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Explores the place of science and technology in international relations through early attempts at international governance of aviation and atomic energy.
List of contents
Introduction: machines of peace; 1. Invention, interdependence, and the lag: conceptualizing international relations in the age of the machine; 2. Controlling scientific war: international air police and the reinvention of disarmament; 3. The shape of things to come: aviation, the League of Nations, and the transformation of world order; 4. Air power for a United Nations: the international air force during the Second World War; 5. Wings for peace: planning for the postwar internationalization of civil aviation; 6. A battle for atomic internationalism: United States and the international control of atomic energy; 7. A blessing in disguise: Britain and the international control of atomic energy; Conclusion: science, technology, and internationalism into the Cold War and beyond.
About the author
Waqar H. Zaidi is Associate Professor of History at the Lahore University of Management Sciences. He is also a Member at the Institute for Advanced Studies Princeton for 2020–21 and Research Affiliate at the Future of Humanities Institute at the University of Oxford.
Summary
A unique study of technology and international relations, Zaidi's book explores early attempts at the governance of aviation and atomic energy through international organizations such as the United Nations. It speaks to growing interest in the international governance of powerful technologies such as artificial intelligence and nuclear weapons.
Additional text
'Weaving together the histories of aviation and atomic energy, Zaidi makes innovative contributions to scholarship on technology and internationalism. He deftly analyzes how policymakers and intellectuals, on both sides of the Atlantic, sought to transform the airplane and the atomic bomb into catalysts of global order rather than global catastrophe.' Jenifer Van Vleck, author of Empire of the Air: Aviation and the American Ascendancy
