U.S. - France Dissertation Enhancement: Science and Technology Policy and the State - A Case Study of French Encryption

这个为期一年的美法学位论文增强奖支持马里兰大学的研究生兰迪·史密斯·贝塞特和法国国家政治学基金会的蒂埃里·维德尔之间的合作研究。贝塞特是马里兰大学国际发展与冲突管理中心主任欧内斯特·威尔逊的学生。贝塞特将在法国呆三个月，调查法国监管加密政策的进展情况。加密是一种使用数学公式保护数据和通信安全的技术，是一个有争议的公共政策问题。在冷战期间，加密长期处于情报界的专属范围内，现在它代表着科学、商业、国家安全/执法和公民自由意志主义社区之间现代冲突的导火索。随着个人计算机的普及和互联网的发展，公众对加密的需求成倍增加。随着活动转向私营部门，世界各国政府正试图决定是否以及如何控制这项技术。20世纪90年代初，法国实施了世界上最严格的加密控制政策之一，加密的进口、出口和国内使用受到政府的严格监管。1996年，法国逐步放宽了这些限制。这项研究的目的是第一手考察是什么影响了法国政府最近的政策变化。以法国为例，该项目将研究政府和科学界之间的政治关系，以及重塑现代国家与科学家关系的广泛国际政治和经济因素。

9813320WilsonThis one-year US-France dissertation enhancement award supports collaborative research between graduate student, Randi Smith Bessette of the University of Maryland, and Thierry Vedel of the French National Foundation for Political Science. Ms. Bessette is a student of Ernest Wilson, Director of the Center for International Development and Conflict Management at the University of Maryland. Ms. Bessette will spend three months in France investigating the development of French policies regulating encryption. Encryption, the technology that employs mathematical formulas to secure data and communications, is a controversial public policy issue. Long under the exclusive purview of the intelligence community during the Cold War, encryption now represents a flashpoint of modern conflict among scientific, business, national security/law enforcement, and civil libertarian communities. Public demand for encryption has multiplied with the spread of the personal computer and the development of the Internet. With a shift of activity into the private sector, governments worldwide are trying to decide whether and how to control this technology. In the early 1990s, France implemented one of the strictest encryption control policies in the world, whereby the import, export, and domestic use of encryption were heavily regulated by the government. In 1996 France gradually relaxed these restrictions. The objective of the research is to examine first-hand what influenced the recent changes in French government policy. Using France as a case study, the project will examine the political relationship between government and the scientific community and broad international political and economic factors reshaping modern state-scientist relations.