NATO AND THE STRENGTHENING OF WESTERN SCIENCE IN THE POST-SPUTNIK ERA

摘要

In the immediate post-Sputnik era, the member governments of the Atlantic community were deeply concerned about the growing quantity and quality of scientists and engineers in the Soviet Union, which threatened to outstrip the supply of manpower in the United States and Western Europe. One of the main tasks of the NATO Science Committee, Formally established in December 1957, was to redress this educational imbalance. Its Preferred instruments were international scientific exchange and training in fields of basic Science. This paper charts the actions undertaken by this committee to strengthen Western Science, exploring its achievements, and analysing whey it filed to couple the research it Supported to the interests of the defence establishment.