Historic “Pole of Peace” deal gives vision for Earth’s future

The historic agreement which turned Antarctica into a “pole of peace” could become the blueprint for managing Earth’s resources amid rapid climate change, organisers behind a 50th anniversary conference have said.

Writing ahead of the summit marking the signing of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty on December 1st, Professor Paul Berkman, who will chair the event in Washington DC, urges world leaders to use its “visionary precedent” as a model for future co-operation between states.

The Treaty was agreed against the tide of global politics just as the Cold War was approaching its darkest hour, bringing together nations from both sides of the divide, including the Soviet Union and the United States.

In spite of their differences, they agreed that no single country should be allowed to claim sovereignty over Antarctica, which became a protected international space for the sake of peace and scientific collaboration. So symbolic was the settlement that a leading polar scientist of the era described it as equal in importance to the Magna Carta.

Writing in the journal Nature this week, Professor Berkman, from the University of Cambridge’s Scott Polar Research Institute, suggests that such comparisons may yet prove fitting.

His article argues that the conference, which will take place shortly before the Copenhagen Climate Summit, is an opportunity for world leaders to use the Treaty as an example from which to construct lasting, flexible agreements in areas that lie beyond a single country’s jurisdiction.

“The Treaty’s lesson is particularly relevant to managing our changing climate with perspectives and expectations beyond solutions forged at a single meeting,” it says. “The challenge for governments and civil society is to envision a science-policy process that will operate over decades and centuries.”

Nearly 75% of the Earth’s surface – including the high seas in the Arctic – lies beyond national boundaries. These international spaces are governed by comparatively young institutions which only came into existence after World War II.

Professor Berkman draws particular attention to the Arctic, where amplified climate warming will soon change the region from a permanent ice cap to seasonally open water. This, the paper says, will be “the most profound environmental state change on Earth”. If it remains contested, the area could become one of political and economic struggle as different countries seek to seize control for their own commercial interests.

One of the aims of the Washington Conference will be to draw lessons from the first 50 years of co-operation that has resulted from the Antarctic Treaty. This agreement alone preserved nearly 10% of the Earth for peaceful purposes based on the common interests of nations. Berkman argues that it offers hope for humankind, demonstrating how both allies and adversaries can work together to balance common interests with their own.

The paper suggests that the Arctic is ripe for statesmanship, in the spirit of Eisenhower (who negotiated the original Antarctic agreement), to promote co-operation and prevent conflict by setting climate adaptation policies.

Echoing Eisenhower’s vision of a day of “freedom and of peace for all mankind”, the summit next week will mark the anniversary of the Antarctic Treaty signing by releasing the “Forever Declaration” online. The document, which can be signed by anyone on December 1st, will be a non-binding affirmation of the Antarctic Treaty’s legacy, calling for the enduring peaceful use of regions that lie beyond national jurisdiction.

“Humankind is only gradually awakening to the shared responsibility for governing human activities in these international spaces and for managing the effects of global phenomena such as climate change,” the paper adds. “At this threshold in our civilization, the Antarctic Treaty offers us a unique precedent.”

International Spaces Promote Peace, by Professor Paul Berkman, University of Cambridge, will appear in the November 26th edition of Nature.

The Antarctic Treaty Summit will be held at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, from November 30th to December 1st.