One important element of the Department's environmental initiative is the creation of six regional environmental hubs in key regions around the world to address regional environmental issued by enhancing cooperation among governments. The goal of these hubs, however, extends beyond improved cooperation among governments. One of our hosts today, the National Research Council, wrote recently that science is the most truly international of human enterprises, because its practitioners collaborate and compete in an endeavor in which nationality is largely irrelevant. The internationalization of science has grown steadily since World War II -even more so since the end of the Cold War. International collaboration expands and deepens scientists' understanding of the natural world, and strengthens the science that provides important benefits to society.
Science is the driving force behind many of our environmental policies.
It helps define our international environmental agenda by providing the foundation for our negotiations and agreements, ensuring our role as effective leaders on these issues. Scientific innovation is as crucial to policymakers today as manufacturing, trade and defense, for maintaining our nation's leading role in the world. There has been some criticism recently of the role of the State Department as the representative of U.S. science and technology interests in the international arena. But I'm here to tell you that the State Department is indisputably committed to maintaining the U.S. position as the world's preeminent player in science and technology. We are now concentrating on how to reorganize and reshape the science function at the State Department and our embassies abroad to enable us to achieve our science and technology goals in this time of shrinking and shifting budget resources.