The Scientific Culture and Its Role in International Negotiations 89

The general hypothesis of this book claims that when representatives of a particular professional culture interact with representatives of another professional culture, their performance is conditioned by their respective common frame of reference. In other words, the course of such interaction will vary according to the profession of an envoy or delegate— be he a professional diplomat, a politician experienced in domestic affairs or, say, a scientist. In this chapter, this theory is applied to the field of science, examining specifically scientific culture and its role in international negotiations.