From Dissent to Diplomacy: The Pugwash Project During the 1960s Cold War

Alison Kraft is an historian of science, technology and medicine in the twentieth century. She has published widely on the history of the life sciences, encompassing institutional, disciplinary and technological perspectives. Recently she has focused on the international dimensions of science. One research theme has centred on ‘science and peace’, focusing on the Pugwash organization during the early Cold War, including its role in informal nuclear diplomacy. This work has been published in the Journal of Cold War Studies (2018), and in a co-edited book, Science, (Anti-)Communism and Diplomacy: The Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs in the Early Cold War (Leiden: Brill, 2020). Most recently, as part of the History of the Max Planck Society project, her research is analyzing the processes and effects of Europeanization and internationalization at the Max Planck Society 1948-2002, especially the dynamics of institutional,disciplinary and epistemological change.

• Chapter 1. Introduction.- Chapter 2. Moscow, late 1960: A breakthrough in East-West dialogue.- Chapter 3. Stowe, VT, September 1961: two contrasting conferences in America.- Chapter 4. The Pugwash leadership: Informal diplomacy beyond the conferences, 1962-1967.- Chapter 5. The politics of European security: a step too far for Pugwash?.- Chapter 6. Conclusion.