The Exchange of People and Ideas

Abstract

In this paper attention is focused on long term exchanges of individuals, because this is the area in which interaction is most significant and in which there are the best possibilities for serious communication on the complex issues of Soviet-American cooperation. For the United States the exchanges provide indispensible access for hundreds of scholarly specialists who conduct research on Russian and Soviet life and culture. The majority of Soviet participants are in scientific and technical fields. For both sides the exchanges provide the less tangible benefits of mutual understanding which can come only from personal involvement and exposure. There are, however, various obstacles to maintain ing and broadening the exchange program: quantitative and practical problems, the securing of access to Soviet scholars on an individual basis, the lopsided imbalance of fields rep resented in the exchange and the working conditions for visiting scholars. While recent success and innovations illustrate the potential of the exchange program, worrisome questions about its future must be faced now; for, it is unlikely that the long range accommodation being sought by the USA and the USSR will take place without such an exchange program.