Centre Alexandre Koyré UMR 8560, France.
Hist Sci. 2021 Dec;59(4):461-491. doi: 10.1177/0073275320987428. Epub 2021 Feb 13.
In recent years historians have revisited the creation of the United Nations (UN) system by highlighting the enduring influence of Empire and recognizing the substantial role of cultural and scientific actors in wartime international diplomacy. The British biochemist Joseph Needham, who participated in the creation of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), was one of them. Yet, if historians have recognized his role as the leading architect of the sciences at UNESCO, they still fall short of engaging with the Chinese and imperial geography of his involvement with UNESCO. During the Second World War, Needham was stationed in war-torn China. As director of the Sino-British Scientific Cooperation Office, Needham not only organized Sino-British scientific cooperation against the Japanese invasion, but his mission inspired his engagement for a reform of international science and fueled an international campaign that led him to become the director of UNESCO's Natural Science division after the war. By reconstructing his campaign in context, this article seeks to demonstrate how the imperial and transnational scientific networks of the wartime era fostered the creation of a scientific mandate for UNESCO. It situates Needham's activism and ideas in the context of the Sino-Japanese war, imperial wartime technocracy, and China's scientific nationalism. In so doing, it reveals a string of forgotten partners from China and the British Empire. Their conception of a reorganized international science and shared belief in modern science and its ideal of universality shaped Needham's vision for science at UNESCO, while their activism contributed decisively to the success of his campaign. This inquiry hence participates in recent efforts to challenge the existing Eurocentrism corseting the historiography of the UN and expands the historiography of scientific internationalism beyond Europe and North America. Importantly, it also contributes to uncovering the technocratic ties established between Empire and the UN system from its onset.
近年来，历史学家重新审视了联合国（UN）系统的创建过程，强调了帝国的持久影响，并认识到文化和科学行为体在战时国际外交中发挥的重要作用。其中就包括参与创建联合国教育、科学及文化组织（UNESCO）的英国生化学家约瑟夫·尼达姆（Joseph Needham）。然而，尽管历史学家已经认识到他作为教科文组织科学领域主要设计者的角色，但他们仍然没有参与到他与教科文组织的中国和帝国地理学的关系中。第二次世界大战期间，尼达姆驻扎在中国饱受战争蹂躏的土地上。作为中英科学合作办公室的主任，尼达姆不仅组织了中英科学合作以对抗日本侵略，他的使命还激发了他对国际科学改革的参与，并发起了一场国际运动，使他在战后成为教科文组织自然科学部门的主任。本文通过将他的运动置于背景中进行重构，旨在展示战时帝国和跨国科学网络如何促进了教科文组织科学任务的创建。它将尼达姆的激进主义和思想置于中日战争、帝国战时技术统治和中国科学民族主义的背景下进行考察。这样做揭示了一系列来自中国和大英帝国的被遗忘的合作伙伴。他们对重组后的国际科学的构想以及对现代科学及其普遍性理想的共同信念，塑造了尼达姆在教科文组织的科学愿景，而他们的激进主义为他的运动的成功做出了决定性的贡献。因此，这一探究参与了近来挑战现有束缚联合国史学的欧洲中心主义的努力，并将科学国际主义的史学扩展到了欧洲和北美之外。重要的是，它还有助于揭示帝国与联合国系统从一开始就建立的技术统治联系。
