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Article ID: CBB001250988

Sword, Shield and Buoys: A History of the NATO Sub-Committee on Oceanographic Research, 1959--1973 (2012)

Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology
Volume: 54, no. 3
Issue: 3
Pages: 205-231
Publication date: 2012
Language: English

DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0498.2012.00258.x

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Oceanography Societies; institutions; academies Science and war; science and the military Submarines Research institutes; research stations 20th century, late North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

In the late 1950s the North-Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) made a major effort to fund collaborative research between its member states. One of the first initiatives following the establishment of the alliance's Science Committee was the creation of a sub-group devoted to marine science: the Sub-committee on Oceanographic Research.This paper explores the history of this organization, charts its trajectory over the 13 years of its existence, and considers its activities in light of NATO's naval defence strategies. In particular it shows how the alliance's naval commands played a key role in the sub-committee's creation due to the importance of oceanographic research in the tracking of enemy submarines. The essay also scrutinizes the reasons behind the committee's dissolution, with a special focus on the changing landscape of scientific collaboration at NATO. The committee's fall maps onto a more profound shift in the alliance's research agenda, including the re-organization of defence research and the rise of environmentalism.

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