by Lorenzo Maria Pacini, Strategic Culture:
The growing interest in Antarctica by powers such as China and Russia is not only about scientific cooperation, but also extends to competition for resources and influence as the region becomes increasingly central to international geopolitical rivalry.
You never hear about it, yet it is one of the most secret places on the planet: Antarctica. In the geopolitical sophistication of the poles, north and south, one cannot help but try to understand the importance of this outpost of the future.
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An unusual geography, an unusual domain
Antarctica is the continent within the Antarctic Circle, with an ice-covered territory of about 14 million square km. It is separated from the other continents by the following distances: from South America 1,000 km, from Africa 3,600 km, from Australia 2,250 km.
The geographical description is conventionally based on the quadrant theory, according to which the continent is divided into East and West Antarctica, using the Greenwich meridian at 90° East and 90° West as reference points. East Antarctica consists of the Australian and African quadrants and West Antarctica of the South American and Pacific quadrants. Each quadrant is named after the ocean or continent it faces, so 0° to 90° West is known as the South American quadrant, 90° to 180° West is called the Pacific. African from 0° to 90° east and Australian from 90° to 180° east. The South American quadrant is characterized by the Antarctic Peninsula and a large number of islands, the best known to the general public being the Orkney, Georgian, Sandwich and South Shetland Islands. There are also the Biscoe Islands, the Belgrano Islands and the largest on the continent, Alexander I Island. On the border of our quadrant with the Pacific is Peter I Island.
Each quadrant is the subject of claims of ownership: the African quadrant is all claimed by Norway, but in a longitudinal sense, the Australian quadrant by Australia and New Zealand and there is, as is natural given its character as a former colonialist power, a French overlay. The Pacific quadrant, with the exception of a small sector claimed by New Zealand, is not claimed by anyone.
Politically, the situation is more complex. On the one hand, there is the American influence, moved as early as 1823 with Monroe’s doctrine of Pan-Americanism, aiming at the unification of America in a political and cultural sense, through the Organization of American States, established with the signing of the Bogota Charter in April 1948, a real Trojan horse for the imposition of the Antarctic Treaty, signed on 1 December 1959. With it, the legal status of Antarctic territory was reduced to that of the seabed or extraterrestrial space, it is for the common use of all mankind and no national sovereignty is recognized over it. The territory is reserved for peaceful uses and therefore demilitarized.
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