1303 



tries unless development aid breaks the cycle, has thus become a reality 

 in the 1970'sJ^^ One immediate effect of this phenomenon is that it 

 creates a dynamic interaction which appears to make the brain drain 

 virtually inevitable. The argument, placed in the context of develop- 

 ment economics, goes like this. The widening gap in incomes of the 

 LDCs and advanced countries is reflected in the corresponding gap in 

 salary levels of skilled occupations. As shown above in the discussion 

 of economic causes of brain drain, this gap in income and salary exerts 

 a general economic pull, attracting the best brains from the former 

 to the latter, and thus, in the words of Prof. Hla Myint, "set up a dy- 

 namic cumulatively disequalising process or a 'vicious circle' which 

 aggravates the economic gap between the two types of country." '^® 

 The development gap perpetuates brain drain; brain drain prevents 

 the establishing of a scientific-technological base ; without this base 

 development is impaired ; the gap continues to widen — and so the cycle 

 continues. 



Thus brain drain can be a critical link in the development process, 

 and this process is surely impaired by the outflow of the professional 

 elite from the LDCs. The report of the House Government Operations 

 Committee on brain drain came directly to the point when it said: 



The root of the concern is the inadequacj- of trained manpower in the develop- 

 ing countries despite pressing needs for a great variety of skills, talents, and 

 capacities for taking the initiative which development requires. The loss by these 

 countries of scientists and other professionals to the United States reduces 

 trained manpower where it is scarcest and most needed and augments it where it 

 is most abundant. This can only widen the technological and economic gap be- 

 tween the richest country in the world and the poorest ones.''*' 



EFFECTS OF DEVELOPMENT GAP ON FOREIGN POLICY : CONFRONTATION 



BETWEEN RICH AND POOR 



The development gap between the rich and poor countries constitutes 

 a potential threat to U.S. national security. This threat arises from 



'85 The theory of "circular causation" is discussed in Gunnar Myrdal's Rich Lands and 

 Poor (New York : Harper, 1958). It is summarized in. Robert Ellsworth Elder, The Policy 

 Machine: The Department of State and American Foreign Policy (Syracuse: Syracuse 

 University Press, I960), p. 42. This theory holds that an underdeveloped area has low 

 standards of living which result in a poorly educated and relatively unhealthy work force, 

 as well as little working capital for investment. Because of the character of the labor 

 force, production is low, and producing units already in a country may eventually move 

 to a more favorable location. This process further lowers the living standard, the level of 

 education and health, and results in even less Investment capital. Myrdal calls this the 

 "backwash effect." 



On the other hand, a country with a relatively high standard of living caji maintain 

 or improve its educated and healthy labor force, increasing production, bringing additional 

 funds for Investment, and causing additional producing units to enter the area. Myrdal 

 calls this the "spread effect." 



Thus, in the first case, conditions hecome progressively poorer ; and in tlie second, they 

 become richer. According to Professor Elder, Myrdal would be likely to advocate an econ- 

 omic development policy for the United States toward the LDCs which would enable 

 them to turn the corner from regression to progress, from the "backwash effect" to the 

 "spread effect." He concludes : "A policy without sufficient Impact to accomplish this goal 

 could never really be successful in making it possible for an underdeveloped country to 

 'go it alone.' " 



Lafi Ibrahim Jaafarl seemed, to express the essence of this theory of "circular causation" 

 in concrete terms In his survey of Palestinian and Jordanian Arab professionals and 

 students who are residing in the United States. Jaafarl concluded : "In overall perspective, 

 the respondents tended to bear out the statement that the 'brain drain' is not only a 

 cause but an effect of sociological, economic and governmental underdevelopment within 

 the Middle East." (Jaafarl, op. clt., p. 125.) 



'8« Myint, op. cit., p. 236. 

 r ^^^^'z?'"*' House, Government Operations Committee, Scientific Brain Drain from the 

 LDCs, 1968, p. 1. The Ditchley Park Conference Report said that the loss of professional 

 manpower from tlie LDCs "would Imply that it was a factor enlarging still more the gap 

 between rich and poor, whereas to strive to narrow that gap Is an acknowledged aim of the 

 United States, Britain and indeed all responsible nations." (p. 5.) President Perkins ap- 

 provingly quotes John C. Shearer : "The movement of high-level human resources may, to 

 a great extent, account for the persistent and ever widening gaps between the rich and 

 poor areas." (op. clt.. p. 618.) 



