890 



other countries which will be affected by U.S. withdrawal. The U.S. 

 inclination to utilize alternative forums also has implications for the 

 overall funding of international science that need to be viewed in a 

 larger policy context than just UNESCO. New models for international 

 science cooperation may be required to meet contemporary needs both for 

 advancing science and for strengthening infrastructures in developing 

 countries. 



Questions are being posed with regard to the value of specific 

 areas of UNESCO-sponsored programs to the U.S. scientific community: 

 How well does UNESCO carry out these programs? Are the programs that 

 are directed primarily toward the needs of developing countries 

 adequately designed and implemented? Is UNESCO the most effective 

 organization for carrying out these programs? If so, is there 

 sufficient guidance and participation from the worldwide science and 

 technology community to ensure effective and efficient program imple- 

 mentation? What measures might be taken to improve the performance of 

 UNESCO? What might be the loss to our scientific community, as well as 

 to those of other countries, if the United States withdraws fom UNESCO 

 on December 31, 1984? Coupled with this last question is the signi- 

 ficance of the contributions of the American scientific community to 

 UNESCO. It is some of these questions that the following assessment 

 attempts to address. 



REFERENCES 



1. Letter from Dr. Frank Press to Congressman Dante Fascell, April 17, 

 1984. 



2. The International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) represents the 

 principal nongovernmental mechanism created by scientists to advance 

 scientific interests on an international basis. The structure of 

 ICSU is based on dual membership, encompassing 20 disciplinary sci- 

 entific unions and 70 national members. The national members are 

 usually academies or national research councils. In the United 

 States, the National Academy of Sciences is the adhering body to 

 ICSU as well as individually to 17 of the member unions . ICSU and 

 the unions, with a combined annual budgetary level of $5 million, 

 provide an important framework for the orderly handling of inter- 

 national, nongovernmental scientific cooperation. 



