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22 - The International Geophysical Year and the Antarctic Treaty System

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2023

By
Klaus Dodds
Edited by
Adrian Howkins  and
Peder Roberts
Adrian Howkins
Affiliation:
University of Bristol
Peder Roberts
Affiliation:
University of Stavanger
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Summary

During the Cold War, at about the time Ian Fleming was penning From Russia with Love (1957), the Soviet Union stunned the world with a successful launch of an artificial satellite, Sputnik. While Western and Soviet spies, real and fictional, were hatching plans to acquire field and signals intelligence, the world’s scientific community helped to create their own daring initiative. The International Geophysical Year (IGY) of 1957–58 was audacious in scope and scale – scientists around the world were going to explore and interrogate outer space, the polar regions, and the oceans, and share the ensuing data for the sake of global knowledge generation.

Keywords

AntarcticasovereigntygeopoliticsAntarctic TreatyInternational Geophysical Yearimperialismscience
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of the Polar Regions , pp. 536 - 562
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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