The politics and diplomacy of the Australian Antarctic ...

• Main Author: Kawaja, Marie
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Australian National University 2010
• Subjects: Australia Foreign relations 1900-1945; Australian Antarctic Territory History; Antarc*; Antarctic; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.25911/5d5e74b63d7d5; https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/150707

During the first half of the twentieth century, Antarctica evolved from a heroic destination for the adventurous scientist/explorer into an imperial 'question' and finally into an international 'problem'. It is this period before the Cold War and the negotiation of the Antarctic Treaty that is the focus of this thesis. The study commences at Federation and concludes in 1945 and examines the political and diplomatic events that led to the creation of the Australian Antarctic Territory in 1933, and the consequences ofAustralia becoming Antarctica's major claimant state. In examining a question of Australian foreign policy in the early twentieth century, the thesis focuses on what Carl Bridge and Bernard Attard describe as that 'older pre-1945' Australia that 'cries out to be studied and understood'. A study of Australia's involvement with the Empire's Antarctic policy offers a unique opportunity to assess the Anglo-Australian relationship on a matter relating to diplomacy rather than the much-examined ...