Before World War II, international science was mainly European and Eurocentric. The International Council of Scientific Unions and the International Institute for Intellectual Co-operation paid very little attention to science and scientists beyond Europe, which were mostly confined to colonial science institutions. Non-Western scientific achievements were ignored.
When joining the new international scientific bodies after WWII, the politically engaged scientists tried to implement new principles rooted in the pre-war "social relations of science" movements.
Joseph Needham developed his ideas in three memos during the war, and tried to put them into practice as the first head of Unesco science division (1946-1948). According to what he called "the periphery principle", Unesco had to support voluntarily the scientists and the scientific activities outside "the bright zone". Western scientists did not need such a support.
My paper will present the various projects realized, or initiated, by Needham: the field scientific cooperation offices, international laboratories outside Europe such as the Amazon Institute, the promotion of national science organization, the popularization of science, the Scientific and Cultural History of Mankind, etc.
I will confront Needham's initial aims with the results, to analyse the limitations and the contradictions of his projects in the political context (the growing Cold war), in the social context of the scientific milieu (mainly hostile to the periphery principle – Needham spoke later of the "parochial mind" of his colleagues) and in his own intellectual context (Needham kept some Eurocentric features and practices).
Nevertheless, the issues raised by Needham marked Unesco for more than the two years he headed the science division, and revealed to be pertinent even now, in the present globalized world.