Abstract The Coastal Upwelling Ecosystems Analysis CUEA) Project, the major effort in the Living Resources part of the United States Program for the International Decade of Ocean Exploration (IDOE), included a variety of approaches to international involvement. Escalating cost, expanded geographical scope, and increasing insistence on coastal state participation in research projects off foreign shores heighten the likelihood that similar large‐scale, long‐term research efforts will require particular attention to international cooperation and collaboration. A look at the international aspects of CUEA is timely and instructive. This discussion reviews the background to the upwelling project, the nature of international involvement, and closes with some observations about the requirements for similar projects in the future.