Polar research and the endings of The Cold War

• Autores: Stian Bones
• Localización: The Circulation of Science and Technology: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference of the European Society for the History of Science. Barcelona, 18-20 November 2010 / coord. por Antoni M. Roca Rosell, 2012, ISBN 978-84-9965-108-8, págs. 875-878
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Throughout the Cold War, the scientific efforts would serve many political interests. It is not difficult to find examples where science was attached to a political strategy –both in the East and in the West– which focused on power-oriented manoeuvring. This also holds to be true for the activities of the Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI). For decades it seemed to be some kind of a leitmotiv for the NPI not to let any of the Great Powers, and especially not the Soviet Union, get such advantages at Svalbard or in any other strategically important areas, that it loosened up or threatened Norway’s sovereign rights. But this is not the whole story. Another strategy was also always evident in polar research, the one that was oriented towards true international cooperation, and this strategy will be described in this presentation. On the basis of the rich source material from the NPI, we will analyse the role that NPI and polar research played towards the end of the Cold War. Polar scientists from several countries –Canada, Denmark, Norway– invited partners in the Soviet Union to a closer cooperation, and when Gorbachev took seat in the Kremlin in 1985, this also laid a new foundation for polar research throughout the whole Arctic region.