Polar Geopolitics

Is the Antarctic Treaty System obsolete, and could it collapse in the near future? Dr. Elizabeth Buchanan of the Australian National University explains why she is concerned that the increasing great power interest and Antarctic activity—ostensibly in the name of science—could jeopardize the almost 60-year-old ATS, and even lead to conflict if the Treaty is not updated to reflect current geopolitical realities. She also discusses Australia’s precarious situation as the state with the largest Antarctic claim (frozen under the ATS), which includes the ‘Dome A’ area where China has recently applied to create a Specially Managed Area around its Kunlun Station located there at the strategic highest point of the continent.

Environmental change in the frozen parts of the planet—the Cryosphere—have implications well beyond the polar regions and motivate much of the increased international interest in the Arctic and Antarctic. To better understand this key driver of scientific research, climate activism and geopolitical calculation, this episode of the podcast takes a deep dive into the just-released landmark IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate with Martin Sommerkorn, the coordinating lead author of the polar regions chapter of SROCC.

In the midst of an escalating diplomatic crisis between the United States and Denmark, international relations expert Prof. Paul Musgrave joins the Polar Geopolitics podcast to provide analysis, insight and an array of perspectives—American, global, historical—on Donald Trump’s interest in buying Greenland, an unfolding story that has sent shockwaves far beyond the Arctic.

Reports of Donald Trump's interest in the U.S. buying Greenland from Denmark - without doubt the most unexpected and outrageous Arctic news story in recent memory - has attracted ridicule and rapidly morphed into a diplomatic crisis. Associate Professor Jon Rahbek-Clemmensen, an expert on Denmark-Greenland-U.S. relations at the Royal Danish Defense College, joins Polar Geopolitics for an analysis of Trump's Greenland gambit and its wide-ranging ramifications on Arctic geopolitics.

In a continent recognized as a global commons, yet where seven states hold frozen claims and others are eager to be seen as stakeholders, history and the cultural heritage remains of earlier expeditions to Antarctica are deeply entangled in the geopolitics of the southern polar region. On this episode, Polar Geopolitics speaks with three polar historians and cultural heritage experts—Dag Avango, Lize-Marie van der Watt and Peder Roberts—who explain these complex interlinkages that strongly influence contemporary activity and the governance of Antarctica. The evolution and importance of the Antarctic humanities is also discussed in the wake of major conference on the subject in Ushuaia, Argentina.

A confluence of events in 2007 made the media take major interest in the Arctic, and the geopolitical narrative that emerged that year continues to shape public and political perceptions on the opportunities and risks the region and the world faces in the wake of accelerated climate change. This episode features three experts—Alice Rogoff, founder of Arctic Today; technology historian Nina Wormbs; and media studies professor Miya Christensen—that share their insights on the Arctic media landscape and events like the 2007 Arctic sea ice minimum that drive coverage and underpin narratives of geopolitical conflict and competition over Arctic resources.

Many stakeholders, particularly environmental NGOs, involved with last October's meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources were highly critical of the Commission's failure to reach agreement on additional Marine Protected Areas in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica. Frida Bengtsson is global Project Lead for the Greenpeace 'Protect the Antarctic' campaign, and participated in the meeting in Hobart, Australia on behalf of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition. On this episode of the podcast, she shares her experiences and insights from an NGO perspective on working with, and sometimes against, state and commercial interests in safeguarding both polar regions from excessive exploitation. In addition to the CCAMLR negotiations for MPAs in the Weddell Sea and East Antarctica, Frida also discusses Greenpeace's work with Southern Ocean krill fisheries, the problem of microplastics, and other environmental issues pertaining to the polar regions.

What lessons for contemporary climate adaptation can we learn from the Viking-era Norse settlement on Greenland, which was founded in the midst of the Mediaeval Warm Period and disappeared during the Little Ice Age? Prof. Thomas McGovern, an environmental archaeologist and world leading authority on Medieval Arctic cultures, shares his insights from decades of fieldwork in the North Atlantic into how historic societies succeeded or failed to adapt to a changing climate and shifting socio-economic circumstances, and how this may inform the present period of environmental change and geopolitical interest in the region.

In part two of the interview with Polar Geopolitics, Dr. Annika Nilsson shares her insights into the history and inner-workings of the Arctic Council, including its role in promoting peace, enhancing environmental knowledge, and facilitating science diplomacy among member states and non-Arctic observers to the Council. She also considers contrasting portrayals of the Arctic as a region of peaceful cooperation versus media narratives of looming conflict.

Earth system science studies the planet as an array of interacting “spheres” that represent components of a single system. Antarctica dominates the cryosphere—the frozen parts of the planet consisting of ice and snow—and thus has a major influence on the overall functioning of the Earth system. Joining the podcast is Prof. Will Steffen, a world leading Earth system scientist and public intellectual who has long operated at the interface of science and policy, including as chairman of the Antarctic Science Advisory Committee in Australia. He is also closely associated with concepts such as the Anthropocene, the Great Acceleration, and the Planetary Boundaries framework. In addition to explaining the centrality of Antarctica in the Earth system, Prof. Steffen discusses the idea of “Hothouse Earth”, evoked in an article published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, which received a great deal of international media attention.