Opening Up The Arctic Frontier An Excerpt from Arctic and Antarctic: Two Poles - Different Scores

摘要

The Arctic and Antarctica, the world's two regions within the polar circles of the northern and southern hemispheres, were rarely discussed in the past (be it within general literature on geopolitics, law, or international relations), but lately both have gained the attention of the international community. At first glance, it seems that the two opposite but complementary polar caps have much in common - for a general audience the differentiating point might be simply where polar bears and where penguins live. However, when taking a closer look, significant differences become apparent: the two opposing poles are of a different morphological and tectonic, climatic, anthropo-biological, political, and indeed of different legal standing. This paper will concentrate on northern arctic issues, which have become more widely discussed on the world stage of late.