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Military expenditures, totalling $240 billion in 1973 are considered as an obstacle to development. Although the money spent by developing countries on arms is only around 15% of total military expenditures in the world, this percentage has tripled during the last 2 decades. But military budgets do not usually reflect the real magnitude of the burden: paramilitary organizations, some of which have expanded rapidly, are not financed out of military budgets, nor are investments in infrastructure even where these are built essentially international trade are no longer the industrially developed but developing countries. Some 40 or so Third World countries have taken up arms production, some of them producing highly sophisticated weapon systems, even though economic & technological difficulties are encountered. While tendencies toward militarization in these countries are far-reaching, the steady increase of military potential is not an isolated phenomenon, but is interrelated with other social trends. The perpetuation of the current state of affairs--characterized by impoverishment & misery for the majority of the population in the Third World, dependence on industrialized countries, & increasingly militant resistance against such conditions--demands ever greater numbers of military personnel. 1 Figure. AA.

One does not have to be a natural scientist or a science writer to appreciate the possible benefits of biotechnology for the developing countries, but one cannot be a social scientist without being apprehensive about the costs and unforeseen consequences these almost miraculous advances may entail. In the past few decades, it has become obvious that development or modernization is much more complex and harder to achieve than was often supposed when decolonization inspired hope that economic growth could be achieved rapidly, and that with it would come social as well as material progress. In most, though not all, of the developing countries, sustained and balanced economic growth has so far not been attained, for reasons that include inability to control population growth, poor climate and soil conditions, inadequate energy resources, and—no less important—the difficulty of transforming and adapting traditional cultural values and social structures. These deeply entrenched social conditions often frustrate efforts of reform, whether they are aimed at increasing average per capita income or at assuring fair distribution of the benefits of economic growth.

Motives and aims, including limiting dependence on foreign sources, development of economic and technological progress, and improving their balance of payments.

Foreign policy considerations for both Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States.