358 



It would appear that this question can now be answered affirma- 

 tively. The evidence is highly suggestive, if not conclusive, that the 

 new communications channels, the tremendous cooperative spirit, 

 and the increased understanding among participants of the 67 nations 

 which took part in the IGY led directly to the Antarctic Treaty. 

 Whether or not the IGY can be credited in such strong terms, it 

 clearly played an important part in helping shape that treaty, which 

 in turn reinforced the cooperative pattern for the other treaties and 

 agreements which were to follow. Just as scientists approach their 

 objectives through a step-by-step process, so did politicians appear 

 to approach these international objectives in similar fashion, with 

 similar success. 



It may be argued, of course, that the implications of the Cuban 

 missile crisis of 1962 had more to do with the test ban than did the 

 IGY, that only after facing up to the unpleasant realities of a possible 

 nuclear war did the Soviets opt for agreement, thereby making possi- 

 ble the essential conditions in which the promise of the IGY could be 

 fulfilled. To acknowledge the reality of political and military power, 

 however, is not to diminish the power of the IGY as an idea whose 

 time had come. 



Perhaps an even more persuasive testament to that power is to 

 be found not in the symbolic, formal language and protocol of treaties 

 but in the quickened pace and broadened scope of the many inter- 

 national meetings to exchange both basic knowledge and techno- 

 logical know-how which can trace their origins to the IGY example. 

 It" was 50 years between the First Polar Year and the Second, and 

 25 years from that to the IGY. Today hardly a year goes by without 

 one or more major conferences addressed to phenomena and problems 

 of the environment, the oceans, energy, or new aspects of mankind's 

 relationships with regard to outer space. To say that the IGY was 

 responsible for these developments to advance the human condition 

 would be gross overstatement, since the phenomena and problems 

 themselves are ultimately responsible simply by their existence. But 

 human perception of them was furthered by the IGY; international 

 good will in collaborating to explore them was fostered by it; and it 

 seems quite possible that the IGY conferred on political leaders of most 

 of the world's nations an enlarged appreciation of the potential of con- 

 structive international collaboration for solving political, as well as 

 scientific and technological, problems. 



