Skip to main content

MAX-PLANCK-INSTITUT FÜR WISSENSCHAFTSGESCHICHTE Max Planck Institute for the History of Science

  • en
  • de
  • en
  • de
  • Institute

    Institute

    Founded in 1994, the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) in Berlin is one of the more than 80 research institutes administered by the Max Planck Society. It is dedicated to the study of the history of science and aims to understand scientific thinking and practice as historical phenomena.

    • About the Institute
    • About the Max Planck Society
    • Gender Equality
    • Information for People with Disabilities
    • Information for Newcomers
    • Getting Here
    • Contact Us
  • People

    People

    The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science comprises scholars across all Departments and Research Groups, as well as an Administration team, IT Support, Research IT Group, and Research Coordination and Communications team.

    • Staff & Scholars
    • Artists in Residence
    • Journalists in Residence
    • Alumni (Since 2015)
  • Research

    Research

    The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science comprises three departments under the direction of Jürgen Renn (I), Etienne Benson (II), and Dagmar Schäfer (III).

     

    In addition are Research Groups, each directed by one Research Group Leader.

     

    The Institute also comprises of a Research IT Group—specialist in digital humanities—doctoral students, and research and teaching cooperations with other institutions worldwide.

    • I: Structural Changes in Systems of Knowledge
    • II: Knowledge Systems and Collective Life
    • III: Artifacts, Action, Knowledge
    • RGs
    • RG: Validation in the Biomedical Sciences
    • RG: China in the Global System of Science
    • RG: The Final Theory Program
    • RG: Premodern Sciences of Soul & Body
    • RG: Computational History of Science
    • RG: Data, Media, Mind
    • -
    • Research IT Group
    • Cooperations
    • International Max Planck Research School
    • Doctoral Research
    • All Projects
    • Past Departments & Research Groups
  • Publications & Resources

    Publications & Resources

    The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) engages with the research community and broader public, and is committed to open access.

     

    This section provides access to published research results and electronic sources in the history of science. It is also a platform for sharing ongoing research projects that develop digital tools.

     

    Researchers at the Institute benefit from an internal library service. The Institute’s research is also made accessible to the wider public through edited Feature Stories and the Mediathek’s audio and video content.

     

    • Publications
    • Library
    • Digital Resources & Databases
    • Mediathek
    • Research Reports
    • Feature Stories
    • About Open Access
  • News & Events

    News & Events

    The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science frequently shares news, including calls for papers and career opportunities. The Media & Press section highlights press releases and the Institute's appearances in national and global media. Public events—including colloquia, seminars, and workshops—are shown on the events overview.

    • Events
    • Institute News
    • Press Releases
    • In the Media
    • Career Opportunities
    • Communications Team

Search and Keywords

Disciplinary groups
Perspectives and Methods
Video
Mediathek Landing Page
  • Presentation
  • Oct 10, 2022
  • 00:48:51

Were We Ever at Peace? The Irreversible Entanglement of Science, Politics and Regimes of Knowledge Control

  • John Krige Jürgen Renn Dora Vargha

The centrality of science and technology to the economic and military power of the state in a competitive world system has transformed the practice of science itself, and the role of the state in the political economy of knowledge production and circulation. The production of new knowledge and its manipulation to desired social ends flourishes when researchers and their novel ideas circulate beyond national borders. It is increasingly in tension with the determination by the state to restrict some knowledge flows across borders in the name of national and economic security. This paper will describe the evolving policies adopted to regulate the transnational flow of sensitive, but unclassified knowledge and know-how by the American government since WWII in its competition for global influence with the Soviet Union and, more recently, with the People’s Republic of China. Attempts to reconcile ‘scientific internationalism’ with the regulation of sensitive knowledge and know-how devised during the late Cold War have become increasingly brittle with China’s rise to prominence as a scientific and technological power in the 21st century. The scope for international scientific collaboration has contracted, and calls for decoupling the western and Chinese research systems are gaining traction along with the fragmentation of the global world order.

Biography

John Krige is the Regents and Kranzberg Professor Emeritus in the School of History and Sociology at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. His research focuses on the intersection between the history of science and technology and of US foreign policy since the 1940s. He is the author (with Mario Daniels) of Knowledge Regulation and National Security in Postwar America
(University of Chicago Press, 2022) and the editor of Knowledge Flows in a Global Age. A Transnational Approach (University of Chicago Press, 2022), the proceedings of the conference he organized at Caltech as the winner of the 2020 Francis Bacon Award in the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology.

Copyrights

MPIWG—Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
Music by: Jon Luc Hefferman, CC BY-NC 3.0

More
Institute's Colloquium Program 2022/23: Science Diplomacy and Science in Times of War
  • Technology
  • Globalization
  • Politics
  • MPIWG on Covid-19
  • Newsletter
  • Contact
  • Sitemap
  • Imprint
  • Data Protection
Internal:
  • Intranet
  • Webmail
  • Welcome Page
  • Library
  • User Login

An Institute of
the Max Planck Society for the
Advancement of Science