778 



I. Background 



The results of the scientific and technological enterprise have been 

 central elements in the restructuring of national societies and international 

 affairs, particularly in the 35 years since the Second World War. The 

 development and application of aircraft, satellite communications, health and 

 sanitation measures, missiles, nuclear weapons, automated production, radio 

 and television, agricultural mechanization and new crop strains, all bear 

 witness to the productivity of R&D and, in their effects, to the profound 

 revolution in human affairs they have brought about or made possible. The 

 pace of change either in the laboratory, or in the effects of the products of 

 the laboratory, shows no sign of slackening. 



The effects on international affairs and on the international political 

 system have been heavily conditioned by the differential ability of nations to 

 carry out R&D, or to take advantage of the results of R&D. Two nations have 

 emerged with military power and influence far greater than others largely as a 

 result of their natural endowments and resource base that allow massive 

 exploitation of science and technology. The gradual decay of that dominance, 

 especially in its economic dimension, is already a source of new international 

 relationships, and new problems. The disparity between nations of the North 

 and South in ability to acquire and exploit technology has equally come to be 

 recognized as a major factor in their relative economic status and prospects, 

 and in their increasingly acerbic political relations. 



Concurrently, the pace of industrialization of technological societies has 

 greatly intensified the dependency relations among states, so that even the 



