Defending polar empire

Opposition to India's proposal to raise the ‘Antarctic Question’ at the United Nations in 1956

Bibliographic Data

ID9220263
AuthorsAdrian Howkins (0000-0002-9615-2337, The University of Texas at Austin, corresponding author)
Year2008
Volume44
Issue1
Pages35-44
Publication date2008-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolar Record (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0032-2474 • E-ISSN: 1475-3057
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0032247407006766
OpenAlexW1976150435
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited16

This paper examines the international response to India's 1956 proposal to raise the ‘Antarctic Question’ at the United Nations. It focuses in particular on the uneasy alliance that developed between the British Commonwealth and Latin America in opposition to the Indian proposal. Although Great Britain, Argentina, and Chile were bitterly disputing the sovereignty of the Antarctic Peninsula region, they shared a common desire to keep the southern continent off the agenda of the United Nations. This ability to work together for common goals, despite their differences, set an important precedent for the Antarctic Treaty that would be signed in 1959. In this way, opposition to the Indian proposal, more than the proposal itself, played an important role in the history of Antarctica in the 1950s. Latin American opposition to the proposal helped to fragment any ‘anti-imperial’ coalition that might have developed in Antarctica. This fragmentation helps us to place the Antarctic Treaty System into the framework of post-colonial studies

Alliance · Antarctic treaty · Archaeology · Colonialism · Commonwealth · Latin Americans · Opposition (politics) · Peninsula · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Sovereignty · Treaty · Arctic and Russian Policy Studies · History · International Maritime Law Issues · Law · Polar Research and Ecology

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