How to turn a mobile laboratory into a diplomatic bag
International relations, the IAEA and nuclear diplomacy
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 14800335 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Maria Rentetzi (0000-0002-1940-8116, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg), Loukas Freris (0000-0001-7390-2599, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 41 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 27-52 |
| Publication date | 2025-01-02 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | History and Technology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0734-1512 • E-ISSN: 1477-2620 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/07341512.2025.2494886 |
| OpenAlex | W4410897732 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 52 |
In 1959, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) sent a mobile radioisotope laboratory to Athens, Greece, in the context of its Technical Assistance (TA) Missions to member states. To analyze the diplomatic aspects of the TA program, we conceptualize the mobile laboratory as a ‘diplomatic bag’ in transit that allowed the IAEA to negotiate its diplomatic power over nuclear issues on a global level and establish its regulatory presence. By focusing on the nexus of nuclear science and diplomacy, we explore how a mobile scientific laboratory was transformed to a sacrosanct diplomatic object – a diplomatic bag – with inviolability privileges and diplomatic status allowing it to travel unrestrained across the globe. This paper brings forward the fine-grained diplomatic negotiations and exchanges among novel diplomatic actors – beyond ambassadors and state diplomats – who made possible the transformation of a mobile laboratory from a mere technoscientific object to an artifact that was familiar to diplomatic circles
Diplomacy · Political science · Politics · International Science and Diplomacy · Law · Nuclear Issues and Defense · Twentieth Century Scientific Developments
The Politics of Radiation Protection
How Knowledge Moves
Atomic Junction
After the War Was Over
Let there be light … and bread
Shallow Waves and Deeper Currents
Development interventions
From lobbyists to backstage diplomats
The co-production of nuclear science and diplomacy
Creating the need in Mexico
The Sensationalist Discourse of Science Diplomacy
American cultural diplomacy in Greece, 1953–1968
Greek Cold War anti-Americanism in perspective, 1947–1989
Peaceful atoms in agriculture and food
Quickening nature's pulse
Diplomats in Science Diplomacy
Intervention and Underdevelopment
The Diplomatic Envoy 1
The Edinburgh History of the Greeks
Introduction
In Pursuit of “Man-Made Evolution”
Knowledge in Transit
An Effective Instrument Of Peace
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |