AbstractThe Foundation's 1988 (24th) Annual Lecture Unesco has been through a crisis in recent years expressed vividly by the resignation from membership of the USA, the UK and Singapore. However, Unesco as a forum, as a meeting-place for scientists from the world over, as a crossroads for ideas, has a specific role to play within the United Nations. Here Unesco is seen as the facilitator, the experimenter, the clearing house, the innovator, the bridge, the catalyst.The draft medium-term plan for the 1990s stems from a global vision and an holistic and inter-disciplinary approach. There are many changes underway but it is of prime importance to regain the membership of those countries that have resigned.