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INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION 

 IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 

 RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT: 

 SOME REFLECTIONS ON 

 PAST EXPERIENCE 



LAWRENCE SCHEINMAN Cornel! University 

 Center for International Studies. Ithaca, New York 14850 



Received February 4, 1982 



Accepted for Publication February 5, 1982 



This paper sclcclivclv exaniines past experience 

 in science and technulogy cooperation with a view to 

 identifying the key characteristics accounting for suc- 

 cessfiil and less successful ventures that might be 

 applicable to fusion research, development, and dem- 

 onstration activities. Included in the analysis are the 

 European Organization for Nuclear Research; Euratom; 

 the Joint European Torus: the Nuclear Energy Agen- 

 cy's Eurochemic. Dragon, and Halden projects. Euro- 

 pean breeder cooperation: Urenco: and INTELSA T 



The analysis takes as a point of departure the 

 proposition that past experiences carry limited and 

 selective lessons for shaping future enterprises, that 

 there is no single generic model of cooperation that 

 can simply be applied to new ventures, and that 

 success is likely to be more probable where the 

 organization and ground rules have been tailored to 

 accommodate the objectives to be achieved, the char- 

 acter of the participants, and the salient environing 

 political factors. 



Among the central conclusions of the analysis are: 



1 effective cooperation requires strong political 

 will to enter and sustain cooperation and a 

 reasonable matching of skills and interests of 

 cooperating partners 



2. there should be an acknowledged leader or 

 authoritative manager 



3. the objectives of any cooperative arrangement 

 should be clearly defined at the outset, precise 

 with respect to the distribution of responsibili- 

 ties and means for dealing with conflicts that 

 may arise, and limited in scope 



4. as projects come closer to potential commer- 

 cialization, relevant industrial actors should be 

 brought into the arrangement 



5 tl)c importance of cooperating states being seen 

 as reliable partners 



I. INTRODUCTION: SCOPE AND CHARACTER OF 

 INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH AND 

 DEVELOPMENT (R&D) 

 COOPERATION 



International cooperation tor R&D in science and 

 technology has grown substantially during the past 

 several decades. The scope of cooperation ranges 

 from basic scientific research (e.g., the European 

 Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)l to joint 



development of technology (e.g., Urenco), and from 

 simple exchanges of information generated in nation- 

 ally based programs (e.g., U.S. -Canadian Heavy Water 

 Reactor Exchange Program) to the joint construction 

 and/or operation of experimental facilities (e.g.. Joint 

 European Torus (JET), Dragon]. It encompasses, 

 among others, such areas as coinmunications [Inter- 

 national Telecommunications Satellite Organization 

 (INTELSAT)I, transportation (Concorde), space 

 [European Space Vehicle Launcher Development 



NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY/FUSION VOL 2 JULY 1982 



