1604 



undoubted talents of its people in science and technology," ^^^ German 

 technological prowess was still evident in the V-2 ballistic rockets, one 

 of the major achievements in World War II. 



In the main, though, the United States assumed world technological 

 leadership from the close of World War I. From then on, and especially 

 after World War II, the development of international technology 

 centered so heavily on the United States that it seems appropriate to 

 consider its further progress in the section on U.S. Involvement, below. 

 However, some general observations about the growing impact of 

 technology on human affairs, gleaned from the study, may be noted 

 first: 



DIMENSIONS OF THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY ON SOCIETY AND ON 



DIPLOMACY 



Five of the dimensions which characterize the role of technology 

 today are especially noteworthy: its accelerated pace, the size to which 

 its applications may attain, the formidable complexity of some of its 

 more advanced systems, its flourishing variety, and the range and 

 j)ervasiveness of its impacts. 



The pace is everywhere evident in technologically advanced coun- 

 tries: witness, for example, in the United States today, the use by 

 school children of the pocket computer, a device which did not even 

 exist (at least in marketable form) a decade ago. The accelerated 

 pace of technological innovation and change poses problems for 

 diplomacy. It "increases the rate at which international issues, 

 problems, and opportunities arise. It confronts the diplomat with an 

 ever-lengthening agenda, the need for a deeper understanding of the 

 processes of change, and the requirement for a great increase in the 

 orderly flow of exact information concerning its ingredients." "^ 



As to size. "Although historical achievements in technology have 

 sometimes approached heroic proportions (the Pyramids, Roman 

 roads, the Great Wall of China, and the Panama Canal, for example), 

 the size and cost of some of the modern technological systems is quite 

 unprecedented. Most notable are those in the field of military hard- 

 ware, such as . . . the Polaris system, and nuclear test detection sys- 

 tems. Others include spacecraft like the Apollo series, global com- 

 munications networks, air traffic control systems, a global weather 

 forecasting network, the Interstate Highway System, electric power 

 grids, and the complexes of multipurpose dams on the Tennessee and 

 other major rivers." "" Large technological projects of an inherently 

 international character, observes the study, impose added burdens on 

 the diplomat. Problems and benefits must be shared among many 

 nations; acceptance of roles of participation must be negotiated; new 

 mechanisms of diplomacy are required. An illustration from the mid- 

 nineteenth century — one which may seem small-scale today, but which 

 was ambitious enough for the time — is found in the difficult and 

 frustrating, though ultimately successful, efforts of diplomats and 

 scientists from 12 nations to work out an international quarantine 

 convention, as described in The Politics of Global Health.^" Numerous 



in IIihI., p. (;21. 

 "5 ihid., p. (;i:i. 



"6 Ibid., pp. 1113-till. 



"' U.S. f'ongrrsp, Tlonso, ComiTiittop on Forrign Affairs, The Pnlilic/i of Olnhal Health, a study in the 

 snips nn Soionco, TpchnoIoRy, and American Diplomacy prepared for the Subcommittee on National 

 Security T'olicy and Scientific Developments by Freeman TI. Quimby, Science Policy Research Division, 

 Conpressional Research Service, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., U.S. Government Printing 

 Olllc'c, .May I'lTl. See vol. II, pp. r,(»l-(i',)2. " 



