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General Comments by Caryl Haskis

It has been a very special pleasure and privilege to read the first draft of Central issues ..., It is, I believe a truly great paper profoundly penetrating and dealing at a level of insight rarely if ever attained in treatments that take specific contemporary elements of policy as their chief concern. In my view, at after several readings, this is genuinely a basic document for American foreign Policy for the next decade.

He hopes it will be used as an introduction for the other policy papers in this series and it under lines all specific judgments and can provide an extremely significant framework for them.

There were two complexes of ideas in the paper that stood out. First is the notion, a new one to me, that while the technological developments of the modern world inevitably lead to further and further concentration of physical resources in the superpowers, and therefore in a military sense, to an ever more sharply bipolar world. The very nature of power itself tends to bring about the opposite evolution in the political realm -- to promote political social and multipolarity. One of the most important insights in the paper is the statement on page 33 that the heart of our foreign policy problems, is bound up with the issue that the fact of technology make for centralization while and political/psychological realities encourage pluralism; that the supreme physical challenge for us in the future in the foreign policy area will be to truly comprehend and deal with this fundamental dichotomy.

And the other idea that appears to me absolutely essential is to suggestion on page 15 that a new look at the national security policy of the U.S. via a bipartisan panel, formed somewhat along the lines of the old Gaither Committee is long overdue and that new administration should move quickly to constitute such a group. Recalling my own experience with the original Gaither Committee and the extremely important insight that were achieved, I feel extremely strongly about this. Indeed, it would seem to me important to expand the base of discussion beyond that of the national security policy alone -- and possibly into more than one such panel. Both these points seem so important. Hopes they will be emphasize in the final draft of the paper.

[M]

Comments by Caryl Haskins on Brookings Article

Page 1 - last sentence - 2nd para

"The age of the superpowers is nearing its end";

This statement at this point in the essay seems ambiguous. with respect
to the first sentence. in the second para. on page 6. In fact,
it states the first half of that thesis of "bipolar-multipolar"
dichotomy that is such a powerful issue in the paper. But the
essential point did not become clear until page 7. I think it ought
to be introduced much earlier -- indeed on page 1. What about
altering this sentence to read "and the age of the political super-
powers that succeeded it is now nearing its end."

Page 2 - last sentence

"What seems as tranquility to prosperity, through to of equilibrium."

Later in the essay the point is emphasized that eithin a system
highly hertogenous in respect of values, goals, expectations,
legitimacy, backgrounds of previous experience, etc. as we experience
on a global scale today, such equilibri are more than ever difficult
to achieve and maintain. But it seems to me worthwhile to introduce
the reader to this notion at this point. REINK

Point 3 - Page 2 - second para

"Stable periods have been characterized by some or all of the following features".

Add here, inconformaty with the above and to emphasise it, "reasonable
uniformity of values and preconceptions among states"

[4]

Point 4 - Page 3 top

"the stable technology removes insecurities of a qualitative arms race"

But of course it does not remove the lesser -- but still considerable insecurities involved in a quantitative race at a given level, where, also, the state with the greatest physical resources of money at in technology is equally able to triumph, though on a somewhat longer time scale. I think of Russians extreme push in the field of tanks in the inter World War I/World War II period, for example xxxxx or at the present time level in nuclear supmarine fleet.

Point 5 Page 3 first sentence 3rd para.

"The scope of domestic claims determines the resources available for the conduct of foreign policy and therefore for conflict."

The XXXX sequiteur here is not wholly clear to me. Are not the two in fact parallel growths routed in the same domestic conditions? Expand?

Point 6 - Page 6 - 1st sentence last para

"In a bipolar world, diplomatic adjustments are difficult because any relative gain on one side appears as an absolute loss for the other/"

This distinction is not clear to me. Should it be spelled out further?

[4]

Point 7 - Page 7 first para
" Hence they see no need not to purchase"
"No need to purchase"

Point 8 - Page 11 second sentence
"In other words, power and influence are/related than at any previous period."
In the present situation, does not influence, indeed, converge to real power?

Point 9 - Page 15 -
I would repeat my feelings that this suggestion of a modern (and modified) "gaither Panel" to be set up by a new administration is perhaps the most important one in the paper. In this context I wonder whether two further points ought not to be added to the agenda perhaps as in (a) and (b) ahead of the present in (a), something like this: (a) definitions of national interests and national security for the coming decade (or perhaps some shorter period -- I am reasonably sure it cannot be longer). (b) the relation of military to political power and influence.

Point 10 - Page 16 second para
"The heroes of the protest movement, through to .. none of there immediate problems"
Is not one of the motivating forces of this curious phenomenon the existence of obvious huge margins for improvement in such situations?
In any society, the very existence of such margins, which seem to me to give "reachable" opportunities to individuals to do something about them is of course a most important ingredient of hope everywhere.