will have to be possible under whatever cooperative arrangements are 

 undertaken. 



Saving Costs of National Programs 



As fusion research and development moves towards large machines and 

 supporting facilities, it becomes highly expensive and difficult for 

 any single nation to support a comprehensive progreim. International 

 cooperation and the sharing of some costs, including the joint 

 construction and use of expensive installations for which only a 

 single facility of a given type is considered necessary and 

 sufficient, offer relief from national budgetary limitations. 



Unnecessary duplication of effort is avoided by the distribution 

 among the members of an international cooperative effort of those 

 tasks that can be shared. Some duplication of effort is inevitable to 

 satisfy the interests of national partners in acquiring "hands-on" 

 experience, but international cooperation can substantially reduce the 

 overall level of duplication and thereby improve the efficiency of use 

 of everyone's limited funds. 



Serving Political Objectives 



There is a more recent incentive that has considerable meaning for 

 government program managers and staffs. Controlled nuclear fusion is 

 the subject of one of the working groups set up, in the summer of 1982 

 by decision of the Heads of State and Government at the Versailles 

 meeting of the Summit of Industrialized Nations, to serve the larger 

 political objective of technological cooperation among certain 

 industrialized countries (Science, 1983). In June 1984, the leaders 

 of Canada, Italy, France, the United Kingdom, Japan, West Germany, the 

 United States, and the European Community (EC) endorsed the activities 

 of the working groups in exploring plans for closer collaboration in 

 science and technology in the industrial nations (Science, 1984). The 

 working group considering fusion, in which the United States 

 participates, noted the long-range importance of the technology and 

 the magnitude of human and financial efforts needed and concluded that 

 a substantial increase in the level of international collaboration is 

 justified. Endorsement at the head-of-state level for international 

 cooperation in fusion, even couched in the most general terms, is a 

 powerful influence in determining the attitudes with which government 

 staff and negotiators approach the subject. 



From time to time technological topics have been selected to serve, 

 in whole or in part, broader political objectives, such as 

 strengthening alliances, creating good will, or augmenting a 

 particular negotiation. Examples are the United States-Japan space 

 launch agreement, the proposal for an international telecommunications 

 satellite consortium, and the provision of desalinization technology 

 to Middle East countries. Indeed, the EC points with pride to its 



