Comparative politics
More general subjects:
‘Through Diplomatic Channels’. Science, Diplomacy, and Greece’s Efforts for Election to the IAEA Board of Governors, 1957–1961 *
This paper examines Greek efforts to secure a position on the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) during its early years. Fuelled by pride in his country’s advancements in nuclear matters and bolstered by what he saw to be a positive alliance to the United States Admiral Athanasios Spanidis president of the Greek Atomic Energy Commission attended the first General Conference of the IAEA in 1957 with high hopes. However Spanidis and Greece soon discovered that the diplomatic game in this novel international setting was much more challenging than anticipated. Greek ambitions suffered a double setback: not only did the US fail to support Greece’s candidacy for the IAEA board instead it backed Turkey’s application for this prestigious role — at a time of heightened tensions between Greece and Turkey regarding the unresolved Cyprus issue. This paper argues that Greece had quickly to adapt to the power plays of diplomacy within the multilateral framework of the IAEA. Learning from the bitter experience with the US in 1957 Greece strategically sought to forge relationships with other influential countries within the Western Bloc. This chapter shows how by carefully navigating the intricacies of the multilateral diplomatic dynamics at work within the IAEA Greece secured a position on its Board of Governors in 1961. The analysis also underlines how the internal dynamics of the IAEA were powerfully shaped by the wider geopolitical developments of the 1950s–1960s Cold War.
Needle Diplomacy. Acupuncture and Scientific Exchange in Cold War China and the United States
In the early 1970s while China was emerging from the height of the Cultural Revolution a surprising technology helped pave the way for the future rapprochement between China and the United States: the acupuncture needle. As an ostensibly apolitical practice acupuncture came to serve as a scientific lubricant that eased the Cold War tensions between the two countries providing an entryway into Sino-American people-to-people exchanges and future intellectual collaboration. At the same time acupuncture represented an alternative imagining of a new world order one in which scientific knowledge could just as easily flow from East to West as it did the reverse. By showcasing China’s ability to break new ground in the realm of medicine and surgery acupuncture became a form of soft power that highlighted the innovative capacity of Chinese communism and the revolutionary potential of Mao Zedong Thought. Through the captivating achievements of new needling technologies the Chinese government was able to not just extol the effectiveness of Maoism on a global scale but to also — albeit briefly — direct the terms of its diplomatic engagements with the capitalist West.
From ‘Integration Project’ to ‘Three-in-One Project’. Family Planning and Health Diplomacy between Japan and the People’s Republic of China, 1970s–1980s
This paper examines the co-production of knowledge-making and health diplomacy in the course of implementing the Japanese family planning overseas development aid program ‘Integration Project’ (integurēshon purojekuto インテグレーション・プロジェクト) known as the ‘Three-in-One Project’ (sanjiehe xiangmu三结合项目) in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The analysis focuses on the historical background to this program and the actual process toward its implementation. The paper argues that the implementation of the ‘Integration Project’ as the ‘three-in-one project’ in the PRC was more than just a simple act of linguistic translation. Rather it shows how this involved epistemological and political negotiations that resulted from the specific ways in which healthcare advocacy and diplomacy were arranged in a constellation that involved Japan PRC and organizations active in the sphere of international governance since the 1970s as the political contours of the Cold War were changing significantly.
Cooperation, or Control? Scientist-Diplomats, the IAEA, and the Global Nuclear Order *
This paper critically examines the case of three prominent scientist-diplomats to elucidate the functional aspects of post-World War II nuclear science diplomacy. The paper biographically maps the rise of these three scientist-diplomats namely Homi J. Bhabha from India Bertrand Goldschmidt from France and Vasily S. Emelyanov from the Soviet Union in post-WWII nuclear diplomacy and their role in shaping global atomic energy governance. Their technical expertise and bearings of national styles profoundly influenced their approach to nuclear scientific cooperation. The science diplomats we show became instrumental in setting the norms of scientific cooperation as they forged a common diplomatic understanding of crucial scientific and technological matters based on varying ideological and geostrategic considerations. The three scientist-diplomats constantly negotiated the domestic and international spheres using their specialized knowledge and positioning to shape necessary techno-political outcomes. The three scientist-diplomats in turn reveal the character of scientific cooperation that is innately political with diverse ideational and material underpinnings.
