Arming Mother Nature: Science, Technology, and Environmental Security after World War II

在冷战初期，关于环境战的科学研究承诺在美苏之间的“全面战争”中利用自然的力量。美国支持关于生物战、放射战、人工影响天气和地球科学其他课题的科学研究，以便找到在即将到来的冲突中利用科学的方法。虽然许多学者关注战争对环境的影响，但本研究审查了旨在利用环境改造作为武器的科学研究和政策。关于这类武器的政策在最高层进行了辩论，并成为盟国之间谈判的一个要点。虽然我们知道这项研究的范围，但我们对它对美国战略的影响知之甚少;我们对国家一级的环境战与国际一级的环境安全之间的关系知之更少。联合国专门机构等国际组织将环境安全问题作为其公共卫生、粮食安全和世界和平任务的一部分。他们的主要问题与美国和英国出于军事目的所追求的问题相同：世界人口如何变得容易受到自然现象的影响，以及可以采取哪些措施来改善这个问题？本项目将分析国家科学政策与更广泛的军事联盟以及最终与联合国专门机构的科学政策之间的相互影响。这个项目的一个学术价值是它探索了科学政策的国际发展，而不是孤立地对待美国的决定。当然，它将解决国家安全问题，但它将利用北约和英国的资源，以更全面地了解科学和战略。它还将追踪跨国组织和国际机构在制定政策和影响条约谈判方面的作用，如1977年禁止进攻性环境改造的条约。该项目将是第一个国际性的多档案研究，旨在了解国家和国际背景下科学政策之间的影响。它将基于美国和英国的国家档案，北约的档案，以及联合国主要机构的档案：世界卫生组织和粮食及农业组织。本研究的中心问题是：如何在20世纪40年代开始的环境战的科学影响到20世纪70年代末的国际环境安全政策？这是一个尚未探索的问题，但它对于我们理解冷战科学如何塑造当代世界至关重要。答案就在冷战头三十年的科学研究、战略规划和国际合作的交叉点上。这项研究的更广泛影响之一将是更好地了解美国科学政策如何塑造联合国专门机构等国际机构的发展。发展中国家的环境脆弱性促使美国早期研究环境战。例如，中国和印度被认为是主要目标，因为它们依赖单一主食作物（单一栽培）来维持人口。这种脆弱性最初从战争的角度被视为一种生态机会，也促使联合国在粮食安全方面开展了大量组织活动。在地缘政治冷战斗争中，世界上最脆弱的人口也是世界上战略上最重要的民族。通过追溯从环境战到环境安全的道路，本研究报告将阐明发展中世界的人民是如何得到国际机构和国家战略规划者的服务和/或成为其目标的。因此，另一个广泛的影响是，这项研究将鼓励更多关于发展中国家国家科学政策与全球环境政治之间联系的研究。

In the early years of the cold war, scientific research on environmental warfare promised to harness the power of nature in a "total war" between the United States and the Soviet Union. The United States supported scientific research on biological warfare, radiological warfare, weather modification, and other subjects in the earth sciences in order to find ways to use science during the coming conflict. While many scholars focus on the effects on war upon the environment, this study examines the scientific research and policies designed to utilize environmental modification as a weapon. Policies about such weapons were debated at the highest levels and became a point of negotiation between allies. Although we know about the extent of this research, we know very little about its influence upon American strategy; we know even less about the relationship between environmental warfare at the national level and environmental security at the international level. International organizations, such as the UN specialized agencies, took up the question of environmental security as part of their mandates for public health, food security, and world peace. Their principal questions were the same as the ones pursued by the United States and Britain for military purposes: How do the populations of the world become vulnerable to natural phenomena, and what can be done to ameliorate the problem? The present project will analyze the reciprocal influences between national science policies and those of the wider military alliance and ultimately of the UN specialized agencies. One of the intellectual merits of this project is that it explores the international development of science policy, rather than treat American decisions in isolation. It will address national security questions, to be sure, but it will draw on NATO resources and British resources to give a fuller picture of both science and strategy. It also will trace the role of transnational bodies and international agencies in formulating policies and influencing treaty negotiations such as the one banning offensive environmental modification in 1977. This project will be the first international, multi-archival study seeking to understand the influences between science policies in the national and international contexts. It will be based upon national archives in the United States and Britain, the archives of NATO, and the archives of the key UN agencies: the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization. The central question of this study is this: how did the science of environmental warfare beginning in the 1940s influence international policies of environmental security by the late 1970s? It is an unexplored question, yet it is fundamental to our understanding of how cold war science has shaped the contemporary world. The answer lies at the intersection of scientific research, strategic planning, and international cooperation in the first three decades of the cold war. One of the broader impacts of this study will be a greater understanding of how American science policies shaped the development of international institutions such as the UN specialized agencies. The environmental vulnerability of developing countries motivated early American research on environmental warfare. China and India, for example, were recognized as prime targets because of their reliance on single staple crops (monoculture) to sustain their populations. This fragility, at first seen as an ecological opportunity from a warfare perspective, has also spurred a great deal of organizational activity on food security at the United Nations. The most vulnerable populations of the world were also the strategically most important peoples of the world in the geopolitical cold war struggle. By tracing the path from environmental warfare to environmental security, the present study will shed light on how the peoples of the developing world were served and/or targeted by international agencies and by national strategic planners. Thus another broad impact is that this study will encourage more research on the linkages between national science policies and global environmental politics in the developing world.