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involving themselves in the costs of its failures. Moreover, technological 

 leadership, though gained at great cost, can be quickly lost if a nation 

 relaxes from the effort even momentarily. For example, the United 

 States pioneered the metallurgical technology in titanium, only to see 

 Japanese metallurgists winnow the best information available and 

 proceed to improve on it — efficiently and at low additional cost. Semi- 

 conductor technology followed a similar course. The whole history of 

 textiles has been a succession of international transfers of teclinology, 

 with improvements occurring after almost every transfer. 



Qualitative differences in the directions taken by a nation's tech- 

 nology can have important differences in the effect on quantity and 

 intensity of diplomatic interactions. The relative power resulting from 

 the British steel industry and the Chinese ceramics industry is ob- 

 vious. Nations emphasizing maritime technologies increase the fre- 

 quency of international contacts. Mass production of low cost items 

 results in a need to export and often in an accompanying need for ever- 

 increasing external sources of raw materials. 



From the literature of science and technology, and of diplomatic 

 discussion, it is possible to delineate a long list of technological-diplo- 

 matic problems, issues, and concerns, of which the following are 

 illustrative : 



INSTITUTIONAL MATTERS 



Technological institutions to aid the less developed nations and to 

 further U.S. technological relations with comitries phasing out of the 

 AID program; 



Opportmiities for creative technological relationships and the evolu- 

 tion of suitable, mutually-supported institutions with nations on the 

 geographical and ideological periphery of the Soviet Union; 



Coordmation of the midtifarious teclinological programs, interests, 

 and institutions of the United Nations, and also the many regional 

 treaty organizations, European Community and Western Hemisphere 

 organizations, and the like ; 



Resolution of j)olicy issues associated with the development of 

 high-teclinology-oriented, multinational corporations. 



SUBSTANTIVE TECHNOLOGICAL MATTERS 



Development of plans for international cooperation to exploit 

 satellites for coinmunications, meteorological research and forecast- 

 ing, earth resources surveys, geographic mapping, navigation, pollu- 

 tion detection, early warning of plant and forest diseases and insect 

 infestation, and other purposes ; 



Teclinological and environmental problems of the Arctic regions ; 



Development of quick-response arrangements on an international 

 basis to combat the spread of epidemics (whether afflicting man, 

 animals, or plants), to disseminate curative and preventive teclinolo- 

 gies, (to assure global availability of curative agents and instruments, 

 to enable rapid mobilization of medical teams for emergencies, and 

 to eliminate sources of endemic diseases ; 



Formulation of policies for the international exchange and use of 

 government-owned patents, the protection of privately owned patents, 

 and the exchange of trade secrets and other "intellectual property," 

 especially where international consortia or multinational corporations 

 are involved; 



