Techno-Diplomacy: Us-Soviet Confrontations in Science and Technology

Countering critics who oppose scientific-technical exchanges between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, Schweitzer argues that we can use export control laws to safeguard our sensitive technologies while expanding trade. He contends that superpower cooperation benefits Western scientists and firms as well as the Soviets, and that each side could drastically reduce nuclear and conventional military arsenals without changing the balance of power. A director of the National Academy of Sciences, and a science policy adviser to the U.S. government, Schweitzer has 25 years of ``techno-diplomacy'' experience dealing with the Russians. Geared to policymakers and students of U.S.-Soviet relations, this valuable survey of current and possible scientific exchanges is a cogent brief for East-West cooperation. It contains much information on Soviet science today and Gorbachev's perestroika plans for overhauling his country's scientific-technical establishment. (Nov.)