Page 462 - Cultures and Organizations

Intercultural Encounters 427

erations, should this technology be allowed to spread? If so, to where and
under what conditions? If not, can one stop it?
The combination of world population growth, economic development,
and technological developments affects the world ecosystem in ways that
are known only in small part. Uncontrolled tree-cutting in many parts of
the world destroys forests. Long-term climate changes due to the green-
house effect of increased emission of carbon dioxide and other gases are
evident; they have a built-in delay of decades, so that even if we were to stop
emitting now, the greenhouse effect will increase for a long time. Coping
with these problems requires worldwide research and political decision
making in areas in which both perceived national interests and cultural

values are in conflict. Decisions about sacrifices undertaken today for ben-

efits to be reaped by the next generation have to be made by politicians
whose main concern is with being reelected next year or surviving a power
struggle tomorrow. In addition, the sacrifices may lie in other parts of the

world than the region occupied by the main benefactors. The greenhouse
effect can be reduced if the tropical countries preserve their rain forests.
These countries are mainly poor, and their governments want the revenue
of selling their hardwoods. Can they be compensated for leaving intact
what remains of their rain forests?
The trends outlined are threats to humanity as a whole. They repre-
sent the common enemy of the future. Confronting a common enemy has
always been the most effective way of making leaders and groups with con-

flicting values and interests cooperate. Maybe these threats will become so
imminent as to force us to achieve a level of global intercultural coopera-
tion that has never existed.
Much will depend on the acquisition of intercultural cooperation skills
as part of the mental software of politicians. Former U.S. diplomat Glen
Fisher, in his book Mindsets, stated the following about the relationship

among economics, culture, and politics:

An interdisciplinary approach to international economic processes hardly
exists. Most important, routine applications of conventional economic
analysis cannot tolerate “irrational” behavior. But, from a cross-national
and cross-cultural perspective, there is a real question as to what is rational
and what irrational; both are very relative terms and very much culture
bound; one person’s irrationality might turn out to be another’s orderly and