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How have social sciences become internationalised? This article answers this question by comparing the creation and development of eight European organisations in five disciplines (sociology, economics, anthropology, political science and psychology). It shows that the internationalisation of the social sciences reflects several types of competition: rival scientific paradigms, but also competition between universities, or even geopolitical power relations. Internationalisation functions as a resource that can be mobilised in different arenas, in pre-existing conflicts that are indissociably intellectual and institutional. However, the use of this resource has relatively uncertain consequences. The actual practices and growth of the organisations studied here is sometimes out of step with their original objectives—indeed scientific internationalisation often seems to eventually elude the control of the actors who initiated it.