Governing the Antarctic


Book Description

After thirty-five years the regime based on the Antarctic Treaty is more vigorous than ever. Here leading scholars of international law and international relations examine the effectiveness and legitimacy of this regime by asking two questions: are current changes affecting the regime's ability to cope with major problems in the region, and how do those changes affect its standing amongst parties to the Treaty and in the wider international community? Individual chapters deal with the Antarctic regimes for marine living resources, mineral activities, environmental protection, and tourism. Throughout, a keen eye is kept on how those components interact and reinforce each other. This analysis is supported by in-depth studies of compatibility and tension between the Antarctic Treaty System and the international community at large. It also draws upon case studies of how domestic concerns and decision-making in four selected countries affect international co-operation in the Antarctic.




The Technocratic Antarctic


Book Description

The Technocratic Antarctic is an ethnographic account of the scientists and policymakers who work on Antarctica. In a place with no indigenous people, Antarctic scientists and policymakers use expertise as their primary model of governance. Scientific research and policymaking are practices that inform each other, and the Antarctic environment—with its striking beauty, dramatic human and animal lives, and specter of global climate change—not only informs science and policy but also lends Antarctic environmentalism a particularly technocratic patina. Jessica O’Reilly conducted most of her research for this book in New Zealand, home of the "Antarctic Gateway" city of Christchurch, and on an expedition to Windless Bight, Antarctica, with the New Zealand Antarctic Program. O’Reilly also follows the journeys Antarctic scientists and policymakers take to temporarily "Antarctic" places such as science conferences, policy workshops, and the international Antarctic Treaty meetings in Scotland, Australia, and India. Competing claims of nationalism, scientific disciplines, field experiences, and personal relationships among Antarctic environmental managers disrupt the idea of a utopian epistemic community. O’Reilly focuses on what emerges in Antarctica among the complicated and hybrid forms of science, sociality, politics, and national membership found there. The Technocratic Antarctic unfolds the historical, political, and moral contexts that shape experiences of and decisions about the Antarctic environment.




The Emerging Politics of Antarctica


Book Description

This book examines the post-Cold War challenges facing Antarctic governance. It seeks to understand the interests of new players in Antarctic affairs such as China, India, Korea and Malaysia, and how other key players such as Russia and the USA or claimant states such as New Zealand or France are coping in the new global order. Antarctica is the world's fifth largest continent and its territories are claimed by seven different states. Since 1961 Antarctica has been managed under the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS), a regime which, according to its critics, by the terms of its membership effectively excludes most of the nations of the world. This book examines the post-Cold War challenges facing Antarctic governance, and is organized thematically into three sections: Part 1considers the role of Antarctic politics in the current post-Cold War, post-colonial era and the impact this new political environment is having on the ATS. Part 2looks at the competing foreign policy objectives of a representative range of countries with Antarctic activities. Part 3examines issues that have the potential to destabilise the order of the Antarctic Treaty System, such as unrestricted tourism and new advances in science and technology. The Emerging Politics of Antarcticawill be of interest to students and scholars of international politics, polar studies and foreign policy studies.




Anthropocene Antarctica


Book Description

Anthropocene Antarctica offers new ways of thinking about the ‘Continent for Science and Peace’ in a time of planetary environmental change. In the Anthropocene, Antarctica has become central to the Earth’s future. Ice cores taken from its interior reveal the deep environmental history of the planet and warming ocean currents are ominously destabilising the glaciers around its edges, presaging sea-level rise in decades and centuries to come. At the same time, proliferating research stations and tourist numbers challenge stereotypes of the continent as the ‘last wilderness.’ The Anthropocene brings Antarctica nearer in thought, entangled with our everyday actions. If the Anthropocene signals the end of the idea of Nature as separate from humans, then the Antarctic, long considered the material embodiment of this idea, faces a radical reframing. Understanding the southern polar region in the twenty-first century requires contributions across the disciplinary spectrum. This collection paves the way for researchers in the Environmental Humanities, Law and Social Sciences to engage critically with the Antarctic, fostering a community of scholars who can act with natural scientists to address the globally significant environmental issues that face this vitally important part of the planet.




