Neutrality in Twentieth-Century Europe: Intersections of Science, Culture, and Politics after the First World War

Abstract

Neutrality in Twentieth-Century Europe is an interesting contribution to the discussion of neutrality in scholarship and politics. It is especially useful as a contribution to the analysis of the relationship of science, culture, and politics during an era of strong division. Because the book focuses on the period after the First World War, it offers an interesting prehistory of issues that became prominent during the Second World War and the Cold War. During all of these periods, changes in international politics influenced the relationship of scholarship, culture, and politics.The main focus of the book is on the smaller European states that adhered strictly to a neutral position during the First World War. Important concepts connected to “neutrality” include “impartiality,” “objectivity” and “internationalism,” which are covered in the book's fifteen essays, divided into four thematic parts dealing with internationalism, science, culture, and politics. The starting point for the volume is that neutrality as a cultural, scientific and political resource was in itself a construct that was given meanings and used rhetorically for a variety of new purposes. The concept endowed smaller countries and intellectuals with a new kind of role in European (and even world-scale) scientific, political, and cultural discussions. The aim of the smaller countries was to become neutral mediators between the former belligerent states in order to facilitate international cooperation and enhance international scientific cooperation. The period after the First World War is defined as an era of emerging nation-states, but the main actors in the discourse were primarily individuals, small groups, and organizations.The book discusses the intersections of science, culture, and politics before and during the negotiations that led to the controversial Treaty of Versailles. The talks helped neutrality to gain a new appeal, spurring small, neutral countries such as the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway to mediate in the complex situation. The war and its aftermath introduced modern nation-states as the basis for a new world order. Although the actors analyzed in the volume were committed to internationalism, they ultimately reinforced nationalism as representatives of nation-states.Before the First World War, Germany was a scientific powerhouse and closely connected to wider scientific developments in Europe. After the war began and Germany became a defeated power in 1918, the demand to leave Germany out of scientific circles, such as the International Research Council (IRC)—especially in the wake of the “Proclamation of the Civilized World” in 1914—caused a complex situation in European scientific and political spheres. No matter how important the cause of internationalism and peace may have been, remaining neutral in politics and science proved exceedingly difficult. This was true of Dutch relations with Germany and scientific organizations such as the IRC. Denmark met difficulties in enhancing science on the basis of internationalism. In Sweden and Norway, the Nobel Prize institution gave both countries more power within the scientific community. Sweden, which had strongly emphasized its neutral and apolitical role in foreign policy, met the challenge when it wanted to gain a role as a mediator of the new era based on peaceful scientific, technological, and economic progress. The demands and goals of objectivity and impartiality in the case of the Nobel Prize were challenged when international ties in science and culture were severed. Swedish science had been strongly oriented toward Germany, and it had to reassess its Nobel Prize policy under the pressure of divided scientific values.These issues pertained not only to science and politics but also to “European” ideas and idealism. Pan-Europeanism, Zionism, and scientific debate created the basis of cultural encounters in Europe in the 1920s. The aim to restore peace and to solve the problems caused by the war—such as the problem of refugees when millions of people were left without their countries and citizenship—became the main aim of the international actors. The First World War was both a military disaster and a humanitarian catastrophe confronting the League of Nations and individual actors. In the process, neutral Scandinavian countries had a role to play.Neutrality in Twentieth-Century Europe is an enlightening contribution to the international and transnational interaction of scientists, organizations, and smaller states in the interwar period. By analyzing themes such as neutrality, objectivity, impartiality, and internationalism in the context of a divided world, the volume sheds valuable light on themes that resurfaced during the Cold War. The book is well worth reading for those interested in Cold War–era developments in the fields of science, culture, and politics.