Development of the Science/Politics Interface in the Antarctic Treaty and the Role of Scientific Advice

2007 ◽  
pp. 36-40
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Advice ◽  
Antarctic Treaty ◽  
The Antarctic

scholarly journals Providing expert scientific advice on the Antarctic environment

1994 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-1 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.W.H. Walton
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Scientific Advice ◽  
Politics And Science ◽  
The World ◽  
Antarctic Treaty ◽  
The Antarctic ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Antarctic Environment

It is hard to divorce most human activities, including science, completely from politics. Politics is about perceived certainty whilst science is about doubt – they make strange bedfellows. Politicians detest probabilities whilst scientists abhor the absolute. Nowhere is the relationship between politics and science more publicly developed than in the Antarctic Treaty System. In the only continent devoted to peace and science it might be supposed that, after more than thirty years, the role of science would be both more robust and more pivotal in decision-making than elsewhere in the world. So it appears at present but will it remain so?

An international hierarchy of science: conquest, cooperation, and the 1959 Antarctic Treaty System

2021 ◽  
pp. 135406612110338
Author(s):  
Joanne Yao
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
Social Performance ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Antarctic Treaty ◽  
The Antarctic ◽  
International Status ◽  
Antarctic Treaty System

The Antarctic Treaty System (ATS), created in 1959 to govern the southern continent, is often lauded as an illustration of science’s potential to inspire peaceful and rational International Relations. This article critically examines this optimistic view of science’s role in international politics by focusing on how science as a global hierarchical structure operated as a gatekeeper to an exclusive Antarctic club. I argue that in the early 20th century, the conduct of science in Antarctica was entwined with global and imperial hierarchies. As what Mattern and Zarakol call a broad hierarchy, science worked both as a civilized marker of international status as well as a social performance that legitimated actors’ imperial interests in Antarctica. The 1959 ATS relied on science as an existing broad hierarchy to enable competing states to achieve a functional bargain and ‘freeze’ sovereignty claims, whilst at the same time institutionalizing and reinforcing the legitimacy of science in maintaining international inequalities. In making this argument, I stress the role of formal international institutions in bridging our analysis of broad and functional hierarchies while also highlighting the importance of scientific hierarchies in constituting the current international order.

scholarly journals Education and outreach by the Antarctic Treaty Parties, Observers and Experts under the framework of the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings

Polar Record ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 241-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
José C. Xavier ◽  
Dragomir Mateev ◽  
Linda Capper ◽  
Annick Wilmotte ◽  
David W. H. Walton
Keyword(s):  
International Union ◽  
International Polar Year ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Educational Value ◽  
International Polar ◽  
Antarctic Research ◽  
Antarctic Treaty ◽  
Education And Outreach ◽  
The Antarctic

AbstractThe development of formal discourse about education and outreach within the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings (ATCM), and the influence of major international activities in this field, are described. This study reflects on the ATCM Parties’ approach to implementing the ambition of the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty Article 6.1.a, to promote the educational value of Antarctica and its environment, and examines the role of workshops and expert groups within the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and the Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programmes. These early initiatives, which emerged in the 1990s, were a prelude to the development and implementation of a large number of International Polar Year (IPY) education and outreach programmes. The establishment of an Antarctic Treaty System Intersessional Contact Group, and an online forum on education and outreach during the 2015 ATCM in Bulgaria, is a legacy of IPY and is the next step in fostering collaboration to engage people around the world in the importance and relevance of Antarctica to our daily lives.

scholarly journals CCAMLR and Southern Ocean Fisheries

2001 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 465-499 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik Jaap Molenaar
Keyword(s):  
Southern Ocean ◽  
Regulatory Regime ◽  
The Core ◽  
Iuu Fishing ◽  
Antarctic Marine ◽  
Antarctic Treaty ◽  
International Instruments ◽  
The Antarctic ◽  
Natural Characteristics

AbstractThe Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR Convention) forms the core of the regulatory regime for Southern Ocean fisheries. This article analyses the scope and extent of the Convention and the competence of the bodies established under it while also addressing the role of states and other international intergovernmental organisations with relevant competence. As part of the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS), the CCAMLR Convention is characterised by a unique sovereignty situation. The analysis thereof is complemented by a comparison with (other) regional fisheries management organisations (RFMOs) and illustrated by the difficulties in addressing illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. The article concludes inter alia that the CCAMLR Convention is unlike other RFMOs due to the special natural characteristics, its integration into the ATS and the ensuing sovereignty situation, and its conservationist objective. This notwithstanding, it seems justifiable to treat the CCAMLR Convention as "something more" than an RFMO for the purpose of international instruments on fisheries.

Blue Ice, Meteorites, Fossil Penguins and Rare Minerals: The Case for Enhanced Protection of Antarctica’s Unique Geoheritage – An International Legal Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-40
Author(s):  
David Leary
Keyword(s):  
Protected Area ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Code Of Conduct ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
Draft Code ◽  
Antarctic Treaty ◽  
The Antarctic ◽  
Antarctic Treaty System

Its isolation and extreme climate means Antarctica is one of the world’s richest regions for untouched geoheritage. The potential of mining in Antarctica is often talked of in public discourse as a future threat to Antarctica even though the prohibition on mining is absolute and is likely to stay so indefinitely. As such mining does not pose a realistic threat to Antarctica’s geoheritage. The impacts of scientific research and tourism pose more pressing challenges to Antarctica’s geoheritage. This paper considers emerging debates in the Antarctic Treaty System on the need for further protection of Antarctica’s geoheritage. After considering the concept of geoheritage the paper considers key threats to Antarctic geoheritage. The role of Antarctic Specially Protected Area system in the protection of Antarctica’s geoheritage is then considered as is the draft code of conduct on geosciences field research currently being developed within the Antarctic Treaty System. The final part of the paper then goes on to examine how the Antarctic Treaty system could in part draw on the experience of other international initiatives, including the frameworks associated with the UNESCO Global Geoparks movement in developing an Antarctic System for protection of geoheritage.

Sovereignty watch: claimant states, resources, and territory in contemporary Antarctica

Polar Record ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 231-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaus J. Dodds
Keyword(s):  
Public Culture ◽  
The Other ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Unstable Phase ◽  
Antarctic Treaty ◽  
The One ◽  
The Antarctic ◽  
Anxiety And Fear

ABSTRACTThis article is concerned with the contemporary Antarctic and the kinds of sovereignty performances undertaken by claimant states such as Australia. Notwithstanding the entry into force of the Antarctic Treaty, claimant states have used, what this article terms, ‘treaty sovereignty’ further to entrench their sovereign rights, especially within public culture. Using Australia as a detailed example, the article considers how a range of activities including anti-whaling developments alongside contemporary public commentary has on the one hand stressed ‘sovereign rights’ and yet on the other hand, revealed a sense of anxiety and fear regarding the role of others; what one might term overall a form of ‘sovereignty watch’. In conclusion, the paper speculates on whether the treaty parties are entering an unstable phase of Antarctic co-existence precisely because of the kinds of behaviours that ‘treaty sovereignty’ encourages.

The role of Malaysia under the Antarctic Treaty and Madrid Protocol

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zulhabri Ismail ◽  
Maisarah Makmor ◽  
Rugayah Hashim ◽  
Rohani Mohd Shah ◽  
Norha Abu Hanifah ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Antarctic Treaty ◽  
The Antarctic
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