Antarctica is often held up as an example of good global governance. Unlike other parts of the world, it has never experienced military conflict and still has no military activity. Unlike other remote and sparsely populated areas of the world such as Pacific Ocean atolls, Siberia and the interior of Australia, it has never been used for nuclearweapon testing. As the continent had no indigenous human population, 12 countries undertook an experiment in governance in the late 1950s. Over 60 years later, the 1959 Antarctic Treaty remains the cornerstone of Antarctic governance.
The treaty, in 14 articles, set out a vision of peaceful coexistence. It was made possible by US leadership and arose from the 1957–58 International Geophysical Year (IGY). This was a global scientific project in which 67 countries around the world worked on national and transnational scientific programmes. Owing to cost and remoteness, only 12 countries researched in Antarctica. These groups agreed to work collaboratively and independent of the political geographies of the continent.
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