Technological Momentum and Modern War: Revisiting the 'Chemists' War,' 1915-1919 (International Conference in Paris, September 2001)

Villanova University, Villanova PA

Investigators

Abstract

This award supports U.S. participation in a conference of twelve to fifteen scholars whose purpose is to test several premises that have emerged in the course of a current NSF-sponsored research project by the PI in collaboration with Roy M. MacLeod (University of Sydney). These scholars are studying Allied and German responses to the "chemical war" during World War I. In so doing, the two investigators are focusing not upon the development of chemical weapons, which has been extensively studied, but the emergent chemical explosives industries and its transformation in Britain, France, Germany and the United States. In recent years, several scholars, working independently both in Europe and the United States, have revisited many of the key issues involved in the mobilization of science and the wartime applications of science-based industries between 1914 and 1918. To avoid overlap and duplication, and to ensure the best chances of success of their current three-year NSF study, Johnson and MacLeod plan this conference. They are inviting a selection of colleagues to outline, describe and analyze the key issues they see as definitive in deciding the direction of the military chemical industries of the United States and Europe, including explosives and related intermediates and raw materials such as nitrates, during the war and in the immediate postwar period. In particular, each is examining and testing the concept of "technological momentum," one of the more salient current ideas for describing patterns in the development of science-based industry. Johnson and MacLeod are using this term and seek to refine it through their own investigations. Primary interests here are the ways in which the "momentum" of the industry's development initially shifted from the conditions of peace to those of war, how the momentum of wartime production was shaped and grew as the war became more "total," and finally the ways in which wartime momentum did or did not carry over to peacetime. To test the utility of this concept in a variety of contexts, the organizers are inviting colleagues familiar with the experience of the chemically-based industries in the United States and Europe, including nations that the organizers themselves are unable to study directly, such as the Netherlands and Russia. Also central to the investigators' work are some other ideas to be-considered, including the notions of "total war" and "chemists' war" in their relation to the militarization of the chemical industry during the 1914-1918 period and immediately afterward, as it affected the victorious Allies' efforts to bring about and maintain the "chemical disarmament" of Germany. Moreover, the conference encourages comparative and transnational analyses on each topic discussed, in accordance with the organizers' view of the war as an international system. To facilitate analytical discussion based on details as well as generalizations, the organizer have prepared clear guidelines highlighting the issues mentioned above. The organizers are circulating the papers in advance to all participants. The group is small enough to allow all participants to take part in all sessions, to be held at in Paris, possibly the Centre de Recherche en histoire des Sciences et des Techniques (CRHST), in the Cite des Sciences et de l'Industrie. This location is convenient because a majority of the participants will be Europeans or working in Europe at the time. Following the conference, the organizers expect revised papers to constitute an edited volume, possibly published by Kluwer in its "Chemists and Chemistry" series, which already offers several related conference volumes. The organizers expect the results of the conference will not only enhance their own research and that of the other participants, but also contribute to a broader understanding of the interrelationship of war, science, and industrial development. This is of interest not only to historians, but also to scientists, economists, and policymakers working in the area of international security and arms control.