Cosmic Diplomacy and Vertical Sovereignty. The Equator’s Claims over the Geostationary Orbit, 1976–1982 *
The emergence and rapid advancement of space technology during the Cold War led to heated discussions about the geopolitical and legal framework of a world expanding into the stars as nations grappled with the implications of their newfound capabilities. During the early years of space exploration the competition for ownership access and use of outer space ignited multilateral debates involving not only the United States and the Soviet Union but also alternative discourses expectations and experiences from various stakeholders. This intricate web of cosmic diplomacy significantly contributed to the formation of a legal order for outer space. This chapter analyses the political legal and technoscientific arguments put forward by African Southeast Asian and Latin American representatives in international fora regarding the regulation of activities in a particular strip of outer space. It uses the development of a regulatory framework for the geostationary orbit (GEO) as a case study in which to explore this alternative perspective. It shows how equatorial countries pushed for a regulatory regime in space that accounted for the vertical dimension of national sovereignty. Drawing upon principles of decolonization internationalism and scientific cooperation their central argument advocated equal access to outer space for non-spacefaring countries. The analysis follows these negotiations by examining the records of the United Nations the proceedings of its Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) and the first and second declarations of the equatorial countries (1976 and 1982) which staked their sovereignty claims over the GEO.
Investigating CERN’s Science Diplomacy in the Midst of the Cold War. The Case of the CERN–Serpukhov Collaboration *
For all that has been written about the Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire (CERN) including its important political and diplomatic role less attention has been paid to its material aspects. This chapter highlights the pivotal importance of this material dimension to the formation of the organization’s worldwide networks. It emphasizes too how CERN has been shaped by technology transfer and the circulation of instruments innovations and artefacts. To this end the chapter uses the CERN–Serpukhov collaboration as a case study to illuminate the material dimension of CERN’s place and role in Cold War diplomacy including its scientists. During the 1960s Western Europe was both scientifically and politically seeking to move beyond the influence of the United States and to become an independent force in the Cold War. This would also enable the region to forge détente with the Soviet Union. In this geopolitical context spearheaded by the French the CERN–Serpukhov collaboration involved scientific technological diplomatic financial and industrial dimensions. It centred on a powerful particle accelerator — the U-70 Synchrotron located at the Soviet Institute for High Energy Physics in Serpukhov — which enabled research into high-energy particles. The analysis focuses on two different technical systems which formed part of the U-70 Synchrotron set-up and which travelled from Europe to the Soviet Union and were used as assets in diplomacy between governments scientific organizations and intelligence agencies. The first system was the gigantic ‘Mirabelle’ bubble chamber which was constructed in the French nuclear laboratory of Saclay and then transported piece by piece to Serpukhov. Second were the computers of the British manufacturer ICL which afforded prime opportunities for increased economic cooperation and trade flows between Western Europe especially the UK and the Soviet Union. These computers became a source of serious friction between the US and the UK an episode which involved of the CIA and the CoCom and highlights the sensitivities surrounding East–West technology transfer at CERN during the Cold War.
Reaching for the Stars during the Cold War. Science and Diplomacy in the Rise of Astronomy in Chile *
In the late 1950s and early 1960s scientists from the United States Western Europe and the Soviet Union arrived in Chile to build astronomical observatories. Their initial task was to find a suitable location which required exploring the desert and negotiating with local authorities which had little experience in astronomy. Some Chilean scientists and politicians saw this as a unique opportunity to advance national interests by leveraging the involvement of three international organizations. The Chilean State University played a crucial role in negotiations with both the American team and the Soviet Union while the government favoured Western Europeans and the US involving the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. These transnational exchanges significantly advanced astronomy in Chile highlighting how science in the 1960s was influenced by Cold War politics. This process not only impacted northern-hemisphere science but also enabled Chile a Third World country to take an active role in cutting-edge astronomy establishing a precedent for international scientific agreements and paving the way for future astronomical growth in the country.
The Global Experiment. How the International Atomic Energy Agency Proved Dosimetry to be a Techno-Diplomatic Issue *
This paper draws attention to the role of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in shaping radiation dosimetry practices instrumentation and standards in the late 1950s and 1960s. It traces the beginnings of the IAEA’s radiation dose intercomparison program which targeted all member states and involved the WHO so as to standardize dosimetry on a global level. To standardize dosimetric measurement methods techniques and instruments however one had to devise a method of comparing absorbed dose measurements in one laboratory with those performed in others with a high degree of accuracy. In 1964 the IAEA thus started to build up what I call the ‘global experiment’ an intercomparison of radiation doses with participating laboratories from many of its member states. To carry out the process of worldwide standardization in radiation dosimetry I argue an organization with the diplomatic power and global reach of the IAEA was absolutely necessary. Thus ‘global experiment’ indicates a novel understanding of the experimental process. What counts as an experiment became governed by a process that was designed and strictly regulated by an international organization; it took place simultaneously in several laboratories across the globe while experimental data became centrally owned and alienated from those that produced it.
