Science diplomacy and ocean exploitation: The power of sociotechnical imaginaries to shape the future

This case study appears in: Mays C, Laborie L, Griset P (eds) (2022) Inventing a shared science diplomacy for Europe: Interdisciplinary case studies to think with history. Promoters of ocean exploitation in the late 1960s envisaged wonders such as rare mineral extraction and the stationing of divers in underwater habitats from which they would operate seabed machinery undisturbed by turbulent surface waters. These scientific and sociotechnical imaginaries caused uncertainty in the international community, especially in the global south, that led the United Nations to call Law of the Sea conferences to mediate emerging geopolitical tensions caused by the potential exploitation of ocean spaces. These conferences became a site where lawmakers projected futures rather than merely responding to past or present dilemmas. Diplomats' negotiations, with their basis in anticipation of the future uses of science and technology, reveal the role of sociotechnical imaginaries within complex science diplomacy negotiations