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of the resources of the seabed to finance U.N. programs of teclinological 

 aid. Should this concept be expanded ? 



Many criticisms have been directed at the multiplicity of loosely 

 affiliated agencies under the umbrella of the United Nations. An 

 obvious issue is whether management principles applied in such tightly 

 and effectively organized agencies as AEC and NASA could be 

 transferred to international application. It is axiomatic, for example, 

 that an institution with a diffused structure requires tight policy con- 

 trol at the top, supported by an abimdant and accurate flow of in- 

 formation from all its elements. Policy decisions require information 

 about the organization itself, its persomiel, projects and results ; and 

 about the status, needs, and future prospects of the areas it serves. At 

 the same time, the access of the public to this same information enables 

 a closer understanding of the problems and opportunities of the or- 

 ganization and a means for improving its performance through gen- 

 eral review and criticism. How well has the congeries of U.N. agen- 

 cies performed in this respect ? 



If the United States is indeed technologically "Other-Directed", 

 the same can probably also be said of the Soviet Union. To the extent 

 that this is true of both countries, there are repeated pressures on 

 both to "catch up" in some field of technology in which the other has 

 scored an advance. Under these conditions, the more joint programs 

 of technology in which both countries can participate, the less of this 

 pressure is generated and the more progress with less effort toward 

 shared goals. Some evidence of this technological teamwork already 

 exists with respect to the exchange of meteorological information, and 

 there have been discussions as to the possibility of a joint program of 

 cancer research. However, it is not evident that there is any particular 

 merit in maintaining such teamwork efforts on a bilateral basis. The 

 possibility is open for the United States and the Soviet Union to 

 provide joint leadership within the United Nations system to mount 

 global projects in some directions. Who in the Federal Government 

 is currently responsible for thinking up innovative possibilities for 

 further cooperation along these lines ? 



It is a truism that the nation coming last to exploitation of a tech- 

 nology achieves the highest level of efficiency and the highest sophis- 

 tication of design. What use is made of this principle in the extending 

 of technical assistance to developing countries? Moreover, is there 

 opportunity for a general feedback of technological information from 

 countries with advanced technologies to those with lagging tech- 

 nologies ? Lags occur when a technology involves heavy initial outlay 

 and commits an industry to a pattern of capital equipment that is 

 superseded elsewhere. This happened in the steel industry in the United 

 States when Ij-D oxygen converters went into use abroad. It happened 

 in the glass industry with the development of float glass. When a 

 large industry is confronted with this situation, it has the alternatives 

 of seeing its markets dwindle as it fails in competition, or of gathering 

 resources to replace its outmoded equipment. Looked at from a global 

 perspective, this is an inefficient and costly arrangement. Before 

 World War II, it was widely resolved by the emergence of interna- 

 tional cartels that allocated markets and fixed prices. The emergence 

 of the multinational corporation suggests that a similar accommoda- 



