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"Bridging East and West" recounts the events that led to the founding of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in 1972. This long and arduous process sprang from the multilateral part of American bridge building policies during the 1930s and early 1970s. It serves as a microcosm for multilateral relations where many partners pursue their own agendas. The euphemism for the process, "Common problems of advanced industrialized societies", was used to attract Western as well as Eastern European nations and shows that the Americans also needed bridges to the West. McGeorge Bundy, adviser to both Kennedy and Johnson, wrote, "government... is a process [of] continuous, sustained and intensive effort, generally uncertain at the beginning of what its exact final outcome will be, alwaus responsive to the situation as it is, and continuously aware of the need to be on top of that situation." Goals may evolve over time, but for Bundy the process of achieving these uncertain goals needed to be controlled. Given Bundy's crucial role in the project that resulted in IIASA, the question "What is IIASA ?" may be less interesting than "Why was it established ?", "How was it done ?" Thus, placing this ambitious project within its political era, we can ask what it tells us about cooperation and conflict during the Cold War.

System analysis --- Research --- International cooperation --- International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis --- United States --- Europe --- Foreign relations --- Relations --- System analysis - Research - International cooperation --- System analysis - Research - United States --- United States - Foreign relations - 1963-1969 --- United States - Foreign relations - 1969-1974 --- United States - Relations - Europe --- Europe - Relations - United States