Antarctica: The Battle for the Seventh Continent

by Doaa Abdel-Motaal

Overview

The thawing Antarctic continent offers living space and marine and mineral resources that were previously inaccessible. This book discusses how revisiting the Antarctic Treaty System and dividing up the continent preemptively could spare the world serious conflict.

The Antarctic Treaty and related agreements—collectively known as the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS)—regulate the seventh continent, which is the only continent without a native human population. The main treaty within the ATS came into force in 1961 and suspended all territorial claims in Antarctica. The Antarctic Environmental Protocol followed in 1998 and prohibited any minerals exploitation in the continent. With this prohibition up for review in 2048, this book asks whether the Antarctic Treaty can continue to protect Antarctica.

Doaa Abdel-Motaal—an expert on environmental issues who has traveled through the Arctic and Antarctic—explains that the international community must urgently turban its attention to examining how to divide up the thawing continent in a peaceful manner. She discusses why the Antarctic Treaty is unlikely to be an adequate measure in the face of international competition for invaluable resources in the 21st century. She argues that factors such as global warming, the growth in climate refugees that the world is about to witness, and the increasingly critical quest for energy resources will make the Antarctic continent a highly sought-after objective.

Readers will come to appreciate that what has likely protected Antarctica so far was not the Antarctic Treaty but the continent's harsh climate and isolation. With Antarctica potentially becoming habitable only a few decades from now, revisiting the Antarctic Treaty in favor of an orderly division of the continent is likely to be the best plan for avoiding costly conflict.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781440848032
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	09/28/2016
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

Doaa Abdel-Motaal, PhD, is an environment and climate change expert. She is former chief of staff of the United Nations Fund for Agricultural Development, Rome, Italy, and deputy chief of staff of the World Trade Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

1 Introduction 1

2 The Case for Antarctica 7

3 Who Owns Antarctica? 53

4 The Conquest: Science and Minerals 83

5 An Antarctic Economy: Lessons from the Melting Arctic 119

6 Lines in the Ice: An Orderly Division of Antarctica 147

7 Toward Greater Environmental Protection in Antarctica 201

8 The World Is Not Waiting for 2048 261

Appendix 1 The Antarctic Treaty 265

Appendix 2 The Svalbard Treaty 273

Abbreviations 279

Bibliography 281

Index 309

What People are Saying About This

Dr Alan D. Hemmings

"In the coming decades, the Antarctic, long a peripheral region in international relations, will become a much more significant and contentious geopolitical space. The changing global order requires Antarctica's governance to reflect more diverse interests, and the consequences of anthropogenic climate change are so profound that no place on our common planet any longer remains peripheral. Against this background, Doaa Abdel-Motaal offers a critical analysis of our current Antarctic arrangements and suggests options for a new regional dispensation there."

Dr. Alan D. Hemmings

"In the coming decades, the Antarctic, long a peripheral region in international relations, will become a much more significant and contentious geopolitical space. The changing global order requires Antarctica’s governance to reflect more diverse interests, and the consequences of anthropogenic climate change are so profound that no place on our common planet any longer remains peripheral. Against this background, Doaa Abdel-Motaal offers a critical analysis of our current Antarctic arrangements and suggests options for a new regional dispensation there."

Aleqa Hammond

"A thought-provoking book on the potential occupation of the seventh continent. In my words quoted in the book, I sent a message to the future population of Antarctica: 'Decide your own destiny and your own future . . . You will have your own life, you will live there, and you should be the one to decide.'"

Pascal Lamy

"This book makes a compelling case that the forces of globalization, climate change, and migration are already changing the face of Antarctica and aggravating its tragedy of the commons. The author's exposition of the challenges and her proposed remedies are provocative and should act as the beginning of a new conversation."

Editorial Reviews

This is a most useful text that should see widespread application in the educational and policy making communities, and among Antarctic operators of one kind or another. The world is not static, change is all around, and there are lessons to be learned from the Arctic that could well be applied in the south to improve matters there. The book is well worth a read.” —Polar Record

From the Publisher