612 



technology today have a telling impact on policy decisions in both 

 national and international affairs * * *. We do not have to look far 

 to find examples * * *." 



It would be foolhardy in this day and age [the Secretary went on] to set 

 political objectives without an accounting of the technical realities — or to 

 approach technological problems without regard to their political and social 

 implications. 



Indeed, the assessment of what science and technology holds for us in the 

 years ahead must be an integral part of today's policy and decision-making 

 machinery. The conduct of our foreign affairs — the formulation of our policies 

 and goals — must reflect the sometimes complex, sometimes subtle, but persistent 

 influence and interaction of science and technology on the affairs of man. 



So it is obvious that in forging the capability of the State Department to 

 deal with the problems of the 70s, the professional corps of the Foreign Service 

 and the Department must develop the capacity to keep abreas't of these develop- 

 ments and the skills necessary to cope with them. 



Diplomacy deals with problems between sovereign nations and with 

 the common concerns of members of the world commmiity of nations. 

 The objective of diplomacy is to reconcile or resolve issues and establish 

 agreement^ to advance the national interest in a constantly changing 

 world. Changes within the jurisdiction of each member of the world 

 community alter its relations with others. No source of change is 

 more potent than an alteration in a nation's technological condition. 

 It produces changes of many kinds at many levels of impacts and 

 interactions: military, commercial, cultural, political, and scientific; 

 these changes involve many agencies of government, the academic 

 world, private business, and the public at large. Familiarity with 

 tecluiolog}' , and with the nature of its impacts, is thus an indispensable 

 tool of the diplomat. Moreover, the skill with which a nation manages 

 and advances its own technology contributes to the status of its 

 diplomats, and to the options with which they can negotiate. In both 

 senses, national technology confers diplomatic power. 



Moreover, it is more than a hypothesis that developments in U.S. 

 teclinology have bearing on the achievement of such national and 

 international objectives as peace, lessened tension, mutual trade, and 

 easement of the plight of the less developed nations of the world. 

 Accordingly, the Department of State has a cause for concern with 

 the health and vigor of U.S. technology, both generally and with 

 specific reference to technological fields that can be identified as con- 

 tributing most directly to diplomatic objectives of the United States. 

 The future direction of U.S. technological advances, no less than the 

 Nation's general level of technological competence, has far-reaching 

 consequences beyond its borders. Of great importance also are the uses 

 made of this burgeoning technology, and the organizational arrange- 

 ments — domestic and international — for overseeing these uses. In these 

 senses, technology is an important basis for national power. 



Contemporary Importance of Technology 



Technology is a general term covering a wide variety of scientific 

 and technical activities and products. In its simplest usage, it merely 

 signifies "tools." At the other extreme, it conveys the broad meaning of 

 "how man works" ^ and indeed "denotes the broad area of purposeful 



3 Peter P. Drucker. "Technology, Management, and Society : Essays by Peter F. Drucker. 

 (New York, Harper and Row, Publishers, 1958, reprinted 1970), page vil. 



