VI. Analysis and Discussion 



The specific questions addressed by this study are simple: does 

 evidence exist that the tremendous spirit of international cooperation 

 and good will generated by the IGY was to any extent successfully 

 transferred from the scientific to the political arena? Can it be said 

 with any confidence that the techniques so successfully employed by 

 IGY scientists in dealing with one another to solve problems of com- 

 mon interest are at all applicable to political behavior? 



The discussion which follows suggests that a reasonable case can be 

 made for the observation that at least some degree of cooperative 

 spillover occurred; that is, that certain subsequent international 

 political agreements were furthered by the climate created, in some 

 instances many years earlier, by the IGY. After considering the scien- 

 tific good will which was mainly responsible for the cooperative suc- 

 cesses of the IGY, this section concludes with a brief discussion of 

 three such agreements. 



Scientists as Eternal Optimists 



The participants in the IGY were primarily physical scientists, 

 largely concerned with the study and control of scientific phenomena 

 rather than with the conduct of human society. They may therefore 

 be excused their apparent naivete in voicing expectations that the 

 cooperative spirit and techniques they developed so successfully in 

 dealing with each other as scientists might work equally well in deal- 

 ing with one another as social and political creatures. The esprit de 

 corps engendered by the IGY appears to have replaced natural human 

 conservatism, and expressions of optimism flowed freely in the after- 

 math of that spectacular scientific activity. Wilson, for example, ob- 

 served that 



. . . the International Geophysical Year brought many men together under 

 conditions that tended to create harmony and sympathy between them [and] 

 showed that scientists could play a fruitful role in international negotiations and 

 could strengthen international organizations such as ICSU and its parent body 

 UNESCO . . . . in 



These and other joint efforts by scientists, he maintained, must be 

 extended to include the control of nuclear fission and the problem 

 of an increasing population; or we are lost. 19 * Berkner pointed out 



that: 



Even more than nuclear energy, the satellite has symbolized the cohesive force 

 of science in bringing together and cementing political, social, and economic 

 elements of man's civilization. 195 



Chapman suggested that: 



The harmonious development and execution of the IGY enterprise set a 

 pattern that might serve as an example to be emulated in more difficult, political 

 fields. 1 •• 



"» Wilson, New Moon*, pp. 325, 328. 

 1M Wilson, New Moon, p. 328. 

 '•* Berkner, "Geography and Space," p. 306. 



,M Sydney Chapman, "Earth and Beyond: The International Geophysical Year In Retrospect. Was It 

 A. 'Turning Point in History?,' " Science 133 (July 7, 1961), p. 41. 



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