TECHNOLOGY, POLITICS, AND WORLD ORDER: A CROSS-ISSUE ANALYSIS OF FUNCTIONAL COOPERATION AMONG ADVANCED INDUSTRIAL COUNTRIES

The primary purpose of the study is to explore the hypothesis that the domestic structural milieu (state-society relationship) provides a crucial link between resource capabilities and international collaboration. It is argued that the relative extent of collaboration among contemporary, highly industrialized countries is not only a function of resource capabilities and political or diplomatic objectives. It is also dependent upon the concrete processes and institutions whereby these potential collaborative efforts are identified, packaged, promoted and implemented. Moreover, the process of collaboration (and the relative influence of both resource capabilities and domestic structural constraints) may vary depending upon the objectives of collaboration. It is important, therefore, to distinguish conceptually among collaboration around the development, use or regulation of technology.;Using data drawn from aggregate and case study analyses, the study found that resource capabilities were positively related to collaboration around the development of technology, but negatively related to collaboration around the regulation of technology. Specifically, both economic development and technological capability were positively related to the pursuit of energy R&D collaboration, but negatively related to the joint pursuit of ocean pollution regulation. This finding suggests that a disaggregation of policy formulation in areas of civilian technical collaboration is indeed warranted in order to account for variation in findings stemming from differing objectives of collaboration.;In both types of collaboration, however, the strong role of the domestic structure in facilitating (or inhibiting) collaboration emerged as the major finding. Centralized structures were found to be associated with greater levels of technical collaboration, regardless of the objective. The case studies of U.S. involvement in these two areas of technical collaboration supplemented these aggregate findings by detailing the precise mechanisms by which domestic structures facilitated (or inhibited) international collaboration. In the energy R&D case, a highly centralized domestic structure in the U.S. promoted policy formulation, while in the ocean pollution regulation case, a highly fragmented domestic structure inhibited policymaking. Thus, policy formulation for the purpose of ocean pollution regulation was constrained by inter-agency conflicts, intervention by Congress, and a basic dissensus between government and private actors. In contrast, energy R&D cooperation was promoted by a centralized domestic structure which minimized jurisdictional conflicts between government agencies and intervention by domestic groups, and which maximized potential resources for collaboration.;These findings are significant for two reasons. First, they suggest the need to disaggregate findings based on the relationship between domestic resources on the one hand and collaboration on the other in order to account for variation in this relationship stemming from different objectives of collaboration. Secondly, they suggest the important influence that a centralized domestic structure may have for policy formulation in areas of civilian technical collaboration. In doing so, this research contributes to the theoretical understanding of international decision processes pertaining to science and technology by expanding our understanding of the preconditions which influence successful international collaboration on global welfare issues.;In pursuit of the hypothesis, two areas of collaboration were examined: (1) scientific and technical collaboration administered by the International Energy Agency (IEA) in the joint development of energy technologies and, (2) scientific and technical collaboration administered by the Inter-Governmental Maritime Consultative Organization (IMCO) in the joint regulation of ocean pollution.