The International Council of Scientific Unions

If there’s one thing I have learned from reading Marxist literature, it’s that it always starts with some alleged ‘moral call’. Every time. And while that might appear a somewhat strange place to start an article on the ICSU, it is absolutely relevant.

Encyclopedia’s entry on the International Council for Science¹ includes a fair bit of history on the topic of ICSU. See, the contemporary organisation - headquartered in Paris - is a merger beween the ICSU, and the ISSC - the International Social Sciences Council.

And why is that relevant?

Because the ISSC - I kid you not - was founded under the auspices of UNESCO². And - a short primer - it was UNESCO who enabled NGO function at the United Nations via ECOSOC 1296, it was UNESCO who arranged the 1968 biosphere conference³ which led to our present predicament, and… the founder of UNESCO - Julian Huxley⁴ - also founded IUCN⁵, and they lobbied hard to pass ECOSOC 1296.

Of course - and somewhat unbelievably - it was also UNESCO who, prior to the ink being dry on the dotted line establishing the organisation, turned around and entered into a formal agreement with none other than the ICSU back in 1946⁶.