309 



COORDINATION AND IIANAGEMENT OF INTERNATIONmL 

 COOPERATIVE RESEARCH 



Testimony of Eugene B. Skolnikoff 



Director, MIT Center for International Stuoies 



to the Task Force on Science Policy 



Committee on Science and Technology 



House of Representatives 



June 20, 1985 



Congressman Fuqua, Members of the Task Force on Science Policy: I very 

 much appreciate the opportunity to testify before you today on a subject that 

 has been a major interest throughout r.\y professional career. In 19bG I joined 

 Dr. James Killian's newly created Presidential Science Advisory staff in the 

 White House with responsibility for the international dimension of the 

 interaction of science and technology with national policy. Since then I have 

 been intensely involved with that dimension, staying on in the white house 

 until 1963, teaching and writing on the subject as a Professor at MIT, serving 

 on a variety of advisory panels (including one on science and foreign affairs 

 to the Secretary of State from 1973 to 1975), and returning part time to 

 Dr. Frank Press' office in the White House auring President Carter's 

 Administration, 



The overall subject of the interaction of science and technology with 

 foreign affairs is a very broad one, touching on issues ranging from nuclear 

 war to international competitiveness to agricultural productivity, and often 

 affecting fundamental values and concerns in our country. Today, I will 

 discuss only one part of the subject, as you requested, but it should be seen 

 as part of a much larger whole. Many of the ideas I present are an outgrowth 

 of one aspect of my work for Dr. Press in the 1970's when the attempt was made 

 to stimulate more international activities in science and technology as a way 

 to achieve both scientific and political objectives. The efforts often 

 foundered on prosaic budget and policy hurdles rather than policy goals, 

 hurdles that proved extremely difficult to dislodge. 



The U.S. Government supports international cooperation in science and 

 technology through a nunber of different mechanisms and to serve a variety of 

 national goals. Almost every agency of the Federal Government is involved to 

 some extent, and cooperation takes place through bilateral, multilateral, ana 

 private sector channels. No precise measure of the funding dedicated to 

 international cooperation is available, but most of the relevant programs are 

 assembled in the annual report to the Congress, colloquially known as the 

 Title V report.! 



! "Science, Technology and American Diplomacy, 1984," Fifth Annual 

 Report Submitted to the Congress by the President Pursuant to Sect. 503(b) of 

 Title V of PLS5-426, April 1984, Committee on Foreign Affairs ana on Science 

 and Technology, USGPO, Washington, D.C., 1984. 



