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

在冷战初期，有关环境战的科学研究承诺在美苏之间的一场“全面战争”中利用自然的力量。美国支持地球科学中生物战、放射战、人工影响天气等学科的科学研究，以便在即将到来的冲突中找到使用科学的方法。虽然许多学者关注战争对环境的影响，但这项研究审查了旨在将环境改造作为武器的科学研究和政策。有关此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焦点。尽管我们知道这项研究的范围，但我们对其对美国战略的影响知之甚少；我们更不知道国家层面的环境战与国际层面的环境安全之间的关系。国际组织，如联合国专门机构，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而追求的问题相同：世界人口如何变得容易受到自然现象的影响，以及可以做些什么来改善这个问题？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联合国专门机构之间的相互影响。这个项目的学术价值之一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策。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，为科学和战略提供更全面的图景。它还将追踪跨国机构和国际机构在制定政策和影响条约谈判方面的作用，例如1977年禁止攻击性环境修改的谈判。该项目将是第一个寻求了解国家和国际范围内科学政策之间的影响的国际多档案研究。它将以美国和英国的国家档案、北约的档案以及联合国主要机构：世界卫生组织和粮食及农业组织的档案为基础。这项研究的中心问题是：从20世纪40年代开始的环境战争科学如何影响到70年代末的国际环境安全政策？这是一个未被探索的问题，但它是我们理解冷战科学如何塑造当代世界的基础。答案就在冷战前30年的科学研究、战略规划和国际合作的交汇点上。这项研究的一个更广泛的影响将是更好地理解美国的科学政策如何影响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激发了美国早期对环境战的研究。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(单一种植)来维持其人口。从战争的角度来看，这种脆弱性最初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的组织活动。世界上最脆弱的人口也是在地缘政治冷战斗争中战略上最重要的世界人民。通过追踪从环境战争到环境安全的道路，本研究将阐明国际机构和国家战略规划者是如何服务和/或针对发展中国家人民的。因此，另一个广泛的影响是，这项研究将鼓励对发展中国家国家科学政策与全球环境政治之间的联系进行更多的研究。

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.