Information Exchange and International Change
| DOI | 10.1177/004711788100700101 |
| Published date | 01 April 1981 |
| Date | 01 April 1981 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
979
INFORMATION
EXCHANGE
AND
INTERNATIONAL
CHANGE:
THE
CASE OF
INFOTERRA*
by
JOHN
GERARD
RUGGIE
AND
ERNST
B.
HAAS
THE
supply
of
information
is
increasing
at
an
extraordinary
rate,
internationally
no
less
than
domestically.
Of
some
190
United
Nations
information
systems
now
in
existence,
over
half
haw
been
established
since
1970,
most
of
these
since
1975.
Moreover,
the
increase
is
especially
pronounced
in
facilities
that
process
and
manipulate
information
rather
than
merely
storing
it,
and
which
have
an
active
outreach
component
rather
than
simply
waiting
to
be
used.
The
rate
of
growth
in
information
systems
catering
to
the
particular
needs
of
developing
countries
has
been
even
more
impressive;
they
now
comprise
over
one-third
of
all
facilities,
up
from
less
than
one-tenth
only
a
decade
ago.’
I
The
intended
objective
of
any
intergovernmental
information
system
is
to
upgrade
the
quality
or
sophistication
of
decision
making
and
policy
by
providing
greater
uniformity
of
access
to
specialized
information
that
some
and
perhaps
many
decision-
makers
previously
lacked.
Such
systems
can
be
particularly
useful
in
an
issue-area
like
the
human
environment-in
which
problems
are
relatively
novel,
highly
complex,
and
often
transnational
in
scope,
and
in
which
information
is
relatively
scarce,
highly
inter-
disciplinary
and
often
costly
to
produce.
Here,
such
systems
can
contribute
to
policy
change
through
the
substantive
activity
of
facilitating
the
dissemination
of
’information,
as
well
as
through
the
catalytic
activity
of
generating
an
awareness
among
policy-
makers
of
the
need
to
produce
and
utilize
information
where
this
awareness
does
not
already
exist.
There
is
no
presumption
that
*This
article
is
an
outgrowth
of
a
larger
set
of
&dquo;Studies
on
Inter-
national
Scientific
and
Technological
Regimes,&dquo;
co-directed
by
the
authors
and
funded
by
a
grant
from
the
Rockefeller
Founda-
tion.
’
Inter-Organization
Board
for
Information
Systems,
Directory
of
United
Nations
Information
Systems
(Geneva:
United
Nations,
1980),
2
Volumes.
The
Directory
lists
335
systems.
Thirty-two
of
these
are
either
(a)
not
operational,
(b)
mere
public
relations
centers
for
the
media,
thus
not
informational
as
we
use
the
term
here,
or
(c)
restricted
in
use
to
its
own
officials,
thus
not
international
as
we
conceive
of the
term
for
present
purposes.
Moreover,
111
others
are
simply
components
of
larger
systems.
Through
eliminating
the
first
set
and
merging
the
second,
we
arrive
at
our
own
count
of
192
systems.
980
international
harmony
will
follow.
Access
to
information
can
as
readily
sharpen
conflicts
of
interest
as
attenuate
them,
but
at
the
least
it
makes
more
transparent
factors
and
forces
that
otherwise
might
have
remained
masked
or
beyond
consideration
altogether.
Most
United
Nations
information
systems
have
a
second-
order
objective
as
well.
On
the
premise
that
knowledge
is
power,
the
redistribution
of
access
to
knowledge
is
seen
as
a
potential
means
to
compensate
for
the
lack
of
material
bases
of
power
in
developing
countries-as
a
means
to
substitute
&dquo;brains&dquo;
foe
&dquo;muscle,&dquo;
in
short,
and
thereby
to
enhance
the
capacity
of
poorer
countries
to
act
beyond
the
limitations
imposed
by
the
world
distribution
of
material
resources.
In
this
article,
we
examine
these
issues
in
the
context
of
the
most
inclusive
intergovernmental
system
for
the
exchange
of
environmental
information:
INFOTERRA,
a
component
part
of
the
UN
Environment
Programme.
We
proceed
as
follows.
Section
I
contains
a
brief
description
of
the
system.
In
Section
II,
we
con-
struct
an
activity
profile
of
it,
showing
what
use
is
made
of
it
and
by
whom.
In
Section
III,
we
address
the
more
elusive
issue
of
its
catalytic
role
in
generating
interest
in
and
awareness
of
the
human
environment
and
of
the
use
of
environmental
information
in
policy-making.
Section
IV
contains
a
discussion
of
problems
and
constraints
which
INFOTERRA
has
encountered.
In
Section
V
we
conclude
with
some
summary
remarks
about
the
lessons
of
INFOTERRA
for
the
broader
question
of
the
role
of
information
exchange
in
international
change.
I.
The
System
.
Numerous
references
to
the
need
to
exchange
environmental
information
on
a
systematic
basis
were
made
at
the
Stockholm
Conference
(UN
Conference
on
the
Human
Environment,
June
1972).2
Of
the
various
means
imaginable
for
the
construction
of
a
system
of
information
exchange,
the
most
demanding
is
to
create
an
international
data
bank
which
collects,
stores
and
delivers
information
on
its
own;
the
least
demanding
is
to
refer
users
to
sources.
The
Stockholm
Conference
adopted
the
concept
of
a
referral
service.3
Its
mandate
called
for
it
to
react
to
specific
requests
for
information
and
to
draw
upon
existing
sources
of
information,
with
the
new
international
environmental
organiza-
2
United
Nations,
Report
of
the
United
Nations
Conference
on
the
Human
Environment
held
at
Stockholm,
5-16
June
1972,
A/CONF.48/
14.
3
Recommendation
#101
of
the
"Action
Plan"
in
ibid.
The
evolving
IN-
FOTERRA
mandate
as
per
UNEP
Governing
Council
decisions
is
con-
tained
in
UNEP
Document
INFOTERRA-2/3.
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