Abstract Geoeconomic shocks in the 1970s, including oil price hikes and declining commodity prices, drove many countries to unsustainable debt levels by the early 1980s. While the established global norm then was that debtors should pay back their creditors, high levels of debt threatened the stability of the global economy. In the 1990s and 2000s, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was the key venue for debating this global norm, with debtor countries seeking some relief while creditor countries sought to defend their bottom lines. Debates among the IMF Executive Board over the content of policy scripts for sovereign debt management show how the Global North, Global South, and IMF staff argued their positions on what should change. The eventual compromise was debt relief in exchange for extended IMF surveillance and programs that enforce market-oriented reforms. The chapter traces this evolution, highlighting how politics-versus-science interactions were critical to the outcome.