By now most of you are aware of the severe cuts in federal funding for the social and behavioral sciences and for the humanities proposed by the Reagan Administration.

At the National Science Foundation, while support for the natural sciences is slated to increase, the proposed budget for the social and economic sciences calls for a 65 percent reduction.

At the National Institute of Mental Health (ADAMHA), the Administration proposes to eliminate all social research, which is expected to include research on the family, socialization of children, effects of separation and divorce, evaluation of prevention efforts with children, effects of mass media on behavior of children. In addition, the definition probably will include social policy research, research on race and ethnic relations, studies of community structure and change and studies of social institutions.

If politics are based on the need, in any collectivity, to allocate scarce resources, then there should long ago have been a lively politics of social science information—but there has not been. However, political inaction can be attributed not only to non-scarcity, but also to the failure—for whatever reason—of affected persons to take action in their own interest.

The fact that scarcities do plague the field of social science information—especially at the international level—will be apparent if one reflects on the following facts:

• there is a growing output of social science research around the world, and much of it is carried out by scholars whose graduate education was completed at American universities;

• in more and more countries there is an increasing output of primary data—news, survey returns, census data, trade statistics, government documents, plans, maps, archeological findings—that can be used very fruitfully by social scientists in their research;

• the capacity of American researchers to secure support for research overseas, for field trips, for attendance at international conferences, and for the acquisition of foreign data has radically dwindled;

The Advanced Study Program of the Brookings Institution may be the largest continuing seminar on public policy in the United States, if not the world.

Is the American Constitutional system adequate to the needs of contemporary society?

Is the American system of government dominated by “special interests”?

Do “limits to growth” threaten to bring about increasing conflict among income groups in the United States?

Is the decline in economic productivity a threat to the international security of the United States?

What are the strengths and weaknesses of supply side economics?

What are the implications of the growth of the service economy for the various regions of the United States?

What are the relationships and tradeoffs among energy policy, inflation, environmental objectives, and regulatory policy?

What are the ethical implications of major public policies?

Each year, these and similar questions are explored in the approximately 100 seminars, conferences, and other educational programs conducted by the Advanced Study Program.

On November 13–14, 1980, the Advisory Committee on Historical Diplomatic Documentation convened in Washington for its 24th annual meeting with the officers and staff of the Department of State concerned with the compilation, release and publication of historical documentation on American foreign relations. As usual, the chief consideration of the Advisory Committee was the problems, progress and prospects of the Foreign Relations of the United States. During the initial, open meeting the Office of the Historian reported on its activities and plans to the Advisory Committee. The principal concerns discussed were (a) the publication schedule of the Foreign Relations series, and (b) the problems confronted in the delivery of central services used by the Office of the Historian. Late in the afternoon the committee members had an opportunity to converse informally with staff members. The morning session on November 14 was closed because of the confidential nature of the material supplied to discuss the problems of de-classification. To assist the members of the committee in preparing themselves for the session, the Office of the Historian had compiled a reading file of documents relating to its activities, containing classified and controlled information which had been made available in the Office of the Historian for examination on the morning of November 13. This session proved to be particularly useful because of the participation of the heads of the three geographic divisions of the Office of the Historian. After lunch that day, the Committee reconvened in the Office of the Historian to hear a brief report on the status of policy-related research. The Committee then met alone to evaluate the year's progress of the Office of the Historian and to discuss the nature of its annual report.