Article ID: CBB001212894

The Politics of US Military Research in Greenland in the Early Cold War (2013)

unapi

Petersen, Nikolaj (Author)


Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology
Volume: 55, no. 3
Issue: 3
Pages: 294-318


Publication Date: 2013
Edition Details: Part of a special issue, “Perspectives on Cold War Science in Small European States”
Language: English

The focus of this article is US military research in Greenland and its role in Danish-American political relations in the early Cold War period 1945--1968. This was a period of intense US research activity that aimed to overcome the hostile Greenlandic environment and harness it for military purposes. In the US-Danish defense agreement on Greenland of 1951 the USA got a free hand to develop three so-called defense areas for military purposes, while it had to seek Danish permission for research and other activities outside these areas. The two partners had differing, but mainly compatible, interests in this process. The US interest was freedom to do research on the gigantic Greenland Icecap, while the Danish authorities emphasized the protection of its sovereignty over Greenland. The article follows the US research programs in the 1950s and 1960s and Danish responses in some detail, including the intriguing and still mysterious Camp Century project and its relationship with the US Army's Iceworm plan to deploy strategic missiles beneath the surface of the Greenland Icecap.

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Article Heymann, Matthias; Martin-Nielsen, Janet (2013) Introduction: Perspectives on Cold War Science in Small European States. Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology (pp. 221-242). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001212894/

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Authors & Contributors
Heymann, Matthias
Roberts, Peder
Nielsen, Kristian Hvidtfelt
Nielsen, Henry
Martin-Nielsen, Janet
Doel, Ronald E.
Journals
Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology
Traverse
Scientia Canadensis: Journal of the History of Canadian Science, Technology, and Medicine
Journal of Historical Geography
History of Physics Newsletter
Annals of Science: The History of Science and Technology
Publishers
Springer
University of California, San Diego
Viella
University of Wisconsin Press
Prometheus Books
Columbia University Press
Concepts
Cold War
Science and war; science and the military
Science and politics
Cross-national interaction
International relations
Nuclear weapons; atomic weapons
People
Teller, Edward
Einstein, Albert
Bruun, Anton F.
Ahlmann, Hans Wilhelmsson
Time Periods
20th century
20th century, late
20th century, early
19th century
Places
United States
Greenland
Denmark
Soviet Union
Polar regions
Europe
Institutions
United States. Army
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