Issue 71: Interdependence

Not long ago, before space shots became almost commonplace, the first U.S.-manned trip to the moon sent back remarkable photos of the home planet that Archibald MacLeish felt "may remake our image of mankind." He wrote in The New York Times (December 25, 1968):

"To see the earth as it truly is, small and blue and beautiful in that eternal silence where it floats, is to see ourselves as riders on the earth together, brothers on that bright loneliness in the eternal cold—brothers who know now they are truly brothers."

Yet Americans still often have an insular view of themselves, their nation, and their place in the global scheme of things. The United States is so large, so abundant in natural resources, and was protected for so long by the moats of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans that this inward focus once made sense. Modern means of travel, communications, trade, and warfare have shrunk the world dramatically, but the isolationist impulse remains strong. For example, over half the American people were unaware that the nation relied heavily on foreign oil even years after the 1973-74 Arab oil embargo and subsequent price hikes. Proposals for economic protectionism—the bill to require "domestic content" in foreign cars, for example—are popular in Congress, despite the fact that the United States must import if it is to export. The public at large and large numbers of scholars and government officials are essentially ignorant of such sweeping forces as Islamic fundamentalism. Foreign language abilities of Americans are down and declining. Exchange students from abroad, accustomed to discussing regional and world affairs, are struck by the provincialism of their U.S. hosts.

Resources for the Future was founded thirty years ago this month to take the long view of natural resources. RFF's focus has been primarily on domestic issues, but the foreign and global dimensions of the task have played large roles. Indeed, a purely U.S.-oriented approach would be impossible in a context in which the United States imports 3.5 million barrels of oil per day (down from 8.8 million in 1977), accounts in its exports for nearly 60 percent of the world's total trade in grain, depends on volatile foreign sources for many nonfuel minerals, and, together with Canada, exports some 75 percent of the value of forest products traded between major markets. Moreover, U.S. consumption patterns have both direct and indirect effects on regional and global production, consumption, and environmental degradation, and its policies frequently have international ramifications.

This thirtieth anniversary issue of Resources presents a sampling of RFF work and views concerning a world in which the United States is inextricably linked with its sister nations and peoples in myriad networks of mutual dependence. The articles that follow lack the dramatic impact of a photo from the moon, but their implications are the same: we are riders on the earth together, and we share—now or eventually—each others' problems and prospects.