HUMSS - Benjamin W. Goossen

The Iron Curtain and the Measure of Earth

Much of our present-day knowledge about planet Earth as a set of complex geophysical systems comes from the era of the Cold War—a time when geopolitical divisions both complicated and spurred efforts to assemble environmental data on a worldwide basis. This presentation problematizes the Iron Curtain not only as a barrier to scientific exchange between East and West but also as a driver and mediator of the global Earth sciences, showing how the Cold War division of Europe overlaid older forms of militarist expansionism while also propelling new tactics of power projection that aimed to transcend territory altogether.