Article
ID: CBB001450344

Strategic Arctic Science: National Interests in Building Natural Knowledge---Interwar Era through the Cold War (2014)

unapi
Biology World War II National security Cross-national comparison Physical sciences Environmental sciences Cold War National histories Cross-national interaction Science and war; science and the military International relations 20th century Arctic regions Canada Greenland Soviet Union United States Norway

From the 1930s through the 1950s---the decades bracketing the second and third international polar years---research in the physical and biological environmental sciences of the Arctic increased dramatically. The heroic, expedition-based style of Arctic science, dominant in the first decades of the twentieth century, gave way to a systematic, long-term, strategic and largely statefunded model of research which increased both Arctic presence and the volume of research output. Factors that made this change possible were distinct for each of the five circumpolar nation-states considered here. For Soviet leaders, the Arctic was an untamed land containing vast economic resources, all within reach if its long-sought Northern Sea Route became reality; Soviet officials sought environmental knowledge of this region with a range of motivations from economic and strategic concerns to enhancing the prestige of socialism. In contrast, United States officials largely ignored the Arctic until the outbreak of World War II, when military commanders quickly grasped the strategic importance of this region. Anxious that the Arctic might become a literal battleground between East and West by 1947, as the Cold War began, Pentagon leaders funded vast northern research programs, including in strategically located Greenland. Canadian leaders---while appreciating the national security concerns of its powerful southern neighbor---were even more concerned with maintaining sovereignty over its northern territories and gaining knowledge to assist its northern economic ambitions. Norway and Sweden, as smaller states, faced distinct challenges. With strong claims to Arctic heritage but limited resources, leaders of these states sought to create independent research strategies while, especially in the case of Norway, protecting their geopolitical interests in relation to the Soviet Union and the U.S. This article provides the first internationally comparative study of the multiple economic, military, political, and strategic factors that motivated scientific activities and programs in the far north, from the interwar period through World War II and the Cold War, when carefully coordinated, station-based research programs were introduced. The production of knowledge about Arctic's physical environment---including its changing climate---had little resemblance either to ideas of science-based `progress,' or responses to perceived environmental concerns. Instead, it demonstrates that strategic military, economic, geopolitical, and national security concerns influenced and shaped most science undertakings, including those of the International Polar Year of 1932--1933 and the following polar year, the International Geophysical Year of 1957--1958.

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Article Doel, Ronald E.; Urban, Wråkberg; Zeller, Suzanne (2014) Science, Environment, and the New Arctic. Journal of Historical Geography (p. 2). unapi

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https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001450344/

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Authors & Contributors
Nielsen, Henry
Nielsen, Kristian Hvidtfelt
Ahuja, Neel
Bones, Stian
Brown, Kate
Elina, Olga Y.
Journals
Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology
Cold War History
Osiris: A Research Journal Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
Ambix: Journal of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry
Annals of Science: The History of Science and Technology
Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences
Publishers
Columbia University Press
Harvard University Press
Naval Institute Press
Oxford University Press
Springer
Viella
Concepts
Cold War
Science and war; science and the military
Cross-national interaction
Science and politics
Cross-national comparison
National security
People
Koch, Lauge
Seton, Ernest Thompson
Stalin, Joseph
Eisenhower, Dwight David
Lyndon Baines Johnson
Time Periods
20th century
20th century, late
20th century, early
Places
United States
Soviet Union
Greenland
Arctic regions
Canada
Norway
Institutions
Kaiser-Wilhelm-Instituten
United States. Army
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