1022 



The Government maintains a vast array of programs with varying 

 origins and purposes. Americans are sent abroad for information ex- 

 change and the advancement of scientific knowledge ; to meet goals of 

 prestige; to support the development of a science infrastructure in 

 the developing countries; and to meet the terms of bilateral and multi- 

 lateral agreements for cooperation — agreements which serve both 

 science and foreign policy goals. Scientific and technical exchanges 

 are the largest part of U.S.-sponsored exchange programs. More than 

 half of the exchanges sponsored in 1970 by the Government in a 

 majority of countries involved scientific and technical personnel. Little 

 precise information is available on the cost of these activities. How- 

 ever, the available data indicate that they are expensive. NSF esti- 

 mates for support of scientific activities with international implications 

 total $118 niillion for the fiscal year 1974; much of this outlay un- 

 doubtedly supports exchange activities. That exchanges are becoming 

 an increasingly important tool of U.S foreign policy is evidenced by 

 the recent proliferation of bilateral scientific and technical agreements 

 signed by the United States. Most of these provide almost exclusively 

 for exchange. These developments foreshadow the future importance 

 of related considerations: an enhanced desire by other nations to 

 share in the benefits of U.S. scientific and technical excellence, an 

 ever-accelerating requirement for the United States to recognize and 

 share the technical knowledge and breakthroughs of its technologically 

 advantaged neighbors, and the enlargement of the scope and ob- 

 jectives of foreign policy to include consideration of more substantive 

 scientific and technological issues. 



Multiple Purposes of Programs 



Bilateral agreements, which are almost wholly political in origin, 

 provide explicitly for foreign scientific exchange. The activities con- 

 ducted under these agreements demonstrate the criteria which must be 

 satisfied in conducting exchanges beneficial to both science and diplo- 

 macy. These activities also illustrate the difficulties of meeting the 

 required qualifications. The rest of the exchange programs for Amer- 

 icans abroad, which constitute the bulk of the programs surveyed 

 (the Fulbright-Hays program, and education- and research-oriented 

 NSF activities), were not designed initially to meet the objectives 

 of foreign scientific exchange. These programs are basically an ex- 

 tension of activities to support other missions, either enhancement 

 of domestic science, in the case of NSF activities, or the promotion 

 of cultural cooperation or technical assistance, as exemplified by the 

 Fulbright-Hays program. Very little attention is given in most of these 

 programs to determining priorities systematically or to relating pro- 

 grams to the objectives of U.S. foreign science and technology, as 

 outlined by the Department of State.*^'' 



Wider and more public scientific/diplomatic and executive/legis- 

 lative interfaces seem to be required of all programs to cope with the 

 differences between the means and ends of science and diplomacy, 

 to determine appropriate program priorities, and to correct program 

 inadequacies. 



The Need To Meet the Requirements of Science 



A number of scientific factors which impact on these programs 

 underscore the need for a broader scientific/diplomatic interface. All 



*** See section I of this chapter. 



