The Future of the Antarctic Treaty System
It is with great pride that we at SAGE publish this, our first joint report with Chilean partner, AthenaLab.
This report is important for a number of reasons. For us at SAGE, it gave us the opportunity to showcase the talent of local intern, Ms Jena Jaensch. She worked on this paper in collaboration with senior Chilean scholar and AthenaLab Associate Researcher, Dr. Jorge G. Guzmán. We at SAGE thank Dr. Guzmán for his work on this paper and for his collaboration and mentorship of Jena. And we thank Executive Director Juan Pablo Toro of AthenaLab for allowing us to proceed with this important project.
As our readers will know timing is everything and the release of this paper comes a few days after the Australian ABC published an article on the fact that the Chinese have been busy building their own research stations on Australia's Antarctic Territory: https://amp.abc.net.au/article/10858486. Considering that relations between Australia and the People's Republic of China have hit an all time low, Antarctica and Australia's claim to Antarctic territory might in time cause Canberra some significant foreign policy and strategic problems. Furthermore, Dr. Guzmán unpacks the issues surrounding Chilean and Argentine claims to both Antarctic and sub-Antarctic territories, hardly a smooth and trouble-free issue, revealing vulnerabilities in both Santiago and Buenos Aires Antarctic positions, vulnerabilities that can be exploited by other external actors.
Antarctica, the world’s southernmost landmass spans 14.2 million square kilometres of which only 0.18 percent of this continent is ice free.[1] The Antarctic Treaty System (ATS) is a set of documents which aim to ensure continued peace in the Antarctic, to encourage scientific co-operation, and preserve its unique natural environment.[2] The ATS comprises of the Antarctic Treaty, the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty (also known as the Madrid Protocol), the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals (CCAS) and the Secretariat of the Antarctic Treaty regulations.[3] The Antarctic Treaty was agreed upon in 1959 and came into effect in 1961.[4]
The read this report in its entirety please click the Download button or please click HERE