Antarctic Science and the Cold War

This chapter encourages a comparative perspective on the relationship between science and the Cold War in the polar regions by presenting an overview of the historical relationship between science and politics in Antarctica. As well as highlighting the colonial dimensions of polar science, a comparative perspective creates a powerful argument against an overly deterministic reading of this history. Despite similarities between the Arctic and Antarctica, the differences mean that it becomes difficult to assert that the Cold War exerted a singular influence on polar science, or that polar science had an easily definable impact on the Cold War.