1843 



accepted procedures for reaching common understanding with other 

 responsible nations, to provide the context for ready solutions to 

 even elementary problems Uke the problem of international hij acking, 

 kidnapping, and terrorism? How can nations do a better job of fore- 

 seeing and heading off the larger "crises of interdependence?" 



Some Questions jor Further Consideration 



This essay has called attention to a djmamic factor in the affairs 

 of mankind which by its very nature has extensive implications for 

 the conduct of diplomacy and, indeed, of all human relations. That 

 factor, expanding interdependence, is not a cause of human problems 

 in the same primary sense that population growth and a shortage 

 (or maldistribution) of resources are causes. Nevertheless, for any 

 given sta/;e of global evolution, it represents a problem in itself — 

 a condition to be dealt with directly with the best insights that the 

 study of anthropology, sociology, and ps3Achology, as well as history 

 and politics, can afford, and the utmost creativeness in social invention,^^ 

 national and international political leadership, and international 

 public administration. 



"The world in which we live is poised uneasily between an era of 

 gieat enterprise and creativity or an age of chaos and despair," 

 declared Secretary Kissinger in his July 14, 1975, address at Mil- 

 waukee on the subject of the United Nations/^* "[We] had better 

 turn our American ingenuity loose on the humanistic management of 

 interdependence — in a world where, as we willed it, nobody is in 

 charge," writes Harlan Cleveland. ^^^ To which Marina v.N. Whitman 

 adds: ". . . the replacement of leadership based on hegemony with 

 leadership based on persuasion and compromise wUl be difficult, 

 perhaps impossible. But this nation was born of an 'impossible' 

 undertaking; and today, as two centuries ago, there is no acceptable 

 alternative." ^^® These three statements would seem to sum up the 

 intricate web of challenges, problems, and outright dilemmas which 

 face U.S. leaders in the executive and legislative branches today. 

 Obviously, there are no easy answers, and many of the questions can- 

 not yet be sharply posed. Some which seem worth raising for congres- 

 sional consideration are presented herebelow: 



QUESTIONS 



What structural and procedural reforms might it be politically 

 feasible and administratively practicable for the U.S. executive branch 

 to adopt in the near future to accommodate the growing needs of 

 interdependence? What further reforms should be planned for the 

 future? 



What reforms should the United States seek to have the United 

 Nations adopt to the same end, now and later? 



»" For a definition of this term see: U.S. Congress. House. Committee on Science and Astronautics. 

 Subcommittee on Science, Research, and Development. Science Policy: A Working Glossary. Prepared for 

 the Subcommittee by the Science Policy Research Division, Congressional Research Service, Library of 

 Congress. Washington, D.C., U.S. Govt. Print. Off., July 1973, pp. 62-63. (Examples of social inventions 

 include parliamentary procedure, mass public education, the census, the land grant university, the coimty 

 agent, retirement pensions, public hygiene, the World Health Organization and other U.N. functional 

 agencies, and the United Nations itself.) 



w* Kissinger, Henry A. "The Global Challenge and International Cooperation." Address at Milwaukee, 

 Wisconsin, July 14, 1975. Printed and circulated by the United Nations Association of the United States 

 of America. New York. 



K« Cleveland, Harlan. "A Leaderless World." Wathinffton Port, May 18, 1975. 



«• Whitman, Marina v.N., "Leadership Without Hegemony: Our Role in the World Economy." Foreign 

 Policy, number 20, fall 1975. p. 160. 



