650 



communicated information. The national management of information 

 as an adjunct of the national communications net makes for a closer 

 integration of national technology and other forms of social orga- 

 nization. The still more recent development of commmiications satel- 

 lites extends the reach of this national network to other nations and can 

 be expected to effect a similar integration of culture, technology, knowl- 

 edge, and trade on a virtually global basis. 



INTERNATIONAL ASPECTS OF INFRASTRUCTURE 



The foregoing discussion of the importance of infrastructure as 

 the basis of a nation's technology indicates the complexity of a total 

 national system of industry and commerce. Human resources are sug- 

 gested as more important than material wealth. Science contributes 

 to technological systems as a necessary, but insufficient, condition. 

 In short : "The advance of scientific technology can only be part of a 

 concerted national programme of educational, economic, industrial 

 and social change." ^^ 



Although the total pattern of a nation's infrastructure is a matter 

 of primarily domestic concern, there are many international aspects 

 to the separate ingredients. Even the total pattern is of some concern 

 internationally; within a developing country, for example, if U.S. 

 policy calls for a program of aid to help with its industrialization, the 

 improvement of these conditions of growth become a U.S. problem. 

 Even the definition of the components of the infrastructure in order 

 to assure their proper recognition and support becomes an inter- 

 national problem, to be studied in AID, in the United Nations, in 

 the various specialized U.N. agencies, in O.E.C.D., and elsewhere. 



In addition, the various elements of infrastructure discussed in this 

 subsection have their own international aspects. Thus, education and 

 training raises questions involving the gain or loss of trained man- 

 power, the planning of institutions to train technicians for interna- 

 tional service, establishment of standards of comparative national 

 educational achievement, exchange of educational personnel, and dis- 

 semination of knowledge. 



Although health is primarily a domestic problem, it lias vast im- 

 plications for diplomacy : the wealthy nations of the world ignore the 

 health problems of the less developed nations at their peril. Modern 

 transportation systems make possible the global spread of infectious 

 disease with great speed. Pockets of disease and disease vectors serve as 

 natural time bombs, threatening danger at any t-ime. Drugs and sera — 

 their development, production, and availability in time of need — are of 

 concern to all nations. Organizations for the detexjtion of disease and 

 medical problems cannot be other than international. Similarly, the 

 world as a global unit is concerned with the total availability and dis- 

 tribution of trained public health and medical ser\dces, and with the 

 standards of health and medical care. 



International transfer of electric power is of no great consequence 

 but the transfer of power technology — particularly atomic power — is 

 of wide international concern. Control of the facilities, the fuel, and 

 the processing of spent fuel elements are all international problems. 



88 Ibid., page 53. The statement is by Professor P. H. S. Blackett. 



