Russian aggression against Ukraine: a new challenge facing Antarctic governance

• Published in: Ukrainian Antarctic Journal
• Main Authors: A. Fedchuk, D. Cheberkus, S. Zherebchuk
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English; Ukrainian
• Published: State Institution National Antarctic Scientific Center 2023
• Subjects: akademik vernadsky station; antarctic treaty system; consultative parties; hybrid warfare; international regimes; Meteorology. Climatology; QC851-999; Geophysics. Cosmic physics; QC801-809; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Vernadsky Station; Akademik Vernadsky Station; Antarc*; Antarctica; COMNAP; Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs; SCAR; Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.33275/1727-7485.2.2022.702; https://doaj.org/article/3b566807cc60421dacd64226d6a9a08f

The Antarctic Treaty System has long been seen as an example of successful international cooperation for peace, research, and environmental protection for the benefit of all humanity. However, the military aggression of one Antarctic decision-making state against another has a destructive effect on the latter’s national Antarctic program resulting in a sequestered budget, a reduced research program, and a need to support the scientists threatened or displaced by the warfare. Such military aggression requires a consolidated response from the Antarctic community and challenges the Antarctic Treaty itself as an early and critical arms-control instrument and could undermine the ATS regime. This study examines the first individual and collective efforts to counter Russian full-scale military invasion of Ukraine since February 24, 2022, made by the international polar community, particularly during the highest annual international forum for the Antarctic governance – the 44th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting, ATCM (Berlin, 2022). It is argued that this meeting saw an unprecedented deviation from almost 60 years of diplomatic practices by Antarctic Treaty Parties of controversy avoidance and use of imprecise language in their reports. In Berlin, there was the condemnation in the strongest possible terms of Russian unjustifiable, unprovoked, and illegal invasion of Ukraine. This démarche to the Russian delegation will necessarily affect the further work of other Antarctic-related administrative and advisory bodies within the Antarctic Treaty System. That includes ATCM’s observers and experts’ organisations such as the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), the Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs (COMNAP), the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), and the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO). It is expected that if the aggression continues, isolation measures such as international and national sanctions and institutional ...