Friday, 27 March 1987 Washington, DC
1.
BALANCING THE NATIONAL INTEREST: U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY
EXPORT CONTROLS AND GLOBAL ECONOMIC COMPETITION,
the report of a
two-year study by a National Research Council panel (WN 16 Jan
87), has had an immediate impact in Washington. The report,
which argues that a broad view of national security must include
economic vitality, has resulted in a major shift of power from
Defense to Commerce. It presented convincing evidence that DoD
policies had done little to control technology transfer to the
Soviets, but were having a devastating effect on US exporters.
New regulations easing license requirements for exports to our
allies were announced by Commerce on Wednesday. Yesterday, at a
National Academy seminar, Rep. Don Bonker (D-WA), Chairman of the
Subcommittee on International Economic Policy and Trade, reported
on legislation intended to reaffirm the primacy of Commerce in
export controls and explicitly restrict the role of the
Department of Defense. He called the report "the catalyst needed
to get things moving." Secretary of Commerce Malcolm Baldrige,
speaking in the same session, congratulated the study panel on
the exquisite timing of the report release, which came just as
Congress and the Administration were focusing on global
competitiveness as a major concern. It seems he was being too
modest. The report was released prematurely after a draft was
leaked to the Washington Post. It is generally believed that the
Commerce Department leaked the report because they suspected the
Defense Department of plotting to bottle it up on national
security grounds.
2
. THE NSF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CENTERS,
contained in the FY 88 budget request, have yet to be described in any detail.
Erich Bloch, NSF Director, has requested the National Academy of
Sciences to assemble a panel to help articulate the structure
governance, review mechanisms, support and appropriate fields of
research for such centers. A similar panel, organized by the
National Academy of Engineering, helped shape the Engineering
Research Centers. The panel, which will be headed by Richard
Zare of Stanford, has only until 1 Jun 87 to complete its study.
Five of the eleven members of the panel, including Zare, are
members of APS. The others are Praveen Chaudhari of IBM, Dan
Kleppner of MIT, William Press of Harvard and Larry Smarr of the
University of Illinois.
3. THE DEPARTURE OF FOUR OUT OF FIVE NSF DIVISION DIRECTORS
in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate appears to
have been largely a coincidence and not the result of mass
disatisfaction with NSF policies toward the physical sciences,
although an element of that does exist. In any case it creates a
serious problem, and Erich Bloch is appealing to the scientific
community to identify outstanding persons willing to render a
service to science and the nation in these positions.
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