XI. Summary and Concluding Observations 



This study has presented some of the historical roots of science in 

 the Department of State, and has traced the uncertain but accelerating 

 growth of the Department's science activities since 1950. A substantial 

 science bureau has grown up, and a number of overseas embassies 

 have scientific attaches and staffs. Congressional support for the 

 science office and recognition by three Secretaries of State have 

 attested to its valid role in the Department. 



The year 1975, and the years immediately ahead, look like a time of 

 opportunity in an environment in flux. New decisions are pending as 

 to the relationship between the science bureau and other bureaus of 

 the Department, as to the future missions and structure of overseas 

 science staffs, and as to the design of the President's policymaking 

 organization in the field of scientific and technological diplomac}^ 

 Teamwork of OES with the Policy Planning Staff and the staff of the 

 National Security Council appears to be valuable for the diplomacy of 

 the future. The possibility that the 94th Congress will act on the crea- 

 tion of a new science policy institution in the Executive Office offers 

 further problems and opportunities to the new science bureau in 

 State. 



Also for the future to determine is the extent of the effort to bring 

 a heightened "technical literacy" into the Foreign Service, whether by 

 renewed emphasis on the Foreign Service Institute or by other means. 



Another question is the creation of further science units in the func- 

 tional bureaus of the Department, manned and equipped to cooperate 

 with the science bureau in the formulation of diplomatic policy and the 

 initiation of new science- and technology-based programs toward 

 U.S. foreign policy objectives. 



The pace of technological change and the innumerable technological 

 issues that confront U.S. policymakers in maintaining and developing 

 relations with the rest of the world leave no doubt as to the importance 

 of the science function in the Department of State. A foremost problem 

 is the establishment of the priorities in dealing with the array of 

 issues already at hand, while also sparing some time for the analysis 

 and evaluation of technological prospects for the future. 



Distinctive Position of the Department of State 



First among cabinet Secretariats, the Department of State has 

 strengths and weaknesses not evident in other departments. In 

 protocol it ranks highest; its role and mission are to support the 

 President in his conduct of foreign pohcy ; its senior officers deployed 

 abroad are empowered to speak for the President ; and the information 

 it accumulates enables the President to function as Chief Diplomat. 

 Its weaknesses are its want of domestic support; in the gross dispro- 

 portion between the scope of its responsibilities and the resources it 

 can command; and in the inherent conffict between the pluralism of a 

 democratic society and the need for national diplomatic processes to 

 be coherent, unified, and single-voiced. 



(1490) 



