In the second half of the 20th century, the US enjoyed pre-eminence ...

To accomplish the objectives outlined above, the competition between the need to control S&T
information and the need for open S&T communications must be managed in the transition to
2050 and beyond. Policies and procedures for information control should be reevaluated to
determine a strategic balance between the risks, costs, and benefits of S&T information control
in a 2050 context.
Even if the DOD S&T community is reinvigorated as suggested above, the problems confronting
DOD as a result of S&T globalization will be formidable. DOD will not have the fiscal resources
to buy its way out of these problems by funding its own standalone program that is large enough
to maintain insight into the global S&T program or to play “catch up” to a foreign effort that has
gotten ahead. Some nonmonetary means must be found to motivate the national S&T community
to accept some responsibility for keeping DOD aware of global S&T developments that could
have significant national defense implications. In this regard, most of the U.S. national S&T
workforce of 2050 is yet to be educated. Perhaps the education system is where the motivation
should be developed as part of the effort to imbue students with an understanding of their
profession’s civic responsibilities. A concern for the health of national defense should be among
those civic responsibilities. It may be that an acceptance of this civic responsibility among the
national S&T community is essential for the solution of the DOD global S&T awareness
problem.
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