At any given moment an extremely complicated process of interaction is occurring between the national systems into which mankind has grouped itself. These nations or countries represent the type of system by which, according to Karl Deutsch, mankind is attempting to carry out the art of government.' The national systems are in a constant process of development or degeneration, as viewed over time. Some are building up, delineating their boundaries from the global environment more clearly, taking their place as nation-states in the world. Others work to preserve and conserve the national systems already achieved. And still others are disintejratin,a. becoming shadowv and permeable, not maintainirg a clear demarcation between themselves and the 'outside'.Yet if we could place ourselves figuratively above the earth and if we had the sensitivity to tell what is going on among mankind below, we would find generally that men have organized themselves into national systems with discernible identities. Some elements of a 'worldsystem' might be present, but the nation-state is still the main unit of governance at this stage of history.But while nations have their unique and separate being with their own processes of interaction and senses of community within their systems, they are no more completely isolated than are the individuals who dwell in a great city. A constant interplay of activity brings nations as well as individuals into contact with others. Events external to the system or to an organism may have the most important consequences for it, and all living systems have provisions for receiving information concerning external events from the 'outside'.The price a living system or organism may pay if it fails to utilize its powers of surveillance of its environment can be death or serious injury to it. Nations, just as biological organisms, must carry out this surveillance of the environment through an exchange of information if thev wish to continue existence in the face of outside hazard. Informational inputs resulting from such survevs of the environment give the controllers and directors of the systems knowledge upon which to base responses appropriate to the maintenance of their system. 1. Nationalism and Social Communication (Rev. Ed.: Cambridge, Mass.: The M.I.T. Press, 1966), p. 4. 240Information -knowledge, facts, intelligence -is the raw material which must be digested and interpreted and the appropriate responses correlated. Lasswell's functions of communication as a surveillance of the environment and then correlation of response by parts of a society apply to a consideration of the relationship between nations of the world.= His third function of communication, passing on the cultural heritage, would seem also to apply, but to a lesser degree.Information exchanged between national systems, then, may be processed to protect the existence of the systems, and to set policies for their governance. The forms such information may take are many. A few of them would include diplomatic messages as purveyors of ...
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