Militarizing And Demilitarizing The Cold War Arctic: Shifting Technologies, Strategies, And Field Practices

• In Event: Science, Technology and Society in the Polar Regions

Abstract

Early in the Cold War, the Arctic emerged as a center of global strategic conflict. Escalating tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union after 1945 made the Arctic—the geographic midway between North America and Eurasia—a potential theatre of war. Soviet researchers had gained a good understanding of the Arctic’s environmental properties through extensive state-sponsored expeditions in the 1920s and 1930s, but American scientists were far less familiar with this region. To effectively operate weapons systems and warning networks in the far north—including the Distant Early Warning (DEW) line in far northern Canada, the massive Thule Air Force Base in northwest Greenland, and the nuclear-powered city named Camp Century on the western expanse of Greenland’s Ice Cap—American officials realized they needed to rapidly gain relevant environmental knowledge. Operating these technological systems inspired Pentagon leaders to fund major new research programs in the physical environmental sciences in the far north. These utilitarian research programs continued through the 1960s—losing momentum only when a new generation of weapon systems (including submarine-based Polaris nuclear missiles) lessened the need for new environmental knowledge for national security. Drawing on recently declassified CIA documents and newly available materials at several presidential libraries, this presentation addresses key factors that influenced research and operational strategies by Western forces in the Arctic. It also draws on two recent internationally comparative historical investigations, funded by the European Science Foundation and Aarhus University.

Author

• Ronald E Doel, Florida State University