Aspects of Sharing Science and Technology

Before 1972 the exchange of science and technology between the United States and the Soviet Union was limited to the very small program administered in accordance with official agreements which dated back to 1958. The tempo and scale of the exchanges in technical areas were dramatically altered by the eight separate agree ments signed at the 1972 and 1973 summit meetings. These agreements were reached as a part of foreign policy considerations pointing toward detente and were thus not given specific content. While progress in each of the ex change areas has been slowed by numerous delays in making the original agreements more concrete, the prospects for the future appear to be good. Yet, a most sensitive problem plagues Soviet-American scientific relations: that of political or human-rights issues as factors influencing the course of the exchange program. Among American scientists there is a full spectrum of opinion on these questions. Dealing with this dilemma can be facilitated by making several important distinctions, starting with one between protests by American individuals and those by official administrators. We are now entering a period of optimism tempered by realism in which the rate of expansion of exchanges will rest on the willingness of both countries to face problems openly and to find solutions to them emanating from a spirit of accommodation.