1768 



and good will, at least on. the part of scientists," and he quotes Dr. 

 Wallace Atvvood as asserting that it "further demonstrated the signif- 

 icance of scientific factors in formulating and executing foreign policy." 

 Furthermore, Bullis provides suggestive evidence that there was some 

 causal relationship between the IGY and several subsequent treaties 

 dealing wdth the control or international use of such high technology 

 artifacts as space vehicles and atomic weaponry. 



CASE four: the MEKONG PROJECT 



This study is described in a forcM ord by Chairman Zablocki of the 

 vSubcommittee on National Security' Pohcy and Scientific Develop- 

 ments as a "case study of how science and technology can be utilized 

 as an alternative to tlie tragic and bitter conflict which has engulfed 

 Southeast Asia for so man}^ years." It discusses a "technique for 

 applying science and technology systematically to a multinational 

 region." The scope of the technique is uncommonly broad, but as the 

 following introductory statement of the study clearly shows, the 

 backbone of systematic development in a lagging (or "developing") 

 region is mainly but not exclusively basic or "low" technology: 



Development of a country is inherently a process of technological application 

 toward an economic result. Regionalism — or more precisely, regional develop- 

 ment — introduces the idea of a system within which technology is applied more 

 coherently to a geographic unit than to a political unit. The technological system 

 requires, first of all, an intensive application of science. The scientific base of a 

 regional development scheme, of which the Mekong Lower Basin Project is here 

 the prototype, involves an enormous range of research disciplines: meteorology, 

 soil chemistry, biomedicine, forestry, plant genetics, sociolog}^, anthropology, 

 marine biology, entomology, and geology, to mention only a few. The technology 

 and engineering base of such a regional development scheme is similarly broad. It 

 encompasses hydraulics, electric power, flood control, electronic communications, 

 computer modeling, electrical industries, large demonstration farms, highway and 

 bridge construction, fish and agricultural food processing, and many more fields of 

 technological applications.*"" 



Both high and low technology play a role in the planning for regional 

 management of a great river watershed. Use of satellite surveys of 

 land, water, mineral, forest, and crops is one possibility. Computer 

 and microwave management of flood control and river flow is another. 

 But the predominant form of technological activity would be areas 

 classed as "low." 



One factor in the preference for low technology in regional develop- 

 ment is the general desirability of enlisting the active participation of 

 the inhabitants of the region in both planning and execution of the 

 project. The rewards to the region from training its people in the use of 

 nuclear power, aerospace, and other high technologies would be negligible 

 and would tend to create a technological elite out of touch with the 

 rest of the population. The cost-eiTectiveness of many expensive items 

 of high technology would be suspect, and the infrastructure necessary 

 for its successful employment would require further intervention of 

 outside specialists. 



Indeed, one of the great achievements of the United States in 

 agricultural technology was the county agent and agricultural experi- 

 ment station system for transferring technology to using farmers. In 

 a developing region it is necessary that the technology to be invoked 



*'»> Huddle, Mekong Project. Vol. 1, p. 365. 



