Science research and the lessons of World War II | American Enterprise Institute
World War II seems like a pretty obvious example of successful industrial policy, at least in the sense of government directing science research toward specific goals. This from the new working paper “Organizing Crisis Innovation: Lessons from World War II” by Daniel P. Gross and Bhaven N. Sampat: “The [Office of Scientific Research and Development]’s priorities were demand-driven, focused on solving specific military problems, and led by input from the Armed Services. The bulk of its work was applied in nature, and while basic studies were sometimes needed, the urgency of the crisis meant that it mostly had to take basic science as given and to put it to work.”
And Washington’s effort at Big Science produced many notable successes. In just a half-decade, the paper notes, there were major advances across a range of technologies: radar, electrical engineering, jet propulsion, optics, chemistry, and atomic fission. That final one, of