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Through the Antarctic Treaty System and the ICSU Scientific 

 Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) a mutually beneficial 

 relationship has developed which blends the research programs of 

 individual nations into a coordinated effort of circumpolar 

 scope and significance. 



The establishment of a program under the aegis of SCAR to 

 gain insight into the structure and function of the Southern 

 Ocean ecosystem — a prerequisite to wise management of its 

 living resources — is an example of how an initiative involving 

 multi-national participation can be launched successfully. 

 Recently, 18 ships from 14 nations participated in this largest 

 ever biological oceanographic research effort in the oceans 

 surrounding Antarctica. The data from this effort is shared 

 freely, and under SCAR a series of data interpretation workshops 

 and international symposia have been held to present these 

 findings to the world scientific community. 



The IGY has been hailed as the finest and greatest 

 demonstration of unselfish international scientific 

 cooperation. For the great scientific powers, it almost tore 

 down the Iron Curtain and for the Third World, it offered 

 dignified acceptance in the world of first class science at 

 whatever level of participation was possible within their 

 resources. Since the IGY, there have been several international 

 programs such as the Global Atmospheric Research Program (GARP) 

 and the International Magnetospheric Study (IMS) that included 



