FOR RELEASE PRESS RELEASE ON GROWING INADEQUACY OF UNITED STATES RESEARCH ON SOVIET UNION AND EASTERN EUROPE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP86B00985R000300130016-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 10, 2005
• Sequence Number: 16
• Publication Date: February 9, 1982
• Content Type: PREL

Approved Fct! elease 2005/12/14: CIA-RDP86BO09WR000300130016-9
IREX International Research & Exchanges Board
655 Third Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017
Contact: Dorothy Knapp
or
Sophie Clarke
[phone]
FOR RELEASE
February 9, 1982--A report released today in New York City by IREX
(the International Research & Exchanges Board) calls attention to
the growing inadequacy of United States research on the Soviet Union
and Eastern Europe in contrast to the massive and expanding Soviet
efforts in foreign area research. According to the report, this
declining capacity to undertake essential studies of the Soviet bloc
will hamper U.S. foreign policy and national security in the very
near future.
Three prominent American specialists opt the Soviet Union and Eastern
Europe compiled the report, Foreign Area Research in the National
Interest: American & Soviet Perspectives, which is introduced by
Brigadier General. William E. Odom, Assisvant Chief of Staff for
Intelligence (Army). General Odom states, " The comparison is stark---
even alarming for those who believe that East-West relations remain
the critical axis of U.S. foreign and security policy."
Walter Connor, director of Soviet and East European studies at the
Foreign Service Institute of the Department of State (Arlington,
Virginia), reports on the recent findings of an inquiry into U.S.
national needs in foreign area research 'which estimates there are
Tele*0 vUVd4Pft8E'? a 200ffPt2 '14~3&,R ibBO698 W603Ub 1~- AqEWYORK
Sponsored by the American Council of Learned Societies and the Social Science Research Council
 Approved Fo4pelease 2005/12/14: CIA-RDP86BO09WR000300130016-9
currently only eleven hundred personnel in academia, government, and
the private sector working on the USSR and Eastern Europe, against
a conservatively estimated need for almost seventeen hundred such
persons. The manpower gap, evident in all fields, is particularly
great in such areas as economics, politics in Eastern Europe, socio-
logy, and nationalities studies.
Robert Legvold, director of the Soviet Project of the Council on
Foreign Relations in New York City, reports that the U.S. now suffers
from a serious depletion of expertise on Soviet foreign policy, and
that the number of advanced researchers working on the subject is
falling. The U.S. has no one in its universities or research organi-
zations currently publishing in such important areas as Soviet policy
toward NATO, toward the evolution of international economic rela-
tions, or toward Southern Africa.
Daniel C. Matuszewski, associate director of IREX with responsibility
for Soviet programs, calls attention to the sizable numbers of Soviet
researchers, by contrast, who are systematically studying the U.S.
and other foreign areas. Since 1956 the Soviet Union has made a
major investment in foreign area studies, building upon the base of
the institutes of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. Employing over
7,400 specialists in twelve key Moscow institutes alone, the Academy
has undertaken comprehensive research on factors influencing global
development in the search-for foreign relations "predictability."
Foreign Area Research in the National Interest is issued in the
series IREX Occasional Papers, brief reports on noteworthy confer-
Approved For Release 2005/12/14: CIA-RDP86B00985R000300130016-9
 Approved For.$eelease 2005/12/14: CIA-RDP86BO09MR000300130016-9
ences, research, and other activities supported by IREX. IREX is
the leading American channel for communication with the Soviet Union
and Eastern Europe in the social sciences and humanities. It was
founded in 1968 by the American Council of Learned Societies and the
Social Science Research Council at the initiative of U.S. universi-
ties, the Ford Foundation, and the Department of State, as an inde-
pendent, non-profit organization to administer America's advanced
research exchanges with socialist countries. The study is available
from IREX, 655 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 at a price of $5.
3
Approved For Release 2005/12/14: CIA-RDP86B00985R000300130016-9