British influence on the Antarctic treaty system 1959-64 ...

• Main Author: Pope, Philip
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository 1997
• Subjects: Antarctic; Argentina; The Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17863/cam.27515; https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/280149

A widely adopted historical view of the creation of the Antarctic Treaty and the subsequent development of the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS) places the United States at the centre of both. It is suggested that this view is too simple and the genesis of the ATS remains poorly understood. It is accepted that the US supplied much of the political drive which led to the Treaty and that there could have been no Treaty without at least the acquiescence of the USSR, Argentina and Chile. It is clear, however, that none of the twelve signatories to the Antarctic Treaty, other than Britain, had any clear idea as to how the consultative procedure, for which the Treaty provides, was to be positively used. The dissertation concentrates on the first three Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings (Canberra 1961, Buenos Aires 1962, and Brussels 1964), and finds that the British had a clear idea as to their positive objectives and were partially successful in achieving them. Previously unavailable diaries written by Dr. Brian ...