CHAPTER 2.  Early Science and Technology Issues in Foreign Affairs

Facilitation of Private Exchanges of Scientists and of Conferences

Cooperation of Place

The International Geophysical Year (1957-8); the Antarctic Treaty

Early Nuclear Energy and Space Projects

"But there is a growing pleasure in comparing the character of the scenery in different countries, which to a certain degree is distinct from merely admiring its beauty."
Charles Darwin

Facilitation of Private Exchanges of Scientists and of Conferences

Science was scarcely a policy issue even domestically in the United States until after the Second World War.  Science was pursued at tranquil universities, in the laboratories of a few companies that depended on technology and in some public institutions like experiment stations at land grant universities.  American scientists had good reputations, but in 1939 they comprised only a small
fraction of the world total.  It was common even for those with the best education to finish their training in Europe, often Germany.  Of 103 scientific Nobel prizes (physics, chemistry and physiology or medicine) awarded 1901-1939,  Americans had received only eighteen.  Their total through 1996 was 170, or 41 percent.

The main international issue of science prior to 1939 was the facilitation of private exchanges of scientists between research institutions and of their easy movement to attend international conferences.  Professional societies and foundations also occasionally sought government help to get stipends, travel funds and visas.

Cooperation for Place

National boundaries are irrelevant in subjects like geology, astronomy and the collection and characterization of biological specimens.  Darwin's laboratory was the whole world on the five-year voyage of the "Beagle."  Early forms of international cooperation permitted scientists to begin, extend or complete studies not possible at home.  Dutch scientists could study hydrology in Holland but hardly volcanoes.  Scientists investigated geology in South America, botany in Brazil, tropical diseases in Africa, oceanography over the major part of the earth's surface and astronomy through the clear air of the high Andes.  Often the scientists of the country of desired access had little to offer except their position on the globe or the nature of their homeland.  This was enough and led to an activity still going on: cooperation for place.  Government intervention to facilitate research by its own nationals abroad or their travel to conferences became more and more necessary as politics interfered with the free flow of
people, but there was little in the way of formal agreements between governments to facilitate such cooperation before the 1970s.

One form of S&T cooperation for place can cause acute problems, and that is health research.  Country A perhaps may help the country of Farawaia eradicate disease alpha by joint development of a vaccine.  Since alpha exists only in Farawaia, its citizens are the only ones that receive the test vaccinations.  Something goes wrong.  Three citizens die, although the
vaccine is a success overall and thousands of lives will be saved in the future.  If the United States was country A, the U.S. embassy in 'N Longago, Farawaia's capital, has major problems explaining the experiments and denying that the United States was using foreigners as "guinea pigs" rather than testing on its own citizens.  Cooperation with the World Health Organization usually,
if not always, helps avoid accidents and fends off such criticisms.

The International Geophysical Year (1957-8); the Antarctic Treaty

Groups of scientists from many countries designed a concerted study of the earth called the International Geophysical Year (IGY).  There were so many experiments and projects that the year was actually eighteen months long (July 1957-December 1958).  A key object of study was the continent of Antarctica, where distances and weather limit experimentation and put a premium on cooperation and sharing.

Convinced of the value of such international projects as the IGY, twelve participating countries met to negotiate the Antarctic Treaty of 1959 that entered into force in 1961.  The role of science in this landmark international political treaty cannot be overemphasized.

Antarctic Treaty contracting parties, which by 1998 numbered twenty-four, pledge to dedicate Antarctica for research and to cooperate in carrying it out.  In exchange, the parties give up two rights.  First, they agree to hold all territorial claims in Antarctica in abeyance.  This freezes the knotty problem not only of territorial claims but of overlapping claims, like Argentina's
and Chile's.  (Interestingly, the United States and the USSR had no claims although both were active scientifically on the continent.)  Secondly, the parties undertake to keep the continent free of military bases and weapons, nuclear weapons in particular.  Each party has freedom of access at any time to any or all areas of Antarctica, including all other countries' bases.  The Antarctic Treaty was the first nuclear disarmament treaty in that it declared the frozen continent a nuclear-free zone.  At the same time parties set a precedent for agreements to come when they agreed to inspection of their research bases.

Since 1961 two additional major treaties have been negotiated that apply to Marine Living Resources (1980) and Mineral Resources Management (1991).  The former seeks to preserve the whole Antarctic marine ecosystem.  In 1985 it banned fishing for cod and continues to preserve krill stocks.  The latter sets up rules for mining and minerals exploitation.

Early Nuclear Energy and Space Projects

Tentative attempts to use science and technology to facilitate international relations included the Acheson-Lilienthal plan for international control of atomic energy proposed in 1946.  The original plan was never adopted but it foreshadowed the needs for safeguards, control and inspections later adopted internationally.  It even foreshadowed U.S.-USSR cooperation in nuclear science that finally came about in 1973.  President Eisenhower's dramatic Atoms for Peace proposal made at the United Nations in 1953 was more favorably received and led to a UN conference on the subject in 1955 and the establishment on the watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in 1956.  Eisenhower proposed to share nuclear technology for peaceful purposes -- mainly electrical energy generation and medical uses -- in return for voluntary limitations of nuclear weapons.  (See Chapter 7.)

President Kennedy proposed space cooperation  initiatives involving the USSR in 1962 and 1963.  Nothing came of these, and Kennedy soon promoted the unilateral space program to land men on the moon that proved eminently successful for U.S. international S&T prestige in 1969.