1643 



decades. A number of these arrangements were made in the immediate 

 post- World War II period ; some were established as a response to the 

 launching of Sputnik in October 1957; but most are of more recent 

 origin "reflecting current trends toward relaxation of mternational 

 tensions and broader understanding of the benefits to science and 

 society of cooperative international science." ^^^ Today, the Govern- 

 ment "maintains a vast array of programs with varying origins and 

 purposes. Americans are sent abroad for information exchange and 

 the advancement of scientific knowledge; to meet goals of prestige; to 

 support the development of a science infrastructure in the developing 

 countries; and to meet the terms of bilateral and multilateral agree- 

 ments for cooperation — agreements which serve both science and 

 foreign policy goals. Scientific and technical exchanges are the largest 

 part of U.S.-sponsored exchange programs." "'' 



The general assumption of the study is that international scientific 

 exchanges are beneficial. The emphasis on critical analysis of the 

 ongoing programs and identification of weaknesses and flaws in their 

 execution should not obscure their merits. A few examples of these 

 positive values might include — 



Providing a basis for comparison of United States and foreign 

 science ; 



Enabhng the tapping of small pools of high competence in 

 speciaHzed fields of science abroad, sometimes surpassing the 

 levels of U.S. achievement; 



Supporting the international bridging function of science; 

 Extending the reach of U.S. science; 



Training future candidates for posts as U.S. scientific and 

 technological attaches; 



Familiarizing young scientists with the reality of the world 

 scientific community; 



Providing a future basis for a two-way transfer of technology; 

 and 



More generally, broadening the technical and cultural experi- 

 ence of the participants. 

 It is evident that international scientific exchanges contain these 

 potential benefits. The intent of the study was to suggest ways in which 

 these benefits might be more positively sought, and to indicate that 

 program designs require a solid foundation of factual information for 

 their evaluation and improvement. 



Statement of the Issue 



Administrative inadequacies in most of these programs make it 

 difficult to evaluate their effectiveness and accomplishments. In 

 general, they suffer from inadequate direction, coordination, and 

 review. Both direction and review are hampered by lack of a clearly 

 defined U.S. Government set of international science policies. Instead, 

 the State Department issues detailed, somewhat random lists of 

 political, security, economic, scientific and technological, and humani- 

 tarian objectives for U.S. international science and technology pro- 

 grams. Little attention is given to determining priorities systematically 

 or even to relating the programs to the objectives outlined by the 



"» Knezo, L'.«. ISckntists Abroad, vol. II, p. 873. 

 "7 Ibid., p. 1022. 



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