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SUMMARY:Anticipations of the ocean: technological futures of the Cold War 
 ocean - Sam Robinson (University of York)
DTSTART:20181108T130000Z
DTEND:20181108T140000Z
UID:TALK111193@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Richard Staley
DESCRIPTION:The UN Law of the Sea (1968–1984) was intended to legislate 
 for the new capabilities that developments in underwater science and techn
 ology opened up for developed nations. In reality the negotiations became 
 a point when the superpower technological hegemony of the global ocean was
  challenged by the 'Group of 77' – nations that saw the negative potenti
 al of new technologies in terms of the external exploitation of their reso
 urces. Science policy was formed in response to the anticipated capabiliti
 es of such technologies which far outweighed the realities of extracting d
 eep-sea minerals and resource exploitation in remote and inhospitable envi
 ronments. Thus\, the discussion of ocean science and technology within the
  treaty negotiations were built on anticipatory understandings of the pote
 ntial exploitation of the oceans.\n\nThis paper will argue that internatio
 nal law-building for science and technology can be framed as an anticipato
 ry response to claims made for potential future use. Thereby these negotia
 tions\, based on unsettling scientific futures\, are themselves forms of s
 cientific imaginaries. The navigation of potential uses of science\, by di
 plomats\, reveals the role of science communication within complex negotia
 tions\, and the importance of the distinction (and sometimes the blurring)
  of the real and the imagined in international relations. The Law of the S
 ea was a site where scientific futures were imagined in several contexts\;
  a uniquely challenging moment in international law creation where lawmake
 rs looked to the future rather than responding to their past or present si
 tuations.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 2\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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