Juggling politics, economy and non-proliferation: Cold War nuclear negotiations between the Federal Republic of Germany and Taiwan

Date(s)： 2023/10/27

Time： 15:00~17:00

Venue： Research 1st Meeting Room

Speaker：Prof. Laura Pflug （Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany）

Organizer： IMH「科技與現代東亞的歷史共構」共同研究專題

Abstract：
During the Cold War, the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), like the Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan, was a divided state that had a socialist counterpart. Despite these parallels, relations between the two states were characterized by restraint on the political level from the West German side. Economic relations, however, were another matter, and in spite of political reservations, the FRG and the ROC conducted intensive nuclear business negotiations from the 1960s onward. In the course of this, Taiwan almost became the first buyer of a West German nuclear reactor outside the FRG. Nuclear exports, however, were politically sensitive commodities with both civilian and military potential („dual-use”). This entailed questions of non-proliferation and raised diplomatic sensitivities. Mainly on the basis of German archival sources, this talk reflects on some of the factors that guided nuclear negotiations between the Federal Republic of Germany and Taiwan during the Cold War.

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