Reform of the National Security Science and Technology Enterprise

A strong science and technology ST program has been vitally important to American national security since World War II and has to date given the United States a strategic advantage over competitors. During World War II and throughout the Cold War, highly specific and large-scale technology needs led to the concentration of national security ST NSST programs in a few agencies, with little cross-agency coordination. Since the end of the Cold War, circumstances have changed greatly. Meeting new and emerging threats to national security from global climate change to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and global terrorism requires an effective mechanism for direction, funding, and integration of the highly fragmented and very wide range of Federally supported ST. Science and technology underlie the elements of national power diplomacy, intelligence, military, economics, but they are only rarely named as elements of national power, and the priorities, policies, and personnel for ST are often neglected. Specific ST capabilities have been particularly isolated in direct applications to traditional security capabilities, and fragmented even more in addressing the new and broad challenges to our security. Thus, the structure and integration of ST in the Executive Branch agencies, integration of congressional ST committees, and the roles and responsibilities of Government scientists and engineers, are key issues that must be considered when evaluating how we can significantly improve our nation s security. With the onset of World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt, convinced of the importance of ST to winning the war effort, created the wartime Office of Scientific Research and Development OSRD in 1941. Led by the visionary Vannevar Bush, the goal of the OSRD was to develop a strategic enterprise for national research supporting the military.