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SCIENCE STUDIES EVENTS
TECHNOLOGY AS AN INSTRUMENT OF US FOREIGN POLICY
IN EUROPE IN THE EARLY COLD WAR
John Krige
Kranzberg Professor
School of History, Technology and Society
Georgia Institute of Technology
April 20, 2006
Thursday, 12:30pm-2:00pm
Sumwalt College, Room 102
At the end of the war the US was not only the leading industrial, economic
and military power on the globe: it was also the leading scientific and
technological power. Thanks to this lead, the administration could include
science and technology in its repertoire of instruments to shape the
postwar world order in line with American interests. In this paper I will
show how it considered using its technological leadership to steer the
European space program in the 1960s. Some senior officials in the US,
notably NASA, saw technological sharing as a way of helping Europe close
the 'technological gap', of encouraging multinational (as opposed to
national) rocket/missile programs, and of diverting European resources away
from the development of independent military aerospace programs out of US
control. The paper will also explore the conflicts surrounding this
initiative in Washington and in European capitals, and describe its
subsequent fortunes.
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