EAN: 9783031121340

SPRINGERBRIEFS IN HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNO...

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 the 1960s 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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