Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
al Protection, which banned all forms of mining in the Antarctic Treaty region (defined as
south of 60°S latitude). The earliest any review conference can be called is 2048.
Third, the treaty endured because the provisions of Article IV were sufficiently vague to al-
low competing positions to co-exist, however uneasily. Article IV dealt with the potentially
explosive issue of sovereignty claims. Getting agreement on this issue was helped, para-
doxically perhaps, by the occurrence of the Cold War. It was clear that the Soviet Union and
the United States did not want to make the Antarctic another area of strain given prevailing
tensions over the Arctic Ocean. It also helped that no one was contemplating mining and
resource extraction in the late 1950s. If anything, parties were more concerned about the
frozen continent becoming a nuclear testing ground. So Article IV suited all concerned and,
as noted earlier, there were only twelve parties to negotiate with. Compare such a situation
to contemporary climate change summits and conferences where it is common to deal with
over a hundred governments and political leaders and, something that did not exist in the
1950s, 24/7 news reporting cycles and attending pressures to be seen to 'doing something'.
The Antarctic is far more demanding of our attention.
Summary
The governance of the Antarctic has changed markedly even during the lifetime of the
Antarctic Treaty. The international peace and stability established by the Antarctic Treaty
remains essential in ensuring the continued participation by major non-claimants such as
China, India, s of all human
