Potential Contributions of Management Science to the Public Sector

In a recent speech, Dr. Edward E. David, Jr., the U.S. President's Science Advisor, cited several examples of the successful cooperation of nations to advance, share, and apply technology to their common problems without restricting any nation's ability to compete for markets with the products of that technology. He stressed, for one example, the application of communications satellites for global point-to-point communication and, for another, sharing of computer software. I was impressed by both cases. They should serve as precedents for accelerating technological cooperation across national boundaries. Government policies concerning complicated matters require much stronger, more direct, and earlier assistance from the management science community. This is true whether we are talking about foreign trade, economic development, the management of technology, caring for our natural resources, or any other of a score of issues. Increasingly, therefore, we should be taking a management science approach as we determine how to select our national and international choices and priorities.