Bernath Lecture: American Knowledge and Global Power

The phrase “knowledge is power” has a long and contested heritage, from Francis Bacon's seventeenth-century scientia operativa (applied science) to Michel Foucault's writings on the “disciplinary” power of knowledge in the 1960s and 1970s.1 Without being doctrinaire about the varied meanings of the phrase, I think the relationship between knowledge and power offers diplomatic historians new opportunities for pursuing our research, and for expanding the compass of our field. This lecture outlines one possible agenda for diplomatic historians to study the relationships between knowledge and power, building upon the work of many historians (diplomatic and otherwise) who have already explored related topics. The first agenda item is “American Knowledge for Global Power.” This type of work is probably the most familiar to us; many historians have already described the ways in which American scholars were, to quote Henry Stimson's memoir, “On Active Service in Peace and War.”2 Cold War academics worked on policy issues from their university offices, as summer consultants, or in full-time positions at State, the CIA, and elsewhere. And well before the Cold War, there was a revolving door between academic institutions and political power—most notably in the election of political scientist Woodrow Wilson to the presidency in 1912.