Correspondents' Correspondence Interdependence
SCHELL, ERNEST H.
Interdependence Philadelphia—Some 200 local citizens gathered here last month to proclaim the home of Independence Hall an international city and attend a colloquium sponsored by the Global...
...Similarly, nuclear proliferation has proceeded at the unexpectedly modest rate of one additional country gaining possession of atomic weapons per decade, and member states of the nuclear club have so far demonstrated remarkable restraint...
...What is missing is an over-arching sense of spiritual unity...
...Nonetheless, global interdependence is a fact of life we will have to come to terms with, recognizing that it means, in part, a degree of dependence on others, whether for energy, raw materials, capital, markets, technology or whatever...
...Technology is not the inexorable force it once was either, Cleveland observed...
...As it happens, Muller declared, the current scene allows for guarded optimism in this area...
...The world system of technology is available to nearly every country," Perlmutter said, and will lead to a truly international system of production in the coming years...
...Internationalism is not a profound and continued sentiment," he said...
...Isaiah and the prophets did not have sophisticated knowledge," Muller said, "but [they] were able to articulate broad spiritual values...
...industry focuses on the home market and tries to sell the same products overseas...
...The Assembly of Penn-sylvanians," as the all-day meeting was officially called, heard a panel of distinguished scholars and practitioners in the field of transnational affairs...
...Until we alter our compartmentalized view of the world, he said, our graduate schools will continue to produce specialists lacking sufficient imagination and vision to tackle international concerns...
...And geopolitically the North-South axis is today a main arena of global affairs...
...Other important shifts in prespective have taken place, too, Cleveland pointed out...
...For the moment, as Perlmutter commented at the conclusion of the forum, the chief obstacle to the international ideal is the enduring concept of national indentity...
...You can't get a PhD in getting it together," he noted, implying that the synergy of the gener-alist is necessary at a time when the in-terrelatedness of world problems is shrinking the distinction between domestic and foreign affairs...
...Should economics and technology succeed in bringing the world closer together, a moral dimension would still be necessary to cement and guide it...
...For example, fear of overpopulation and the imminent disappearance of most of the world's resources has proven exaggerated...
...For the United States to remain competitive, Novak insisted, we must develop "a new will to participate in the world...
...we lock horns with the Soviet Union in the Third World rather than in Berlin or Eastern Europe...
...Interdependence Philadelphia—Some 200 local citizens gathered here last month to proclaim the home of Independence Hall an international city and attend a colloquium sponsored by the Global Interdependence Center of the World Affairs Council...
...Both allies are less concerned than we are about the distinction between the public and the private sectors, according to Novak, and have a "forward-looking policy that takes advantage of the world system...
...Jeremiah Novak, economic columnist for Asia Mail, responded that labor deserves far more respect than it gets...
...Howard Perlmutter, Professor of Social Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania and a prominent figure in transnational studies, then noted that the leadership of Western-based multinationals is now being challenged by businesses based in South Korea, Mexico, Brazil, and Eastern Europe...
...We should beware of the growing cynicism leveled against blue-collar workers, he warned...
...A second speaker, Ralph Ketchum, professor of American Studies at Syracuse University's Maxwell Graduate School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, questioned whether our present orientation could accomodate the concept of world cooperation and order...
...That may come in time...
...Japan, for instance, builds all its products for the export market and sells them at home as well, while U.S...
...But man cannot live by technology alone, suggested Robert G. Muller, Secretary of the Economic and Social Council at the United Nations...
...Scratch any internationalist in the right way, and you will find a nationalist underneath...
...Neither Germany nor Japan has a drop of oil and they import over 80 per cent of their raw materials, yet they have full employment and inflation rates of under 5 per cent because they export over one quarter of their Gross National Product compared to 7 per cent for the United States...
...In fact, it is management, not labor, that must change its values if we are to participate effectively in the world...
...Harlan Cleveland, director of the Program in International Affairs at the Aspen Institute, set the challenging tone for the conference by emphasizing the "holistic" nature of transnational studies...
...Reviewing the value structure of our liberal political economy, Ketchum concluded with dismay that we do not have much use for "the public interest" anymore...
...Isolation—no longer a viable option—is no longer even an admirable ideal.—Ernest H. Schell...
...we now have such knowledge, but lack spiritual awareness...
...The decision not to produce the ABM and the SST were important milestones for the United States...
...No union contract that was characterized as serving the best interests of the community would be acceptable to labor, he argued, and it is difficult to see how a society that places its faith in competing special interests could function positively in an interdependent world...
...There is a lesson to be learned from our allies about how to gear the economy toward the international market, stressed Novak...
...Not only is the degree of cooperation among UN delegates improving, but there is measurable improvement in world-wide sensitivity to human rights, resource management and environmental issues...
Vol. 62 • June 1979 • No. 12
