Charting the shattered sea: Maritime geopolitics and transnational oceanography in East Asia, 1984–2007

Abstract

This article examines the challenges of border-crossing science at geopolitical hot spots through the case study of the East Sea (also known as the Sea of Japan). The East Sea is a marginal sea on the north-west Pacific Ocean surrounded by four historically conflicted nations—South Korea, North Korea, Russia, and Japan. Despite vast scientific interest, severe military conflicts have restricted transnational cooperation in this region throughout the late twentieth century. Utilizing personal archives, cruise reports, and interviews with participating scientists, this article examines how an international team of East Asian oceanographers developed material, political, and rhetorical tactics to circumvent and even appropriate complex border problems at the end of the Cold War. The case study suggests that the global history of oceanography should pay further attention to the practical challenges of accessing geopolitically conflicted basins as well as creative strategies that scientists devise to bridge over those troubled waters.