Beyond East and West. Forecasting Institute of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences among its international networks

Abstract

After the violent suppression of the Prague Spring, the Czechoslovak academic sphere was forced to reorient towards the "friendly" socialist states and reduce its Western contacts. It was an effort to restructure networks that were being build up especially towards the end of the 60s. There were attempts to build new networks, especially through COMECON and cooperation of the Academies of Sciences in the Soviet bloc which should have been working together on common projects.

This pressure eased in the 80s at least which I will follow on a special case - the international networks of the Forecasting Institute. It was founded in the form of the Forecasting Cabinet in 1984. It acquired an important position as a guarantor of a giant policy advice project for the Czechoslovak federal government. Eventually, it acquired a unique position in the framework of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences as well. In the end, it was directly under the president of the CAS - on par with whole section of sciences e.g. in regard to consideration of work travel abroad.

Its example shows how it maintained and built many different contacts and networks both in East and West. From close cooperation with circles around Oleg Bogomolov at the Soviet Academy, to economic summer schools in Poland, to WIIW in Austria, to IREX in the US. These contacts demonstrate how the "consolidation" in the 70s did not manage to reorient the academic sphere only towards the "friendly" socialist states and when the situation allowed it the scientists at the CSAS engaged in regular international scientific exchange once again.