Overview

This book provides new and critical perspectives on the internal development of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs (the PCSWA; Pugwash) and its role in international nuclear diplomacy during the 1960s Cold War.  Conceived by western scientists dissenting from their own government’s position on nuclear weapons, the conferences brought together elite scientists from across the East-West divide to work towards nuclear disarmament and for peace. The analysis follows two lines. First, the book charts the emergence during the conferences of a distinctive form of technopolitical communication that was crucial to the role of Pugwash in Informal cross-bloc dialogue about disarmament. This enabled Pugwash to realize its paradoxical vision of working both with and against governments to promote disarmament and was key to its role as both a forum for and actor within the realm of informal diplomacy. It is argued that Pugwash scientists formed the vanguard of what came in the1960s to be called Track II diplomacy. The relevance of the contemporary concept of Science Diplomacy for Pugwash is discussed. The second analytical focus of the book centers on the internal dynamics of the international Pugwash organization. It is argued that informal modes of working and a code of confidentiality accorded the leadership enormous power and autonomy: this small network of senior figures was able to control the Pugwash agenda and priorities, and to launch diplomatic initiatives beyond the conferences. However, by 1967, competing interests were fueling tensions and instability within Pugwash as it struggled for coherence and direction amid with the political challenges posed by the Vietnam War and European security. This crisis manifest the limits of the Pugwash project and placed its future in doubt.

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9783031121340

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Alison Kraft is an historian of science, technology and medicine in the twentieth century. She has published widely on the history of the life sciences, encompassing institutional, disciplinary and technological perspectives. Recently she has focused on the international dimensions of science. One research theme has centred on ‘science and peace’, focusing on the Pugwash organization during the early Cold War, including its role in informal nuclear diplomacy. This work has been published in the Journal of Cold War Studies (2018), and in a co-edited book, Science, (Anti-)Communism and Diplomacy: The Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs in the Early Cold War (Leiden: Brill, 2020). Most recently, as part of the History of the Max Planck Society project, her research is analyzing the processes and effects of Europeanization and internationalization at the Max Planck Society 1948-2002, especially the dynamics of institutional,disciplinary and epistemological change. 

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