The Political Economy of International Technology Transfer

This new volume, written by 13 recognized experts in their fields, is the first work to simultaneously investigate three major contexts in which technology transfer occurs--North-South, West-West, and East-West--and to bring together state of the art findings in this crucial issue. Drawn from papers prepared for a recent international conference on technology transfer, it includes the work of distinguished academicians, officials of government and international bodies, technical experts, corporate executives, and international lawyers. In the opening section, four specialists consider the transfer process from the vantage point of particular disciplines--economics, political science, law, and history--offering an integrative framework and principles instead of the usual narrow political or economic analysis. The second group of essays deals with North-South technology relations, stressing the role of technology in development, the prospects for the creation of scientific and technological capabilities in developing countries, and the central role of technology transfer in the agricultural/political economy of the Third World. The section on West-West transfers focuses on technological relations among industrialized nations, the status of Japan as a technological power, the interaction of science and technology, and the rule of multinational corporations. The final section investigates the strategic and military dimensions of technology transfer with Communist bloc nations. Three important topics are discussed: Western technology trade control policies toward the Communist block; the impact of Western technology on Soviet bloc countries; and China's emerging technology relations with the United States and other industrialized nations. A critical overview assesses the role of technology transfer in the overall technological process as well as in international affairs. Up-to-date bibliographies for each section makes the volume especially useful as a research tool for scholars and practitioners in the field.