Constructing A Continent for Peace and Science: Re-examining the Role of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research

• Main Author: Choudhry, Iqra
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: Antarctica; Science Diplomacy; Antarc*; Antarctic; SCAR; Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research
• Online Access: https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/studentTheses/7df02768-795c-4656-9a33-a9d2a2a9f325; https://pure.manchester.ac.uk/ws/files/270979507/FULL_TEXT.PDF

Antarctica is a space that is often subject to narratives of exceptionalism, which paint a picture of Antarctica as a continent for peace and science, or a fragile, pristine environment in need of protection. These narratives have been constructed over time in part due to the activities of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), since 1958, when SCAR first began to coordinate international scientific collaboration in Antarctica. Antarctica is not simply a continent for peace and science, and nor is it simply a fragile environment in need of protection. In applying critical geopolitics approaches, postcolonial theory approaches and in viewing SCAR as a vehicle for science diplomacy in the Antarctic, a version of Antarctica which is not subject to exceptionalist narratives emerges. This is an Antarctic continent which is undergoing constant colonisation. In this ongoing colonisation of Antarctica, science is a form of effective occupation of Antarctic territory, and therefore a tool of colonial ambitions. The instruments of the Antarctic Treaty system, facilitated in part by SCAR, become tools to enact colonial authority by another name on the Antarctic environment, in place of the indigenous population that would be subjugated and controlled in a traditional colony. The existence and continued activity of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research allows for an Antarctic that is simultaneously both being colonised and free from colonialism, both exceptional in its designation as a space for peace and science, and a space where effective occupation takes on a scientific facade; both a land that belongs to no one and a global commons - a blank space upon which colonial ambitions can be writ large.