A ‘sort’ of self-denial: United States policy toward the Antarctic, 1950–59

Abstract

AbstractUnited States policy toward the Antarctic in the 1950s culminated in the treaty that bears the continent's name — the same treaty that continues to govern relations in the far south. Washington succeeded in promoting the admirable objectives of scientific advancement and international cooperation. In doing so, it also forfeited what many officials believed to be the more important objective of formalizing a national sovereignty claim to halt further erosion of the rights associated with its mammoth expeditions. Trapped by having repeated their non-claimancy, nonrecognition policy, which Secretary of State Charles E. Hughes had announced in 1924, US officials scrambled for alternatives. They finally chose to formalize their policy-making paralysis, rather than a claim, by proposing a treaty that called for a political status quo moratorium, in accord with the Chilean Escudero Plan. That decision impressed some experts as unwise, but it was sufficiently expedient to win the signatures needed for ratification.