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C. International Organizations and Structure 



The need for new international instruments, or for modifying existing ones 

 was mentioned briefly in a few subjects -- drug regulation, ocean mining, 

 space applications -- but was not emphasized. The questions associated with 

 international political machinery, and more fundamentally of desirable 

 international organizations to deal with the requirements growing out of 

 science and technology, are many and complex. Simple calls for new 

 organizations or for improving existing ones may be valid, but belie the 

 underlying problems. 



The issue in oversimple form is that the products of science and 

 technology increasingly bring new issues and force traditional domestic issues 

 into the international environment. Unfortunately, existing international 

 governmental organizations charged with dealing with those issues are often 

 inadequate, and are becoming more so. Most global organizations are now 

 politicized along North/South lines, and regional or smaller alternatives even 

 if more efficient do not represent all the countries interested in a 

 particular subject. As representation in organizations broadens, technical 

 efficiency tends to decrease. 1^ 



This is a gradually-developing situation that is unlikely to reach crisis 

 form within a few years, but in it are the seeds of major confrontation over 

 only a slightly longer time horizon. Current budgetary reductions could, 

 however, so reduce U.S. presence in international organizations as to advance 



l^See E. B. Skolnikoff, The International Im perati ves of Technology, 

 Research Series No. 16, Institute of International Studies, UniversiTy of 

 California, Berkeley, 1972, for a more complete discussion of technology 

 and international organizations. 



