In 1957 a program of international research, inspired by the International Polar Years of 1882-83 and 1932-33, was organized as the International Geophysical Year (IGY) to study global phenomena of the Earth and geospace. The IGY involved about 60,000 scientists from 66 nations, working at thousands of stations, from pole to pole to obtain simultaneous, global observations on Earth and in space. There had never been anything like it before. The fiftieth anniversary of the International Geophysical Year will occur in 2007. An international program of scientific collaboration for this time period called the International Heliophysical Year (IHY) has been organized. Like it predecessors, the IHY will focus on fundamental global questions of Earth and Space science. As described in a recent report from the National Research Council and as a theme for the upcoming International Heliophysical Year, the goal of the movement is to provide a unified view of cosmic plasma behavior through coordinated efforts to analyze processes and structures accessible to quantitative observation in the solar system.