VI. Emergence of the Bilateral Science Agreement 



Tho Departmont of State has a mfijor role in a new dimension of 

 <lipl()!nacy, the bihiferal agreement of the United States and another 

 country to eonduct joint programs of sc'ientific research and develop- 

 ment on a long-teim or rontinning basis. 



The bihiteral science agreement takes so many forms, has so many 

 objeciiyes, involves so many participants, and is subject to so many 

 varia])les of national character, that generalization must be under- 

 taken with caution. 



The importance of the bilateral science agi-eement for the present 

 stud}' is that it has become a principal operational responsibility of 

 the science office in the Department of State, and is a principal 

 vehicle for e.\pl(»itiiig diplomatically the shared interest of the United 

 States ;ind other nations in science and technology. 



Erolnfion atul Mult I plication of Science Bilaterals 



The oldest of the ongoing agreements on science ^^^ is the "U.S.- 

 Japan Cox)perative Science Program." Upon the vi>it of Piimc 

 Minister Ikeda to President John F. Kennedy in U)G1, a U.S. -Japan 

 Committee on Scientific Cooperation was organized to "review aiul 

 direct a program of cooperative research, scientific seminars, and 

 direct coli".boraiion" (i.e., a program in whi.h U.S. scientist-;, U.S.- 

 suppoi'ted, work in Japanese laboratories but not vice versa). The scope 

 of the program wouJd include: exchange of scientists; science educa- 

 tion; scieniiiic and technical communications; earth and astronomical 

 sciences; agri(,'ultural and life sciences; physical sciences and mathe- 

 matics; engineering sciences; and such special problems as typhoons, 

 earth({uakos, and other natm'al catastrophic phenomena. The program 

 was expanded in 196;^ by a second agreement calling for a "U.S.-Jap;in 

 Cooperative Program on Natural Rcsouices Develoi)ment" and again 

 in 1965 by the "t'.S.-Japan Cooperative Medical Program." The U.S. 

 administration of the first is by the National Science Foundation, the 

 second by the U.S. Department of the Interior, and the third by the 

 U.S. National Institutes of Health in the Department of Health, 



Afcording lo an item in a publication of the Dppavtniont of Stato (U.S. Dopartmont of State. "U.S. 

 iilific and Tedinological Agreements with Otlier Countries," International Scknci Xotcs, no. 2-) (Septeni- 



108 



Srie 



ber l!i70), p. 2.) 



did not appear so desirable to others for assoeialion as it has sinre become. Furlherniore the ad- 

 vaniases of association were not Kenerally reco^ini/.able to U.S. scienli.sts after the liolocaust of World 

 War II, and the U.S. Government was not well organized to play its pait. 



The article goes on to note (p. 3) that "Exeejiling for the moment the biennially renewat)lo exchange 

 program with the U.S.S.R., which embraces more than science, the first chronologically of the new scientific 

 agreements is the I'. S. -Japan ('ooi)erative Science I'rogr.am." 



U.S. -Soviet scientific personnel exchange-; begari in l'.t.^',t and were renewed bieimially since than unil.r 

 terms of cultural relations agreements. With the excef)lion of government to government exchanges in public 

 health and atomic energy, the rest of .social and physical sciences exchanges weie cariied out l)y nongovern- 

 nienlal agencies with government sui)poit. The l'.i72 agreement differs from previous agreements since it 

 provides for cooiierative research between eovernnicnt aeencies in specified areas. For a complete back- 

 ground see section IV. United States .and Soviet and Eastern Eurojiean Inter-.Xcademy Sci- 

 entific Exchanges, in : U.S. Congress, House. Committee on Foreign Affairs. Subcommittee 

 on National Security Policy and Scientific Developments. U.S. Scioiti.'itu Abroad: An Ex- 

 amination of Major Programs for Xon(/orer)imental Scientific Kxchamje, prepared by Gene- 

 vieve J. Knezo, Science Policy Research Division, Congressional Research Service, Library 

 of Congress, April 1974. See vol. II, pp. 982-1013. 



(1396) 



