UC Berkeley

This dissertation is a comparative study of the American, British, and French efforts to exploit German science and technology following the Second World War, and through this, a transnational history of technology transfer, diplomacy, and science-state interaction in the postwar world. In the wake of the importance of science-based technologies in the Second World War, science became closely linked with diplomacy, scientific expertise took on new meanings and importance in government in each of these three nations, and the occupation of Germany created a perceived opportunity to simultaneously shape Germany's future and boost domestic industrial technology. Across the world, the relationships between science and the state changed rapidly in the postwar years, though with important national differences shaped by institutions and values.

The central argument of the dissertation is that different assumptions and beliefs about technology transfer, and in particular conceptions of the importance of 'know-how' or tacit knowledge, fundamentally shaped on-the-ground policy decisions in different ways in each of these nations; and that these decisions, in turn, had important consequences for international diplomacy and domestic science and industrial policy in each of these nations. This dissertation examines the ways in which science and technology fundamentally reshaped, and were fundamentally reshaped by, larger forces and trends in twentieth century history. More specifically, these attempts at scientific intelligence gathering on an unprecedented scale drew upon and shaped the national and international structures for communicating science; they tied together science, technology, and intelligence communities in new ways; and they brought the difficulties of technology transfer to the attention of business and legal communities at a crucial time in the development of multinational corporations and internationalization of business.