The International Indian Ocean Expedition and the Pursuit of Science in the Developing World

Abstract

Between 2015 and 2020, UNESCO and oceanographers who study the Indian Ocean sponsored an international expedition to pursue current research topics about the region. Known as the Second International Indian Ocean Expedition, the project recapitulated an effort that had begun 56 years earlier. The International Indian Ocean Expedition (IIEO) ran from 1959 to 1965 and was the first major oceanographic expedition to focus on a developing world region. With 22 participating countries, the IIEO pursued large‐scale, collaborative science as state formation began after the collapse of European empires. The wave of decolonizations in Africa and Asia after the Second World War was more than just the refusal of alien rule followed by the formation of new nation‐states [1]. It was a moment when the citizens of newly independent countries, including India, the most active developing‐world participant in the IIOE, sought to recalibrate international hierarchies. As African and Asian politicians and thinkers shaped international institutions to their benefit, including the United Nations, of which UNESCO was a part, developing world scientists also expanded their say in the pursuit of science [2]. Oceanography was a young field, often practiced minimally in wealthy countries, but pursued vigorously by India in the years after independence. This effort occurred in the context of a Cold War pursued by the primary funders of the IIOE, the US and USSR, that eventually undercut international cooperation in science but did not squelch Indian institution‐building in oceanography. The IIOE, then, offers a window into the historical geography of science in the postwar period and into the under‐recognized agency of scientists outside the West in creating regional science infrastructure.