The U.S. Should Increase Cooperation with Russian Science

Glenn Schweitzer, who has led the National Academy's program of U.S.-Russian scientific cooperation for decades, has an editorial in the July 18, 2008 issue of Science magazine. He writes:

Russia no longer needs assistance from the west to shore up its science and technology (S&T) base. Its gross domestic product is $1.4 trillion and increasing at an annual rate of almost 9%. Investment in nanotechnology is on track to reach $6 billion during the next several years. The research budget of the Russian Academy of Sciences is six times larger than in 2001, and research funds are on the rise throughout the ministries.

He suggests that the decrease in U.S. funding is starving the collaborative scientific linkages that have been created over past decades. He also notes, correctly I am sure, that there are a number of global systems problems of great importance to the United States that would be better understood more rapidly through strong U.S.-Russian scientific collaboration, and thus ameliorated sooner and more effecively.