THE PROCEEDINGS of a European meeting on “Science to the service of War: the responsibility of Scientists” are in press (edited by Daniel Iagolnitzer, Lydie Koch-Miramond et Vincent Rivasseau, L’Harmattan, Paris, 2006).

They summarize presentations at an international symposium. It was dedicated to Joseph Rotblatt, Nobel Prize for Peace 1995 and pioneer of the resistance against the involvement of science in the preparation of war. Introductory chapters review some poorly known historical aspects of such involvement, as the use of sulfur and arsenic vapours to repell the enemy in ancient Greece, and similar features in India and in China as early as the XIth century. Military use of chemicals frequently correspond with periods of rapid progress in civilization, a coincidence perhaps not so astonishing after all. In medieval times, physicians were requested to prolong the life of tortured suspects or heretics –in absolute contradiction with universally recognized ethical standards of medical practice. Later, scientists, including reputed ones, violated human dignity by faking research to justify racism or eugenic practices. But both world wars of the XXth century boosted the role of science to the service of destructive forces, inducing chemists to develop chlorinated gases, sarin tabun, and finally agent V, before physicists elaborated nuclear weapons. In the post-war period, the world has lived for some time on the illusion that a new awareness had followed the explosion of atomic bombs, seen in a way as the paroxysm of scientific cooperation with the military on behalf of a participation of all to the defense of « civilization ». In reality however, nuclear weapons and the cold war, far from refraining this trend, started a new era of collaboration between science and the militaroindustrial complex. Militarization of space, techniques of massive aggression against the environment, development of bacteriological weapons under the convenient cover of the «biodefense» concept, or illegitimate uses of modern neuroscience approaches which open access to the most intimate components of human identity, demonstrate that the present situation has turned worse than half a century ago. Not to mention the unexpected involvement of mathematicians in setting up balistic strategies, which are allthemore deadly that they claim an hitherto unachieved precision… Of course, progress in humanitarian law since the foundation of the Red Cross in 1864, as well as numerous international treaties aimed at avoiding excessive suffering of civilian populations, have attempted to alleviate this evolution. Their efficacy however is quite limited, mostly because the most powerful nations often refuse to promulgate or to implement them – a situation which ensures impunity to violators. Lack of concern by most governments for the ethical dimension of science, as well as increasing trends to use greed and mechandization as a major engine of progress, make it easier than ever to buy the expertise of scientists without any ethical string attached. Under these conditions, what can scientists do to reappropriate their long neglected responsibilities? A major objective should be to generalize a «duty to alert» within the scientific community. A proposal by EUROSCIENCE to introduce a clause of conscience in the Charter of scientific professions, in order to protect scientists who testify for violations of ethical standards in their environment, could also help. A new alliance between science and society is clearly needed, by giving a wide publicity to the complicity of scientists in violating human rights. After all, attacks on freedom and human dignity are threatening every one of us.

Claude Kordon

kordon@necker.fr