Imai Ryūkichi. Japan’s Nuclear Diplomat
The onset of the nuclear age led to a revolution in international politics and diplomacy. It also gave rise to the need for a new kind of diplomat one who could operate effectively across the diverse fields of international organisations national politics and the scientific communities associated with nuclear physics. One such nuclear diplomat who emerged in this new system and who did much to create and define the role was Imai Ryūkichi a Japanese and US-trained nuclear engineer and an executive at the Japanese Atomic Power Company. Over the course of a long career Imai acted as an intermediary between the Japanese government and the country’s nuclear power industry and also between Japan and its international nuclear partners. He made a major contribution to Japan’s stance on nuclear weapons to its adherence to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and to the international safeguards regime under which the nuclear energy industry operated. A further dimension of his work involved a role in public diplomacy writing books and articles advancing and explaining his way of thinking on nuclear matters to a wider audience. Imai’s career and how he positioned himself within the nuclear nexus nationally and internationally illustrates the changing nature of international diplomacy in the nuclear age. It also shows the importance of figures who could operate across — and form links between — diverse spheres of activity countries and international agencies.
A Disunited Front? The World Federation of Scientific Workers and the 1952 Korean War Bacteriological Warfare Allegations
Historical scholarship on international science and the relationship between science and diplomacy have tended to focus on a common set of ‘canonical’ institutions. This is certainly true of international scientific organizations for these have long served as the normative defaults. Others like the World Federation of Scientific Workers (WFSW) have been cast as comparatively fringe examples when discussed at all owing to their comparatively overtly politicized character. This chapter considers internal diplomacy that took place among WFSW scientists set in motion by a state-supported delegation of scientists from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) looking to leverage their influence in the international nongovernmental organization to encourage its public support for allegations that the American military had used bacteriological warfare during the Korean War. Against the backdrop of long-running armistice negotiations and a wider push on the part of PRC foreign affairs officials and scientist interlocutors to gain international support for these allegations the internal dynamics of the WFSW provides new insights into the tensions and challenges that arise when state actors seek to leverage international scientific organizations for diplomatic ends. The WFSW case is especially notable for taking place during a crucial period in which ideologies of science were in flux providing a window onto the nature of scientist-to-scientist diplomacy.
The Missing Interaction: Science and Diplomacy in the Early Cold War
This book enriches our understanding of the circumstances and conditions that have made the relation between science and diplomacy a primary concern of the political landscape in the twenty first century. As western liberal democracy and its effects on the environment but also on global war politics are under question authors in this collective volume rethink the effects that an ahistorical definition of science diplomacy has had on world politics. They document the historicity of the entanglement between on the one hand epistemic practices and knowledge production and on the other foreign policy strategies and negotiation tactics. The book is the first in a series of what Rentetzi calls 'Diplomatic Studies of Science' a highly inter- and trans- disciplinary field that analyzes science and diplomacy as historically co-produced. It primarily focuses on the entanglements of science and diplomacy after the Second World War bridging history of science diplomatic history and international relations
Eagles Looking East and West
Dynasty, Ritual and Representation in Habsburg Hungary and Spain
Symbolised by the ‘double-headed eagle’ looking East and West the Habsburg dynasty constituted a universal power structure in the early modern era. The dynasty’s Spanish and Austrian branches created a code of shared identity one which also encompassed their religious piety and their ability to pitch the Austriacum Imperium against multiple enemies worldwide.
The present volume investigates the construction of the dynasty’s political image in two spheres the Kingdom of Hungary and the Spanish monarchy between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. Fifteen Hungarian Czech and Spanish specialists offer comparative perspectives on the Habsburg era during this convulsive period of European history addressing topics including diplomatic links dynastic ritual and representation and the Order of the Golden Fleece. In covering a wide range of themes their contributions aim towards a better understanding of the emergence of new political attitudes in the Western world prior to the Enlightenment.
Contributors to the volume include Cristina Bravo Lozano Václav Bůžek Nóra G. Etényi Alfredo Floristán Imízcoz Rubén González Cuerva Borbála Gulyás Fanni Hende János Kalmár Zsolt Kökényesi Zoltán Korpás Pavel Marek Tibor Monostori and Géza Pálffy.
Agriculture in the Age of Fascism
Authoritarian Technocracy and rural modernization, 1922-1945
The agrarian policies of fascism have never before been studied from a comparative perspective. This volume offers an up-to-date overview as well as new insights drawn from eight case-studies on Italy Portugal Hungary Germany Austria Spain Japan and Vichy France. The consensus that emerges from them is that the agricultural and rural policies of fascist regimes tended towards modernization and that many of them resembled initiatives pursued in the post-war decades and the Green Revolution When viewed in this perspective the fascist era appears less as an aberration and more as an integral part in the global process of agrarian “modernization” a process whose merits are now being called into question.