This paper examines James Conant’s pragmatic theory of science—a theory that has been neglected by most commentators on the history of 20th-century philosophy of science—and it argues that this theory occupied an important place in Conant’s strategic thinking about the Cold War. Conant drew upon his wartime science policy work, the history of science, and Quine’s epistemological holism to argue that there is no strict distinction between science and technology, that there is no such thing as “the scientific method,” and that theories are better interpreted as policies rather than creeds. An important consequence that he drew from these arguments is that science is both a thoroughly value-laden, and an intrinsically social, enterprise. These results led him to develop novel proposals for reorganizing scientific and technological research—proposals that he believed could help to win the Cold War. Interestingly, the Cold War had a different impact upon Conant’s thinking than it did upon many other theorists of science in postwar America. Instead of leading him to “the icy slopes of logic,” it led him to develop a socially- and politically-engaged theory that was explicitly in the service of the American Cold War effort.

Agricultural Technology Demonstration Centre (ATDC) has been considered as an alternative model to pursue sustainability of Chinese foreign aid to African countries in the new era. This paper attempts to examine the ATDC scheme, particularly focus on the knowledge construction at macro level of design and the knowledge encounter at micro level of daily operation based on the case studies in Tanzania, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique. Our study finds multiple facets of the ATDC, i.e., the cleavage between the macro-level of policy design and micro level of implementation realities; the interplay between knowledge and politics, and appearance of possible alternative development pathways stimulated by ATDCs in African countries. The paper argues that even though the ATDC is a technology-centered scheme, it is inevitably a social and political process in implementation, resulting in the discontinuity of the policy results. With a whole set of ideas and imaginaries being delivered, frustrated, and negotiated, the ATDC creates a very different vision to the established CG system, or the western bilateral aid programs. As an embodiment of a ‘‘traveling technocratic rationality”, the ATDCs are important sites for negotiations over knowledge a and politics, and the meanings of aid, investment, and development, as part of the wider playing out of China’s engagement in Africa.

After some general remarks, this paper presents a brief overview of the relationships among science technology and politics. This is followed by an examination of the seven most important technological revolutions of the past five centuries, laying a foundation for consideration of recent trends in US Research and Development and our investments within them. The paper concludes with an examination of the impact of President George W. Bush’s proposed budget for science and technology in the 2002 fiscal year. This paper is based on the Sheffield Lecture delivered by Dr. Bromley at Yale University, March 22, 2001.

Climate has shaped all of human history but has received concerted and sustained scientific attention only in recent decades. The new understanding shows that climate is not unchanging but variable, sometimes abruptly so. This variability results from both natural processes and human interference (largely inadvertent). The associated social and economic impacts are uneven and create winners and losers—among nations, private enterprise, and individuals. This emerging awareness has triggered a growing, often heated, political debate.

With the deepening of China's innovation system reform entering into the 21st century, its functionality has received considerable attention in both academic and policy-making contexts. However, it has not been fully uncovered yet in a more systematic and practical manner possibly due to theoretical or methodological reasons. In this study, a structural approach with partial least squares is introduced to incorporate various functional constructs together determining the performance of innovation systems into an integrated path framework based on the extended framework of Romer's idea production function. By constructing a rich province–year panel dataset over the 10th five-year plan period of China, we use the novel analytical framework to detect and untangle the periodically operating state of China's regional innovation systems (RISs) in terms of the effectiveness of functional constructs shaping and influencing the innovation process. The examination results show that China's RISs perform well in terms of the performance of most functional constructs except for “innovation linkage” as well as “innovation sophistication”. With respect to the interactive effects between the contextual innovation environment and the innovation process, however, China's RISs perform poorly from the perspective of system thinking.

This paper discusses science and technology (S&T) reform in China by dividing the process into three stages, then explaining major policies and programs that play important roles in supporting reform. Through an analysis of the impact of S&T reform on national innovation systems (NIS) in China, we conclude that S&T reform has been effective in motivating universities and research institutes (URIs), building up the innovative capacities of enterprises, and promoting URI–industry linkages. We also point out that concerns remain about the S&T system in China, and the effects of S&T reform need to be further examined over the long run.

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China and India are frequently referred to as emerging superpowers. First, we present evidence that by virtue of their economic strength, their ability to absorb and adapt to repeated foreign intrusions, and their cultural reach, both countries should be more properly regarded as re-emerging superpowers. They qualified for that status even when the Roman Empire was at its peak, and continued to qualify until well into the seventeenth century. It was only with increasing intrusions by Europeans and, to a lesser extent Americans, from that time until well into the twentieth century, that their status began to be undermined. A series of short vignettes describing political, economic, and scientific milestones for China, India, and the United States illustrates the domestic evolution of the three countries since the middle of the twentieth century and the relationships among them. Then we present highlights in the development of science and higher education: in China and India, from their first contacts with modern science to the present; and in the United States, from the Constitutional Convention of 1787 to the present. These highlights are followed by a short comparison of research and development expenditures in 1991 (the first year in which relatively complete, reliable data are available for China and India), and a brief explanation of their government science policy structures. We offer two “snapshots”—the first from 1995, the second from 2004—that provide detailed data on R&D investments and human resources in the three countries for those years. We conclude by speculating on the future status of China, India, and the United States during the next half century. Will they continue to be superpowers? In what ways are their science policies likely to enable their superpower status? Will their status as superpowers provide the means to further strengthen their science and technology systems and lead to economic and military outputs of wide-ranging global significance?

Is a special interest group of the History of Science Society that is devoted to furthering scholarship in the history of science, medicine, and technology in Asia. It aims to promote research and education in the history of science in Asia, to provide a forum for discussion, and to foster and support international collaboration among scholars working in all areas related to the study and practice of the sciences in Asia.

Founded in 1994, the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) in Berlin is one of the more than 80 research institutes administered by the Max Planck Society. It is dedicated to the study of the history of science and aims to understand scientific thinking and practice as historical phenomena. Researchers pursue a historical epistemology in their studies of how new categories of thought, proof, and experience have emerged.