1473 



. . . assert a leadership role in the U.N. and other multilateral institutions. We 

 think it is of prime importance for the U.S. to reassess the tone of its current 

 activity in these organizations and to reexamine the way the government is 

 organized to participate in them. We also believe that a major effort should be 

 undertaken within the government to review those problem areas in which new 

 or strengthened institutional arrangements might be required and to formulate 

 appropriate proposals for international consideration.^^* 



In particular, said the Panel, "The U.S. Government must give 

 much higher priority to mobilizing its scientific and technological 

 resources for dealing with material scarcities. At the same time, 

 external economic incentives must be provided to reinforce the 

 commitment to conservation." ^" 



The U.N. panel report took notice of the interrelated nature of the 

 international issues raised bj^ developments in science and technology. 



A review of the international issues whiqh have been raised by developments in 

 science and technology indicates that these problems have become increasingly 

 complex and interrelated, just as the interdependencies among nations have grown. 

 In the ongoing law-of-the-sea negotiations, there are interactions among such di- 

 verse issues as management of ocean fisheries, which are an essential component 

 of the world's protein supply, and transit through international waters, a question 

 of strategic interest to the major maritime powers. The worldwide rise in oil prices 

 has meant higher cost for fertilizers and for the crops to which they are applied, 

 as well as higher gasoUne prices. And advances in the atmospheric sciences can 

 lead not only to better forecasting but eventually to large-scale weather and 

 climate modificaaon. Such capabilities could in turn serve activities as diverse 

 as air transport and agriculture. 



Because of their complexity it is difficult to treat these issues as separate prob- 

 lems, or even to categorize them as primarily scientific, economic or political. 

 They are issues which do not respect the standard patterns of international affairs 

 and have already begun to transform relationships among the nations of the 

 world.2^* 



Interconnectedness of Diplomatic Problems of the Future 



A feature of the world scene of today is the complex way in which so 

 many of the great global problems intersect. Materials shortages raise 

 questions of political jurisdiction over the deep seabed. World food 

 shortages relate to fertilizer supply, which is tied to energy and petro- 

 leum, materials cartelization, weather modification, and water supply. 

 Energy relates to petroleum and world distribution of coal, but also to 

 nuclear power generation, which involves international technology 

 transfer, the environment, nuclear safeguards, and safe disposal of 

 nuclear wastes. Space utilization involves searches for materials, global 

 communications, detection of agricultural blights, and information 

 management. In fact, directly or indirectly, most of the large tech- 

 nological issues facing the world of the future in 1975 appear to be 

 closely interconnected. (See the accompanying matrix analysis in 

 Figure 2 of the more obvious interrelationships among these issues.) 



a« Ibid., pp. 78-79. 

 M' Ibid., p. 80. 

 2M Ibid., p. 23. 



