619 



The bearing of the rate of teclinological advance in the United 

 States, both absolutely and relative to particular countries and groups 

 of countries, on U.S. diplomacy and diplomatic objectives; 



The importance for U.S. objectives of the fact that U.S. teclinologi- 

 cal achievement is not imif orm across all of industry, but ranges from 

 the high extremes of computers and control instruments to the rela- 

 tively lower level of achievement in the steel industry and textiles. 



Diplomatic Need for a Coherent Policy Toward Technological Change 



The question to be explored in this chapter pertains to the inter- 

 national role, past and prospective, of technology itself as an aspect of 

 the national culture and power. 'What does it mean for the future role 

 of the United States in relation to the community of nations ? ^^^lat 

 could it mean ? In what ways can and should technology be exploited 

 for diplomatic purposes ? What are the costs of this exploitation, and 

 are they tolerable ? 



Technology is a concept in which every citizen is involved. It is 

 capable of being influenced by Government action. It is a source of 

 national strength and wealth. It requires elaborate institutional ar- 

 rangements, and the more sophisticated it becomes the more complex 

 and far-flung are the arrangements needed to manage it. Technology 

 has been shown capable of advancing U.S. foreign policy objectives, 

 but it is neither infallible nor invariably beneficial. 



The question, then, is how to determine what the Federal policy 

 should be with respect to technology, for purposes of U.S. diplomacy. 

 It is certain, in any event, that technology will continue to advance. 

 Once set in motion, it has a momentum of its own. The question is 

 whether and how the dynamics of this changing feature of the Amer- 

 ican culture can be guided and directed to serve the objectives of 

 U.S. international relations. Implicit in this question is the further 

 issue of whether such diplomatic gains should be pursued or aban- 

 doned when they are found to conflict with domestic or regional pro- 

 grams. What sacrifices are necessary ? Are they tolerable ? AVlio should 

 decide ? "Who should determine the rules of the game — the criteria and 

 values on which the choice is made? What organizational resources 

 are available to make these decisions ? Are they adequate for the pur- 

 pose ? T\Tiat else needs to be done ? 



The hypothesis of this chapter is that technology is a primary 

 source of national power and diplomatic influence. The section to fol- 

 low will discuss briefly some of the liistorical effects of technology on 

 the world scene and on the emergence of the United States as a world 

 power. Section III, Trends in Contemporary Technology, selects for 

 more extended treatment several important technologies or aspects of 

 technology. Its purpose is to show that as each teclinology evolved it 

 became internationalized, its substance became the subject of inter- 

 national conversations, its effects extended beyond natiional .bound- 

 aries, and an ultimate outcome to be foreseen would be the evolution 

 of a global system mcorporating or resolvmg the teclinology. 



II. Historical. Ixfluence of Techxology on Diplomacy 



Technology today is at once the substance, an instrument, and a com- 

 plicating factor of foreign policy. It involves every citizen ; it can be 

 influenced by government action; it imposes on society the need for 



