SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN
SUPPORT OF U.S. FOREIGN POLICY

Approved by the IEEE-USA
Board of Directors, 17 June 2004

Science and technology issues are increasingly pervasive in U.S. foreign policy, touching on a wide range of policy concerns, such as border security, nonproliferation of weapons technologies and utilizing global resources in space and/or with radio-frequency spectrum, population growth, adequate and safe food supplies, infectious diseases, energy resources, and industrial technology competitiveness. In many instances, science and technology provide creative options that can be used to advance U.S. foreign policy objectives. In other cases, such emerging technologies gene therapies derived from human genome research or nanotechnology, will create new foreign policy challenges that must be effectively anticipated and addressed. It is critical that the best available scientific and technical knowledge available in the U.S. Department of State help inform such U.S. policy decisions. The State Department also plays an important role in encouraging international science and technology collaborations to address such global challenges as environmental issues, capacity building and development.

For these reasons, IEEE-USA strongly supports the State Department’s Science and Diplomacy Initiative, encourages the State Department to sustain this effort as an organizational priority, and recommends that the Department:

• Strengthen the role of the Secretary of States’ Science and Technology Adviser, whose responsibility is to ensure that science and technology is properly integrated into U.S. foreign policy, and who serves as principal liaison with the national and international science and engineering community.
   

• Continue to reform its recruitment, training, assignment and promotion policies to strengthen the Department’s in-house science and technology capacity. As part of this effort, the State Department should continue to strongly pursue opportunities for Fellowship programs that allow the Department to tap the expertise of qualified scientists and engineers.
   

• Expand its outreach to the scientific and engineering community to build partnerships that will help the State Department draw on the resources and expertise of that community.

This statement was developed by IEEE-USA's Research and Development Policy Committee and represents the considered judgment of a group of U.S. IEEE members with expertise in the subject field. IEEE-USA is an organizational unit of the IEEE, created in 1973 to advance the public good, while promoting the careers and public-policy interests of the more than 225,000 technology professionals who are U.S. members of the IEEE. For more information, go to http://www.ieeeusa.org.

References:

The Pervasive Role of Science, Technology and Health in Foreign Policy:
Imperatives for the Department of State; National Research Council (1999).
URL: http://www.nap.edu/books/0309067855/html/

Science and Foreign Policy: The Role of the Department of State;
U.S. Department of State (May 15, 2000).
URL: http://www.state.gov/www/global/oes/science/000328_dos_science_rpt.html

Science and Technology in U.S. International Affairs; Carnegie Commission
on Science, Technology and Government (January 1992)
URL: http://www.carnegie.org/sub/pubs/science_tech/internat.txt

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Last Update:  23 June 2003
Staff Contact: Bill Williams, bill.williams@ieee.org