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Today's relatively equal competence in science and technology also means 

 that a' given project is likely to benefit in quality or rate of progress from 

 larger application of resources. In some cases, participation by more than 

 one country may be- necessary to attain a critical size. 



The massive investments required in many fields of central, and growing, 

 importance, especially energy, also make the possibilities of cooperation to 

 reduce the drain on national budgets particularly attractive. 



The difficulties, and the costs, of cooperation cannot of course be 

 Ignored. For example, the inherent difficulties of meshing disparate 

 bureaucracies; the delays often encountered in reaching common decisions among 

 differing political and legal systems; the complications of varying decision 

 processes, priorities, and competence; the costs of added international 

 bureaucracy; the danger of political inertia that makes projects hard to 

 start, but even harder to stop once started; the possibilities of continuing 

 drain on R&D budgets because of international commitments; and the tendency to 

 undertake internationally only those lower priority projects that are not of 

 priority importance within a country. To this must be added the apparent 

 conflict between cooperation and improving a nation's competitive position. 



Successful cooperation also requires reliable partners. The record of the 

 U.S. in taking unilateral decisions to modify or abrogate agreements (most 

 recently the proposal to cancel the coal liquefaction development project with 

 Japan and Germany, and withdraw from the International Institute of Applied 

 Systems Analysis) makes future agreements harder to reach. 



These are- formidable difficulties, but the potential benefits in the new 

 situation are also formidable. Successfur examples of cooperation (e.g.. 