Handbook on the Politics of Antarctica


Book Description

The Antarctic and Southern Ocean are hotspots for contemporary endeavours to oversee 'the last frontier' of the Earth. The Handbook on the Politics of Antarctica offers a wide-ranging and comprehensive overview of the governance, geopolitics, international law, cultural studies and history of the region. Four thematic sections take readers from the earliest human encounters to contemporary resource exploitation and climate change. Written by leading experts, the Handbook brings together the very best interdisciplinary social science and humanities scholarship on the Antarctic and Southern Ocean.




Antarctic Climate Evolution


Book Description

Antarctic Climate Evolution is the first book dedicated to furthering knowledge on the evolution of the world's largest ice sheet over its ~34 million year history. This volume provides the latest information on subjects ranging from terrestrial and marine geology to sedimentology and glacier geophysics. - An overview of Antarctic climate change, analyzing historical, present-day and future developments - Contributions from leading experts and scholars from around the world - Informs and updates climate change scientists and experts in related areas of study




Antarctic Treaty


Book Description




The Antarctic Legal Regime


Book Description

These three volumes contain a comprehensive & current documentation of sources of international environmental law (200 instruments) in a handy version. Several of these documents were never printed elsewhere. Volume 1 embodies the important declarations, resolutions or drafts of international organizations & bodies: 25 UNO/UNEP/FAO documents (including all UNEP-guidelines), 15 resolutions of the three recording bodies (International Law Association, Institut de Droit International & ILC), 14 ECE-Declarations/Recommendations, 32 OECD-Decisions/Recommendations, 10 Resolutions/Recommendations of the Council of Europe, 9 Declarations on Climate Change/Sustainable Development, 9 important Drafts (including the US-Restatement & the new ECE-Draft Convention on Transboundary Watercourses). Volumes 2 & 3 contain the bior multilateral agreements: 28 global or regional Agreements for the protection of seas (including the new Lisbon Convention & the Kingston Protocol), 17 Agreements of Regimes of European, American or African Rivers (including the Guidelines/Action Programmes for Lake Constance & Rhine, & the consolidated version of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement), 14 global & 9 regional Agreements for the protection of species & nature (including the new Protocol for the Antarctic), 2 Conventions for the protection of soils (control of wastes), 11 Agreements for the protection of air/atmosphere (including the new Geneva VOCs-Protocol) & documents for the Earth Summit (2 UN-Resolutions, Drafts of Earth Charter, Biodiversity & Climate Convention). Several documents are of 1991 (a few of December 1991). The volumes contain introductions to each part, references, basic data of the treaties, & three forewords ( G. Handl, H.D. Genscher & Prince Charles ).




Antarctica and the Law of the Sea


Book Description

This survey of maritime law as it applies to the Antarctic continent and surrounding seas, includes biogeography, sovereignty, offshore jurisdiction, the continental shelf, environmental protection and conservation, and the legal status of ice shelves, sea ice, icebergs and ice islands.




The Space Law Stalemate


Book Description

The governing international space law regime has been locked in a norm-creation stalemate for over 40 years. This stalemate endangers the preservation of established, guiding legal principles, as well as the sustainability of the parts of outer space that humans utilize. The discrepancy between norm creation, technological advancement, and the ecosystem of novel actors could generate serious consequences for future space activities and the nature of international relations. Besides the return of old rivalries in a New Cold War, new activities and actors emerging amidst a legal void emphasizes the risks of the stalemate: unstable peace, fragile cooperation, uneven technological development, and uncertain eco-sustainability. The prolonged legal stalemate cannot be treated simply as an academic question, for it has broader political and economic implications of growing strategic relevance. Unresolved issues in international space law could threaten the survival of space as a global common, thus it is essential that the ability of the norm-creation mechanism of UN COPUOS is equipped to address the ongoing changes and provide for adequate global governance. This book evaluates the current legal state and sheds light on potential future prospects, offering an overview of the political context within which it developed, providing an assessment of the selected successful examples in international law, and analyzing lessons learned. It makes recommendations for how the UN COPUOS legal apparatus should be modified in order to ensure that future space activities are possible beyond anarchy, greed, and ecological irresponsibility, and to ensure that the principle of the peaceful uses of outer space remains the governing norm.