 strated by this second case. It records the complex history of a series 

 of "deliberate policy decisions" by the United States to foster com- 

 mercial nuclear power in Europe. One reason for this decision was to 

 divert fissionable material away from weaponry. Another was to lessen 

 Europe's dependence on imported fossil fuels. A third was to find 

 markets for U.S. high technology products and services in the field 

 of atomic power. However, in pursuing this policy, the United States 

 has magnified the danger of nuclear proliferation, encouraged external 

 competition with its own exports, accepted a commitment to comply 

 with multilateral control by the United Nations Atomic Energy 

 Agency of the domestic U.S. industry, and set in train a series of 

 actions pointing toward extensive further international controls with- 

 out assurance that all nations possessing nuclear technology will 

 equally accept these obligations. 



CASE TIfREE: THE POLITICAL LEGACY OF THE INTERNATIONAL 



GEOPHYSICAL YEAR 



The most spectacular event of the IGY, and in terms of long-range 

 implications one of its most significant achievements, was a high- 

 technology development : the initiation of the space age through the 

 launching of artificial earth satellites. 



This event, which occurred as an incident in the pursuit of pure 

 science, illustrates how science and technology (especiall}' high 

 technology) may sometimes reinforce each other in a symbiotic 

 relationship. The earth satellite technology was not a result of IGY- 

 connected scientific activities but of earlier scientific discoveries and 

 applications; it was brought into play to assist in meeting new scientific 

 objectives which could not have been reahzed without it; resulting 

 scientific discoveries and the promise of still further discoveries lent 

 force to the further development of space technolog3^ (It was diplo- 

 matic requirements, however, which provided the principal impetus 

 to this further development.) 



Thus, the technological significance of the International Geophysical 

 Year was mainly its spur to high technology in such fields as space 

 exploration rocketry, telemetry, weather observation, and communi- 

 cations satellites. The diplomatic significance of the IGY was mainly 

 in the new prestige of the Soviet Union, and the spur to U.S. scientific 

 and technological efforts, in response to the successful orbital flights 

 of Sputnik satellites. However, Mr. BuUis suggests that additionally 

 the program "engendered unprecedented international cooperation 



