{"title":"With strings attached: Gift-giving to the International Atomic Energy Agency and US foreign policy","authors":"Maria Rentetzi","doi":"10.1016/j.endeavour.2021.100754","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In 1958 the United States of America offered two mobile radioisotope laboratories to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as gifts. For the USA, supplying the IAEA with gifts was not only the cost of “doing business” in the new nuclear international setting of the Cold War, but also indispensable in maintaining authority and keeping the upper hand within the IAEA and in the international regulation of nuclear energy. The transformation of a technoscientific artefact into a diplomatic gift with political strings attached for both giver and receiver, positions the lab qua gift as a critical key that simultaneously unlocks the overlapping histories of international affairs, Cold War diplomacy, and postwar nuclear science. Embracing <em>political</em> epistemology as my primary methodological framework and introducing the gift as a major analytic category, I emphasize the role of material objects in modeling scientific research and training in a way that is dictated by diplomatic negotiations, state power, and international legal arrangements.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51032,"journal":{"name":"Endeavour","volume":"45 1","pages":"Article 100754"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5000,"publicationDate":"2021-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1016/j.endeavour.2021.100754","citationCount":"9","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Endeavour","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160932721000090","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 9
Abstract
In 1958 the United States of America offered two mobile radioisotope laboratories to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as gifts. For the USA, supplying the IAEA with gifts was not only the cost of “doing business” in the new nuclear international setting of the Cold War, but also indispensable in maintaining authority and keeping the upper hand within the IAEA and in the international regulation of nuclear energy. The transformation of a technoscientific artefact into a diplomatic gift with political strings attached for both giver and receiver, positions the lab qua gift as a critical key that simultaneously unlocks the overlapping histories of international affairs, Cold War diplomacy, and postwar nuclear science. Embracing political epistemology as my primary methodological framework and introducing the gift as a major analytic category, I emphasize the role of material objects in modeling scientific research and training in a way that is dictated by diplomatic negotiations, state power, and international legal arrangements.
期刊介绍:
Endeavour, established in 1942, has, over its long and proud history, developed into one of the leading journals in the history and philosophy of science. Endeavour publishes high-quality articles on a wide array of scientific topics from ancient to modern, across all disciplines. It serves as a critical forum for the interdisciplinary exploration and evaluation of natural knowledge and its development throughout history. Each issue contains lavish color and black-and-white illustrations. This makes Endeavour an ideal destination for history and philosophy of science articles with a strong visual component.
Endeavour presents the history and philosophy of science in a clear and accessible manner, ensuring the journal is a valuable tool for historians, philosophers, practicing scientists, and general readers. To enable it to have the broadest coverage possible, Endeavour features four types of articles:
-Research articles are concise, fully referenced, and beautifully illustrated with high quality reproductions of the most important source material.
-In Vivo articles will illustrate the rich and numerous connections between historical and philosophical scholarship and matters of current public interest, and provide rich, readable explanations of important current events from historical and philosophical perspectives.
-Book Reviews and Commentaries provide a picture of the rapidly growing history of science discipline. Written by both established and emerging scholars, our reviews provide a vibrant overview of the latest publications and media in the history and philosophy of science.
-Lost and Found Pieces are playful and creative short essays which focus on objects, theories, tools, and methods that have been significant to science but underappreciated by collective memory.