2025/09/01 by Barbara Hof, Grigoris Panoutsopoulos, Climério Silva Neto · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · Physics and Astronomy · Social Sciences · #International Science and Diplomacy #Space exploration and regulation #Twentieth Century Scientific Developments
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/s00016-025-00336-x
openalex publication_date 2025/09/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
Abstract This article explores the entanglement of scientific collaboration and Cold War geopolitics through the lens of four major particle accelerator complexes: CERN (Europe), JINR/Dubna and IHEP/Serpukhov (Soviet Union), and NAL/Fermilab (United States). Despite their scientific significance, the origins and evolution of their exchange programs remain understudied. Moving beyond the conventional East-West binary, we adopt a multipolar framework to analyze how these four institutions forged enduring collaborations. From the first decade of the Cold War through the 1970s détente, bilateral agreements enabled the growing flow of personnel, equipment, and knowledge between CERN, JINR, Serpukhov, and Fermilab, thereby crossing national borders and ideological divides. These institutions operated strategically within the contested arena of the Cold War constellation, where competition for scientific leadership paradoxically fostered collaboration. Although plans for a joint global accelerator remained unrealized, our analysis highlights how international collaboration evolved into a nuanced, multilevel, and multipolar interplay—one that was shaped as much by scientific ambition as by persistent asymmetries and power dynamics.