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In late 1964 President de Gaulle circulated to members of his
government a study warning that France was being threatened by the technological
gap between the United States and Western Europe. It declared that unless France
reformed her archaic scientific institutions and vastly expanded support of technological
innovation she would become an underdeveloped nation in a world dominated by the
scientific superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union. Professor
Gilpin's book is an exploration of this theme. He begins by discussing the traditional
organization of French science and education and compares them to their nineteenth
century German counterparts. He quickly brings his study up to France in the 1960s,
where we see President de Gaulle and his government attempting to transform France
into a science- and technology-centered society. They have created and promoted
the nuclear-striking force and an ambitious space program, sought alliances with
which to balance American and Russian scientific-technical power, regrouped hundreds
of French scientists and technicians into new research organizations, and passed
national budgets that have imposed a considerable strain on France's resources.
The author concludes that France's goal of a scientific
place in the sun will not be achieved to any significant degree, and that (given
the present course of events) the dire prediction of the 1964 study will be fulfilled.
Achievement of the goal poses a clash between traditional France and the imperative
of rapid expansion and use of scientific knowledge. To attain it there would have
to be cooperation -- among the French people and between France and the rest of
Western Europe -- to such a degree that it would diminish the very independence
and autonomy the French are trying so hard to preserve. Robert
Gilpin is the author of American Scientists and Nuclear Weapons Policy
and coeditor of Scientists and National Policy-Making. He is Associate
Professor of Politics and Public Affairs at Princeton University. | 
