Science and technology policy in the United States: trading in the 1950 model

In the 1990s, the US is discovering that in the decades ahead, economic competition will involve technological grappling on a scale equal to the military struggles of the mid-20th century. The US has two fundamental choices. On the one hand, the National System of Innovation can follow its present path which places heavy emphasis on isolated basic science and defense technologies. The second path involves a systematic evolution of science and technology policy - a unified policy focused on commercial rather than military technology. It is time to move completely away from the 1950 model of US science and technology policy and undertake the major reconceptualisation of the entire enterprise that is now long overdue. -from Author