1834 



It would be difficult, the study implies, to exaggerate the importance 

 of the interrelated problems of food and population, and the challenge 

 which they present to diplomacy — or the difficulty of seizing the 

 problem : 



Clearly, the two global tasks of producing enough but not too much food to 

 feed the world's population, and providing incentives and means for the world's 

 population to hold itself within reasonable bounds, are a tremendous challenge 

 for modern diplomacy. The rewards of success are less impressive than the terrible 

 consequences of failure. There is a regrettable tendency on the part of mankind 

 to respond eagerly to rewarding opportunities, but to ignore the prospect of 

 misfortune and delay action to avert it until convinced of its reality by its actual 

 onset."'" 



Is the food/population balance receiving the kind of attention on 

 the part of the U.S. Government, the United Nations, and the 

 other individual nations of the world which a problem of this 

 magnitude demands? Certainly concern is more widespread than at 

 any previous period in history, and it is a key consideration in current 

 U.S. aid to developing countries. Although two world conferences, 

 one on population and the other on food, were held under United 

 Nations auspices in 1974, measures undertaken to date have barely 

 touched the edge of the problem. New approaches may be called for. 

 How can individual countries be persuaded to accept the need for 

 worldwide, interdependent action in setting population and food 

 production and distribution goals in such a way as to benefit all? 

 What additional data and analyses of future demographic problems 

 in different areas could be furnished to all countries as a United 

 Nations service? 



How far might it be feasible to go toward estabUshing U.N. food/ 

 population planning and advisory facilities? Would a regional ap- 

 proach to population planning, in conjunction with food production 

 and distribution measures, help avoid some of the pitfalls of either 

 bilateral assistance or U.N. planning on a worldwide scale? Are there 

 bold and farsighted initiatives which the United States could take 

 now in addressmg this paramount problem? 



ISSUE four: U.S. scientists abroad 



The relationship of scientific exchange to global interdependence is 

 implicit throughout this study,^'^ and occasionally explicit in particular 

 connections: e.g., in mention of bilateral agreements with the Soviet 

 Union and the countries of Eastern Europe as serving both science 

 and diplomacy "by forging continuing working relationships and a 

 degree of interdependence between the citizens of ideologically 

 disparate states." *'^ 



In hearings before the House Committee on Science and Astro- 

 nautics, Subcommittee on International Cooperation in Science and 

 Space, in May 1971, Herman Pollack (speaking as director of what 

 was then the Bureau of International Scientific and Technological 

 Affairs of the Department of State) cited the following as among the 



»i« Ibid. 



•" Knezo, U.S. Scientitti Abroad: An Examination of Major Programt for Nongovernmental Scientific 



Exchange, vol. II, pp. 865-1035. 

 512 Ibid., p. 873. 



