OCEAN SCIENCES AND NATIONAL SECURITY 37 



The range of such benefits is so great that only the barest mention 

 is possible in this report. Nevertheless, the future increased rate of 

 transfer of this background to a field such as oceanography opens up 

 exciting prospects of achievement. 



C. OPPORTUNITIES FOR INTERNATIONAL LEADERSHIP 



All too often the terms "international cooperation" and "interna- 

 tional leadership" become catch phrases representing a vague benefi- 

 cent philosophy which, through some unspecified mechanism, is 

 expected automatically to j^ield progress toward peace and mainte- 

 nance of the United States as a world power. The international 

 aspects of oceanic research have been stated in such terms that the 

 opportunities for accomplishment through multilateral action appear 

 unusually fruitful. 



In the first mstance, oceanography, as is true with any science, is 

 international in character. Physical laws which describe circulation 

 of cmTents m the ocean and exchange of heat with the atmosphere, 

 which define the ecology of some particular marine life, are universal. 

 Discovery by any one nation freely benefits all nations. The ocean 

 sciences, however, have the additional attribute of involving large 

 areas of the world in a single phenomenon. This would certainly be 

 dramatized by the worldwide rise in sea level due to any melting of 

 the polar icecaps, or by the propagation of tidal waves due to sub- 

 terranean earthquakes. For a better understanding of the oceans and 

 their contents, it is necessary to make measurements from a large 

 number of stations throughout the world simultaneously. Such 

 synoptic studies can be successfully conducted only through 

 coordinated programs involving many ships, many measurements, and 

 many observation stations throughout the world. Obvioush^ any such 

 program could be accomplished only by joint efforts of participants 

 from many different countries. Such a multilateral attack on world- 

 wide scientific problems was the very essence of the International Geo- 

 physical Year which was concluded in 1958 with such success. The 

 study of the oceans was appropriately included in this IGY program. 

 At the conclusion of the IGY, the International Council of Scien- 

 tific Unions which had fostered its organization formed a Special 

 Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR), about whose activities 

 more is noted subsequently. 



Congressional reaction to IGY is reflected in the following passages 

 from a report of the House Select Committee on Astronautics and 

 Space Exploration: 



One of its major political and human phenomena is that the IGY organized 

 the scientific world into a single unit for the advance of knowledge about the 

 nature of the universe. Barriers of language, nationality, even politics, and 

 mutual cold war antagonisms were in this massive cjuest for exact data mostly 

 surmounted. Some 30,000 scientists and technicians, in 66 nations, for 18 

 months worked more or less in total concert and in freedom to organize, discover, 

 proclaim, scientific truth. '^ 



The Select Committee also concluded that — 



The IGY has been of great value in itself by contributing to more and better 

 knowledge and control of the human environment. * * * The IGY illustrated 

 that scientific progress can no longer be left to individuals working alone, but 

 must be supported by a partnership of Government, business enterprise, educa- 



" "The International Geophysical Year and Space Research." Stafl Report of the Select Committee 

 on Astronautics and Space Exploration, H. Doc. 88, 86th Cong., p. 33. 



56612—60 4 



